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ToulouseThe statements and opinions on this page are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of CouchSurfing International.
 Toulouse, or the so-called "Pink City", is the 4th biggest city in France with an average population of 500 000 people into town - 1 million if you consider its suburbs. As of March 8, 2008, Toulouse is one of the biggest French CS cities, with 1537 CouchSurfers. As for the surrounding region, named 'Midi-Pyrénées' after the nearby Pyrenees mountains (1 hour drive from Toulouse) it gathers around 7,000 CS members.
History of ToulouseMore informations about the History of Toulouse on the wikipedia:Toulouse !
MeetingsThere are not 'regular' meetings (yet) in Toulouse but quite a few members know one another and organise things together. Or you can contact and offer them to organise a meet-up for you while you will be around. Best is to use the local group in that purpose. There is a sub-group dedicated to Toulouse within the Midi-Pyrénées regional group. It has to be signalled though that people tend to post and organise things on the Toulouse group rather than on the regional one. Meeting OrganisersTipsYouth Hostel / CampingToulouse doesn't have a youth hostel - hotels in the centre might prove expensive and the only camp site is on the edge of the city (Sesquières) and not so easily reachable with public transport. In the summer one option if you get stuck last minute without a host might be to camp along the 'Garonne' river that crosses the city - South of the centre its banks offer nice pieces of grass, a bit of a shadow and the police usually don't mind.
CarpoolBesides some national websites as 123envoiture, there's a covoiturage section on toulouseweb.
Public transportationToulouse has a public transport system offering several bus lines and since 1993 the first metro line allows to cross the city from West to East. A second line going North to South opened June 2007. There are no zones and tickets are valid one hour after their first use on any means of transport (train, bus, metro, tram). Check the map here. The website is in French only - though you can check the map of the network at least! To/From the AirportA tramway line is due to open within a few months. In the meantime, a shuttle bus links the airport and the city center, via the train station. Cycling - rentalsToulouse is also very friendly to cyclists with over 230 kilometers of cycling paths available throughout the city. Maps of the network can be found at the City Hall Planning Department, located place des Carmes and are handed for free if you ask. Some would also be available at the Tourist Office or in the rental centres of the Movimento association that are located by the City Hall, and in front of the Matabiau train station. They have another rental station on the 'Port Saint Sauveur' but that one is not connected to the metro network and therefore does not offer the same rental options but only longer-term ones. You will need some proof of ID to be able to rent a bike. Fares are very cheap: 1 euro for half-a-day OR if you have underground tickets you can borrow the bike for the price of one ticket for 24 hours (one ticket being worth 1 euro 30 today as of today Feb. 26, 2007). Other fares are available for longer periods (by the week/the month/ yearly). VélôToulouse Cycling and rollerskating - free toursEvery first Sunday of the month (that is the same Sunday when entrance to public sector owned museums is for free everywhere in France), the centre of the city is totally forbidden to cars and free 15 kilometers biking tours are offered by the City Hall, departing in front of it around 10.00am. And every Friday night, free tours depart from the St Sernin basilica at 8.30pm (lasting around 1 hour 1/2) whereas rollerskating tours depart from the City Hall at the same hour. GuidesFor free cycling and rollerskating tours organised by the City Hall Environmental Department, check the Public Transport section above. More informations about the places to visit in Toulouse on the wikitravel:Toulouse ! MarketsVictor Hugo, Carmes and Saint Cyprien markets : Tuesday to Sunday from 6 till 13. Expensive but high-quality food. Coffee or a drinkSince January 2008, smoking in public areas (including pubs and restaurants) is not allowed anymore. For sure you will be told to go to Place St Pierre and Place du Capitole. Nevertheless, try to walk a bit further and you will discover a lot a very nice and cosy places. Keep in mind that some of the following pubs are closed during given periods in summer. Coffee and tea :
Bars :
English and Irish pubs :
Reasonable priced Cabarets/Theaters/Auditoriums/Concert Halls
CinemaArt house cinema
You will find original version movies in the above-mentioned cinemas. Classical mainstream cinemas
Tickets are more expensive and movies are almost always dubbed. Natural and leisure parks
Gastronomy
WineAs for the food, Toulouse does not produce any wine, but there are some wine growing areas in the neighbourhoods : Cahors (aforementioned), Jurançon (article in French): sweet white wine located next to Pau, Madiran (Hautes-Pyrénées Department) and Gaillac (Tarn Department). You will probably be suggested to taste the Tariquet as well. Very few people knew this set of wines (red, rose and white wines, Bas-Armagnac) some years ago. This winery (not an AOC) has now flooded Toulouse. Settling inAccomodationAs in many other big towns in France, finding an accomodation is not easy. Having money is not enough, you have to prove it ! In most cases you'll be required to provide :
Both estate agencies and private owners expect you to have :
After reading this, you may feel desperate. It maybe won't comfort you but keep in mind a lot of people are unable to satisfy these requirements (students, artists, unemployes, freelance jobs and so on). Some tips following :
