GillyG

Hi,

I have just moved to Toulouse to join my husband who works here and was wondering if anyone had any ideas of things to do/places to go to make friends or just to ammuse myself?!

Any ideas gratefully welcomed,

Gill

Ka Ora!

Citi du Espace

Have lunch and stroll around the centre quite a few museums to visit.

Visit the A380 centre watch em build the beast.

Visit the cultural towns around Toulouse.. Miropoix, St Girons. Foix

Go to Andorra to buy some cheap bits and bobs.

Better yet jump in a car and Drive to the Med.

Andrea50

There is also apparently a really good market in Toulouse, don't know what day, but saw it on an episode of Rick Stein's French Odyssey, when he visited it whilst "barging" through along the canal or Garonne or whatever the waterway is called.

Ka Ora's right about Andorra - if you are the fit type you can ski, if you are a lazy devil like me it's great for cheap fags ................ he's also right about Mirepoix - beautiful place, lovely square in the middle with a lot of old columbage houses etc, and great views of the Pyrenees.

And another lovely place is Castres - gorgeous cathedral thing and one of the best markets I've seen in France, plus wonderful shops and restaurants etc.

If you are a keen cyclyst, you can cycle along the Canal du Midi which we did a fair proportion of and it is lovely - and nice and flat, with lots of little ecluses (locks) each of which had gorgeous little houses. And there are plenty of small towns along it for coffee/a beer etc.

As a self-confessed philistine, no idea about things like concerts, operas or whatever, but the tourism website for Toulouse will list them all, so you could find it on google.fr probably.

Ka Ora!

Le Ville website http://www.toulouse.fr/

Le Office du Tourisme for Toulouse http://www.toulouse-tourisme.com/accueil/index_fr.php

Andrea50

Thank the lord you're back KA, I'm crap with search engines (in fact, any engines, unless it's a chain saw ..........)

Collioure_Bee

Carcasonne is only half an hour down the road, and there are some great caves near there with the biggest underground chamber in the world there, but you'd have to ask at the Tourist Info place for the exact location.

As someone said, you can visit the Med, Narbonne is nice, but an extra hour or so down the road is the nicest part of France with the nicest people of course hehehe!

Andorra is ok for cheap stuff as already stated, but not much else, and be prepared to be searched on the way out, there is a limit to what you can take, and they even took the seats of my car out.

Don't forget Toulouse have a top flight football team and the ground is a nice one with a decent atmosphere. It's cheap too.

GillyG

Cheers for the replies guys

Does anyone know of any "clubs" or socials that go on around Toulouse for English speaking people...before I get shot down, yes I do want to learn French and yes I am trying but untill I become totally fluent (in say 5 years or so!) it will be difficult to socialise with the locals! I have heard about TWIGS (or something like that)...anyone been?????

Collioure_Bee

Round here we have a magazine called 66 because that is the number of the region, it's a monthly expats mag, I am sure Toulouse would have their own version of it. Have a look in tourist info place and have a butchers in there as if there are any that's where they'll be advertised.

Andrea50

Good job you don't live in Rhone, CB.

Collioure_Bee

That took me a while to understand Andrea, I'm shocked lol.

dmu

The inhabitants of Lyon, etc... have had to put up with such comments since numbering of the départements was invented.

stanage2

Now that is good point.
When did department numbering start?

val50

4 March 1790
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9partement_in_France

dmu

Don't know, but I do know that it was Napoleon who invented the départements. I'll ask my (French) OH whether he numbered them at the same time, in which case the Lyonnais have been the butt (pardon the pun) of jokes for about 200 years...

stanage2

Merci Madam