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July 25, 2006
Toulouse
The friendly, funny, vibrant, multicultural, super tolerant and bustling metropolitanToulouse is a welcome change after Nimes and Carcassonne, both very typical France smal towns. Toulouse is one of those city that I wished I had stayed a day or two longer even after being here for 3 nights. Being a student town and a migrant centre, Toulouse is more tolerant to bad French than most other French towns. Like all other towns that I've visited it's just as if not even more friendly to foreigners.
The Pink City
Toulouse has a penchant of building with bricks, it's called the "Pink City" for this very same reason. Even all th eglise, cathedral and basilica are built using this bricks unlike other churches that I've seen so far. The Church of the Jacobins is definitely a must see and the Saint-Sernin basilica is no less impressive.
The weird hostel
Lonely Planet says that there's no hostel in Toulouse. Incorrect, actually there is ... sort of. There is a hostel, but it doubles as a residence for young people who work around Toulouse. So yeah not exactly your backpacker accomodation. It´s not listed in HIHostels.com website but it´s in the FUAJ guidebook. It´s a bit weird, the rooms have 2 beds only and have its own shower and toilet. I have my own room for the whole three nights I stayed there. My room was very clean and the hostel has an excellent breakfast. The best free breakfast so far.
But it does have one massive drawback. There's hardly any backpacker there. A lone backpacker from Quebec (again!) helped me found the hostel when I was looking for it in the suburb and he told me that there's no "gang" here, I will be doing it solo, and the French kids there don't like to talk to outsiders. Well if he who can speak French doesn't socialise what chance do I have to strike any conversation? Well no matter, I was dead tired from a string of long nights at Nimes and Carcassonne and welcome the change of pace a bit. The first day in Toulouse came and gone a bit uneventful and I was fast asleep by 10pm.
Airbus Factory Visit
I did need to early night because I need to catch the 8:30am bus from the city to visit the Airbus factory. I've been expecting for this. It's one of the main reason why I went to Toulouse. The visit was alright not as good as I expected, but that's because I went on Saturday I think. Since it's weekend the factory was quiet and we can't really see how these people work. It was still impressive, I really recommend it to anyone, but go during the weekdays. During weekdays with EUR4 extra you can also visit the Concorde. Again not during the weekend.
On the way home I met an Australian couple and a lone Austrian girl who was having a short break in Toulouse after her conference. They are all nice people and we ended up in a creperie for lunch. This is actually my very first proper French food. For the past 3 weeks I've been eating bad food or simply supermarket food :) I was lucky that the two girls both can speak French.
Lost in Translation
After lunch the Australians went their separate way, me and the Austrian decided to go watch a movie since we pretty much got nothing to do at night. It took a while to find the movie since there was nothing on, and almost all were dubbed in French! Even Superman Returns! So we asked the chick on the counter what movies are in English. There were only three. Vol 93, a movie about September 11, a horror movie that none of us were interested and Tsotsi a South African movie which won an Oscar for best foreign film. I was a bit sus with Tsotsi, I double check again and the chick assured me that it's in English. We tossed a coin and Tsotsi came ahead.
We then went our separate way while waiting for the movie. I hit the old Toulouse's churches, checked my emails then went back to the movies. The cinema is quite nice and modern, seats are very comfortable. After watching the obligatory advertisments Tsotsi came. And yes my doubt was confirmed. What they are speaking there definitely not English. It was "Version Originale" alright, but just not in English. What follow was my attempt to understand a movie in a foreign language with a subtitle which I didn't understand. Well after in France for 3 weeks I do know some French words, but it's probably one in 3 sentences.
Fortunately it is a very good movie and I do get the message quite clear. Over dinner my new friend filled in the of the bits and pieces that I missed out.
Cite de l'Espace
Cite de l'Espace is a science museum dedicated for space exploration. The rather high entry fee (EUR21 + EUR4 for the audioguide) give you a full day access to the exhibition, IMAX theatre and the planetarium. The audioguide is definitely worth getting, it gives automatic comentary depending your current location. It is the best audioguide that I´ve used so far. Started a bit late, I was here until the closing time of 7pm.
Later on that night I strolled along the beautiful Gerona river and I explored Toulouse´s deserted back roads and alleys. It was Sunday night and the city is almost empty.
Onward to Barcelona
The next day (24-07-2006 afternoon) I said goodbye to France (for now) and moved to Spain. Hola Barcelona!
Posted by vhadiant at July 25, 2006 03:57 PM
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