Over the web A last thing... Sad to admit it, but if you're not a native French and you know one, better ask him/her to help you : let him/her give a call, ask him/her to come with you when you are visiting a flat. For some reason, some flat owner may give you a negative answer over the phone if he/she detects your accent, even if the flat is still available. Once he/she have met you and you look nice to him/her, he/she may change his/her mind. You can meet open-minded people, but that's not always the case. Speaking French in ToulouseYou may find that some inhabitants in Toulouse have a strong funny accent. Beyond this point, there is no real distinctiveness between French spoken in Toulouse and regular French (but what is regular French ?). It's all the more true that a lot of inhabitants are not native from Toulouse. Nevertheless, some words may confuse you :
These words are not only used in Toulouse. Both may be used in southwestern France. OccitanOccitan, also called langue d'Oc has been spoken in the whole southern France. There is a disagreement about the number of speakers. Anyway, don't be afraid: each Occitan speaker is a native French speaker too. Just don't be surprised if you find two geographical names in signboards indicating the name of the streets in the city center. Maps and roadsigns are only written in French. TriviaInfo more at its place at Wikitravel Toulouse is the great rival of Bordeaux for the "title" of being the capital of South-Western France. It is renowned for its gastronomy (try cassoulet, foie gras, confit...) and its brick walls that give the city a particular architecture and everchanging colours. It goes from orange to yellow to red or even pink - thus making it the "Pink City" indeed - as seasons or hours of the day go by. Its history is rich and extends over thousands of years - the earliest inhabitants dating from prehistorical times, it also was for a short while the capital of the wisigoth empire and 'Tolosa' was a major city in the area under Roman times. Its chore still bears some marks of it - if you pay enough attention you might figure which were the two ancient Roman 'cardus' and 'decumanus' axis that organised the whole division of lands and street pattern (rue St Rome/rue des Filatiers and rue de Metz). Downtown, the chore of Toulouse offers a grid of crooked, tiny labyrinthical one-way streets with the sewage system right in the middle - typical from Middle Ages! But the most glorious hours of the city were during the 16th - 17th century. This is when most of the major historical buildings date from. What made Toulouse so wealthy is a plant called 'pastel'. It was cultivated in the surroundings then treated so it would give out a particular blue colour used to dye clothes and much appreciated during Renaissance. Later on, India was discovered which lead to trading and using indigo - this being much cheaper than cultivating pastel Toulouse was left ruined, having lost its main source of income. Nowadays the economy of the city is mostly about tertiary and white collar industry e.g. electronics, space and aeronautics. It hosts an important part of the main European aircraft factory Airbus inc. the assembly lines of the newest A380 and some of the major French space research centres - the Ariane sky-rocket is launched and controlled from both Toulouse and Kourou in French Guyana (South America). It is also one of the major cities for students in France - it claims to host the most after Paris with an average population of 120 000 students. This 'title' is disputed though by Grenoble (South-East of France, close to the Alps) that is well known as another 'academic' city. NeighbourhoodsIf you have some extra time after visiting Toulouse there are plenty of places to visit around Toulouse :
  
In Case of Emergency
23 boulevard de l'Embouchure. Phone number : +33 (0)5 61 12 77 77
S.O.S Doctors. Phone number : +33 (0)5 61 33 00 00
Hospital Purpan. Phone number : +33 (0)5 61 77 22 33 (telephone department)
13 rue du sénéchal (near pl. du Capitole). Phone number during days: +33 (0)5 61 21 26 74. Phone number during nights (from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.): +33 (0)5 61 21 81 20. 70-76 allées Jean-Jaurès (entrance in the street Arnaud-Vidal). Phone number : +33 (0)5 61 62 38 05
Caserne Jacques - Vion Phone number : +33 (0)5 62 13 18 00
Canadian Consulate: 30 boulevard de Strasbourg - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.99.30.16 Mexican Consulate: 35 rue Ozenne - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.25.45.17 Fax : +33 (0)5.61.55.01.55 Brazilian Consulate: 6, Allée François Verdier - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.25.21.10 Belgian Consulate: 3, rue Mage - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.52.67.93 Danish Consulate: 6 place Saintes Scarbes - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.62.26.44.16 Fax : +33 (0)5.62.26.03.82 Spanish Consulate General: 16, rue Sainte Anne - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.52.05.50 Fax : +33 (0)5.61.25.42.52 Italian Consulate: 2 Allée François Verdier - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.62.82.90 Portuguese Consulate General: 33 avenue Camille Pujol - 31500 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.80.43.45 Great Britain Consulate: Lucas Aerospace, Victoria Center, bat.Daurat, 20 ch. Laporte - 31300 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.15.02.02 Fax : +33 (0)5.61.15.08.92 Swiss Consular Agency: c/o T.D Informatique - 36 allée de Bellefontaine - 31081 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.40.45.33 Fax : +33 (0)5.61.41.07.15 Netherlands Consulate: 54bis, rue Alsace-Lorraine - 31000 Toulouse Phone number : +33 (0)5.61.13.64.94 Fax : +33 (0)5.61.12.04.05
Local Media Mentions External links
A few intersite links one might find of use :
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