I should have already written a whole bunch of posts about Toulouse (Tolosa in Occitan language) and surroundings, but all these last months I've been quite scarce of spare time, and these entries have continued to be postponed, so well, better late than never, let's begin.
I've already mentioned in some other posts that I'm living in Toulouse since early November, When I was given the chance at work to come here for some time I accepted it more than happy, as I had a need to disconnect from the place where I've been living basically all my life (ok, yes, I've tried to travel abroad as much as possible, but in the end those were always short periods, so my home continued to be in Asturies) and Toulouse seemed like a good place (a place with a history and an architecture, a wide river, more than 1 million inhabitants in the Metropolitan Area...).
The thing is that my first impression of the city was excellent, my first weekend exploring the city centre I felt fascinated by the superb architecture, very French in some aspects, but also very different to what I was used from Paris, much of the city is built in its very own and distinctive style "the pink city". Over the months such good impression has not done other than deepen. I've quite fallen in love with the city, the whole region (Midi-Pyrénée) and the whole Southern France.
Toulouse is one of the most cosmopolitan places you could think of bearing in mind that it's not a "big European capital". I haven't found specific statistics, but based on the what you see on the streets, the percentage of population of "non deep European origins" could be almost as high as in London (and much larger that in Berlin). And this time I'm saying this as something profoundly positive, as multiculturalism in this city seems to work as I had lost hopes it could work. Not everything is perfect, I know there are some bad areas ("quartiers sensibles" as they're called in France): Bagatelle, Reynerie, Bellefontaine (I've been to Reynerie once, out of curiosity, and well, at first sight it didn't look that bad), sometimes you see Muslim women covered from head to toe, sometimes you see "suspicious" groups of teenagers, and sometimes you come across shit stickers by some far-right motherfuckers, but in general the atmosphere is really good. People from both sides of the Mediterranean and beyond seem pretty well integrated, you can see many mixed groups of youngsters, mixed couples, "white French" (well, people from Southern France are not particularly pale and quite few of them have clear eyes) people taking a coffee in a Nort African "Thé Salon" and "dark skinned French" buying macarons in a patisserie. The economical situation is pretty good, mainly thanks to the Aerospace industry (but the local government seems intelligent enough to try to diversify and not rely uniquely on this sector), with population in the city proper growing like 6000 thousand people per year. For someone coming from a place in crisis since 30 years ago and losing population since then, this is fascinating (as it is not being depressed by the views of rows of closed "normal" shops and all the new 'Buy and Sell Gold' ones that I find everywhere in my hometown).
The public transport is pretty good, the trafic jams are terrible though (but I can reach my workplace by metro+tram, so this is no longer a concern), the Airport has tons of flights, and you can go by train to so many interesting places. First, Bordeaux and Montpellier are 2 hours reach by train, and Marseille and Lyon 4 hours reach. Second, the whole Midi-Pyrénée region is astonishing, and I reckon all the capital cities of its departments are well worth a visit. So far I've been to Albi, Montauban, Cahors and Auch, and the 4 of them are perfect for spending a Sunday there (maybe Auch is at a bit lower level, but anyway the visit pays off). Of course I've also been to Carcasonne, in Roussillon region, that is like 1 hour far by train. I think my next visits should be Rodez and Agen. I don't like comparing places in terms of one been more beautiful than other, every place has its charm, its magic and its feeling and our perception of beauty is so subjective (and at least in my case so varying depending on my animic state), but I used to think of Austria as the maximum of European perfection (Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Lidz...), well, now Southern France is at the same level for me.
Weather is also pretty good (this winter was particularly warm, but average winters seem not too frightening, and you can get a couple of snow days, which indeed is something I missed this year). Well, maybe temperatures in late spring will start to feel a bit uncomfortable to me, but my skinny body can stand heat much better than cold, so I'm not particularly worried. I already knew that it's not that rainy as Asturies, but hopefully so far we've had rain enough to keep the landscape green and beautiful and the rivers flowing gorgeous. Actually, a few days in winter the Garonne was flowing rather high (but with no risk of floods) which made a real nice view.
Cultural life here is also pretty intense, but let's be clear, if you don't speak French (as unfortunately it's my case at the moment) you're seriously limited.
There are millions of things I'd like to write about all these last months in France, but at least this is a start. Hopefully I'll find the time to turn this entry into the first of a long series :-) In summary just to say that if you ever have the chance to make it to Toulouse for a few days (or for a much longer stay) don't hesitate, DO IT!!!
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