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Toulon Country: France Region: Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur More Information: CS Group Wikipedia Wikitravel City-Ambassadors: CS Ambassadors in the Area

Toulon is a city in southern France and a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur région, Toulon is the préfecture (capital) of the Var département, in the former province of Provence. The population of the city (commune) in 2005 was approximately 167,400[1] making Toulon the fifteenth largest city in France. The population of the Toulon metropolitan area (aire urbaine in French) in 1999 was 564,823, making Toulon the tenth largest metropolitan area, after Strasbourg, in France. Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment. The military port of Toulon is the major naval center on France's Mediterranean coast, home of the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle and her battle group. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon.. CouchSearch finds more than 100 active members in the city.

HISTORY OF TOULON

The history of Toulon is about three thousand years old. The Ligures settled here because of exceptional conditions:

• a hill protects the center of the town from the Mistral, a strong wind which blows in the southeast of France (you will experience wind almost everyday).
• on the south face of the hill, several sources gush out, which is exceptional in the so dry Provence. The name Toulon is linked to Telona, an ancient Ligurian goddess of sources.
• the hill (named Faron, about 500 m high) enables one to view boats arriving from very far away, specially enemy boats. The name Faron cames from the Greek pharos (English: lighthouse) for this reason. At the top of Faron, there still is a military camp dedicated to communications with submarines.
• the water of the port is very calm, because it is protected by a peninsula (Saint-Mandrier) that nearly closes the port as a lagoon. It was possible to watch boats entering the port from there.

For all these reasons, Toulon early became a town of military vocation. When the Romans invaded the Provence (Latin: provincia romana), they settled a military base and renamed the town Telo Martius, where martius recalls Mars, the Roman god of war.

During the Middle Ages, Provence was under the coup of lords, before being integrated into the French Kingdom in 1482. During the XVIIIth Century, Toulon became an important military port for France, were boats and sails were being built. A famous convict prison was built. During the French Revolution, Toulon gave support to the monarchy, but Bonaparte (later known as Napoleon the Ist) took back the town. During World War II, Toulon was invaded on November the 27th, 1942. The seamen scuttled all the boats so that the Nazis couldn't use them. The town was freed by the Allied Forces on August 25th, 1944.

More informations about the History of Toulon on the wikipedia:Toulon !

WHAT TO VISIT ?

Toulon has got the biggest open-air fruits and vegetables market in France, you don't want to miss all the flavours from the local area and meet the real local farmers selling their fruits for incredibly cheap prices, the market is going every day except mondays from about 6:00am till 12/ 12:30am.

When you walk down the market make sure you stop over at a "cade" seller stall, "cade" is a local snack that makes every toulonner proud of their city, it's made of chick peas flour oil and some other secret ingredients, it looks like an omelette, but tastes like nothing else!!! ENJOY !!

The Market

The Old Town

The Navy Base

The Opera

The Hills

The Mediterranean Door

More informations about the places to visit in Toulon on the wikitravel:Toulon and even the Official Website of the Office of tourism !

TIPS

Free Internet/Wifi Access :

Here are some places where you can get some Internet/Wifi connexion:

• BIJ TOULON - Adress: Place Raimu - Tel: 04 94 09 09 79
• Ateliers NTIC CEDIS - Adress: 21 rue Peiresc 83000 TOULON - Tel: 06 14 69 29 52
• Atelier Multimédia Informatique (A.M.I.) - Adress: 18 Place de la visitation - Tel: 06 47 80 49 58
• CVRJ-ODEL-PIJ - Adress: 8 rue Truguet - Tel: 04 94 92 12 64
• ERIC Cyber-base TPM Toulon-Brunet - Adress : Espace Brunet - 440 Avenue du Colonel Picot - Tel: 04.94.33.52.71
• SHANNON PUB - Adress : Boulevard de Tessé (in front of the train station)
• MC DONALDS - Adress : Boulevard de Strasbourg

Nice and Cheap Places to Eat :

- BAN THAI 297 av Général Gouraud Tel: 04 94 62 03 49 website : http://ban-thai.fr/

- restaurant l'etoile de l'Inde 3 rue Dumont d'Urville Tél: 04 94 89 29 68 website : http://www.etoiledelinde.com/

- Le bonheur est dans le potager 41 rue pascal Tel: 04 94 42 07 62 Henri, a CS member from Toulon wrote about this place : "Good french modern cuisine, the owners are incredibly friendly, very familiar atmosphere and good prices !!"

- restaurant La Tortue situated on the port promenade. The only reasonnable restaurant on the promenade.

Bars and Nightlife :

- Havana Café (cuban bar loads of cocktails and flavoured rhums + cheapest pastis in the city (1,70€!!!): 35 Rue Muiron Tel: 04 94 31 25 55

IRISH PUBS :

- Shanon pub 56 boulevard de tessé (just in front of train and bus station)

- Finnians pub 29 avenue de la republique (smaller pub but better atmosphere)

the two above sometimes play live music, mostly on wednesdays for the shanon pub.

- Molly Bloom 18 rue anatole france (in front of place d'armes) good rock music played there but no live acts.

Be aware that France is not a country of Beer so a pint is usually around 6 euros !!

COUCHSURFERS

You can reach the couchsurfers of Toulon on the CS group

Meeting Organisers

Regular meetings and small local meet-ups take place a few times a week (drink - cinema - theatre - concert - hicking and various events).

For more info check out the CS group of Toulon and even on the Regional CS Group: Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.

Coffee or a drink

Here is a list of persons who are ready to have a drink with you and/or show you the city:

TRANSPORTATIONS

How to get to Toulon

• By Plane : two possibilities :

- from the aiport of Marseilles, then take the shuttle (called "navette") to the train station (called Saint Charles) then the train Marseilles Toulon - from the airport of Hyères-Nice

• By Train : TGV
• By Car :
• By Boot:

Bus :

The bus network (which includes 3 boat lines) basically works from 5.30 am to 9 pm. For further informations (download a map, know the fares...), check out the website of the Réseau Mistral : http://www.reseaumistral.com/

Bicycles

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

• Police Station:
  

Tel: 17

• Health Urgency:
  

Tel: 15

• Hospital:
  

Hôpital Font-pré - Tel: 04 94 61 61 61
Hôpital Chalucet - Tel: 04 94 22 77 77
Hôpital Sainte-Anne - Tel: 04 83 16 20 14

• Fireman Station:
  

Tel: 18

• Embassy:
• Emergency Doctor:
  

S.O.S Médecins - Tel: 04 94 14 33 33

LOCAL MEDIA MENTIONS

INTERESTED LINKS

• Regional CS Group: Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur
• City CS Group: Toulon

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

• Toulon on Wikitravel
• Toulon on Hitchwiki
• Toulon on Wikipedia