Toulouse: A Pleasant Place to Live

Toulouse is certainly one of my favorite cities I have ever spent an extended amount of time in. It is a beautiful mix of traditional French culture with a Spanish influence and modern technology. It is home to Airbus, one of the world's leading airplane manufacturers as well as several other high tech engineering companies. Toulouse is located in southwest France, a hundred or so kilometers north of Spain and 200km from the Atlantic Ocean and about 150km from the Mediterranean Sea.

Toulouse does not appear to be a very big city, mainly because there are no tall buildings - I don't recall ever seeing a building more than 5 or 6 stories - but that is how all of France is. It does rank as the 4^th largest city in France at close to a half-million people in the city and 1.1million in the metropolitan area, well behind Paris and just barely behind Marseille and Lyon. Based on its location near the Pyrenees Mountains, which make up the Spanish-French border, the climate is extremely mild. The Pyrenees, with many peaks above 3,000 m are a popular destination for skiers in the winter, especially at the western part of the mountain range. But the mountains tend to block a lot of moisture and cold air from reaching Toulouse. January high temperatures are around 50°F (10°C) and July highs are around 82°F (28°C) with little precipitation.

In Toulouse, you can enjoy many of the traditional French dishes like Boeuf Bourgignon, but the local specialty is cassoulet. This quickly became one of my favorite foods. It's basically a stew of andouille sausage, duck, pork, and haricot beans. Also very popular in the area is paella, a traditionally Spanish dish with rice and a variety of seafood. Toulouse does have a reliable and clean metro. It's only 2 lines but it gets you to all the heavy commercial areas, and busses easily take you wherever else you might want to go.

The first picture shows a view of the city from above with all the red roofs and the nice structure of the city streets. Near the bottom center is the Capitole or city center. The second picture was taken during the world cup 2006. France played in the semi-final and the city arranged to show the match on a giant screen at the Capitole. They certainly do love their football over there.