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Charming Toulouse is a rugby heartland
To anyone with even a passing interest in rugby, the name Toulouse will always ring a bell. Set deep in the rural south west, close to the Spanish border, La Ville Rose (The Pink City) is France's most personal rugby destination, a city which positively hums on match day. Since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's pioneering mail flights in the 1920s, Toulouse has also been at the heart of France's aviation industry. Today it is home to Airbus and the European space industry. With 120,000 students, Toulouse is considered France's liveliest city, its medieval centre crammed with great bars, restaurants and hotels.
Stadium: Stadium Toulouse. Capacity: 36,500
Stadium History: The ground has been home to Toulouse F.C. (TFC) since the 1950s but was rebuilt for the 1998 Football World Cup. It was damaged in the 2001 AZF explosion when a chemical factory on the outskirts of the city blew up. Since then, Stade Toulousain have occasionally played bigger matches there, including their epic Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat to Leinster in 2006. The stadium will welcome its first UEFA Champions League match in August when Liverpool will be the visitors.
Town: Toulouse's site, on the banks of the Garonne, was settled before the Roman conquest of the region. The Romans, when they arrived, were sufficiently impressed with the region to base a large city here, which served as the intellectual centre of the South West. Toulouse grew to be the third-largest city in Gaul. It served as capital of the Visigoths in the fifth century, then passed into the domain of the Francs and resisted Arab conquests.
After Charlemagne, it was governed by the counts of St. Gilles, but its distance from the seat of power gave it a large degree of independence. From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, Toulouse was the seat of one of the most beautiful courts of Europe, where a civilization of refinement and great influence developed (the literature of the Langue d'Oc, the troubadors, etc.).
Sadly the city entered into decline after the French Revolution, missing the industrial revolution completely. By the beginning of the 20th Century, Toulouse was one of the poorest cities in France. That all changed however, with the advent of the aeroplane. Clement Adler, the first human to fly in an aircraft pulled by a motor, was born in Toulouse. It was also the base of the first regular international airline taking off from French soil. More recently it has become synonymous with Airbus, which has its headquarters and assembly lines at Blagnac. Toulouse is also the centre of the European aerospace industry and home to the Galileo positioning system and numerous satellite design and launch companies. There are four university campuses in the city, serving a total of 120,000 students, making Toulouse the biggest student town in France apart from Paris.
Local Rugby Clubs: Stade Toulousain was formed 100 years ago this year from a merger between two student clubs linked to the university. They won their first Bouclier de Brennus in 1912 and have gone on to win 16 since then, more than any other club in France. When you factor in the 3 Heineken Cup wins, their achievements are all the more impressive. But Stade aren't the only side in the Toulouse area. Colomiers, a suburb of Toulouse, made it all the way to a Heineken Cup final in 1999, losing to Ulster while Blagnac, another suburb, will contest the Pro D2 next season.
Location: Toulouse is the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées région (province), the largest région in France. It is also the préfecture (capital) of the Haute-Garonne département (county).
Tourist attractions: Standing on either side of the Garonne, Toulouse's historical treasures include a well preserved Roman Amphitheatre and the striking Saint-Sernin Basilica, which dates back to 1050 and is thought of as the finest example of Romanesque architecture in Europe. Modern day Toulouse is closely associated with aviation and the Hotel du Grand Balcon was the home-away-from-home for many famous Aeropostale pilots, a pioneering French aviation cmpany. Inside the hotel is a small exhibition dedicated to Antoine de Saint-Exupery's literary creation, Le Petit Prince. Plane-making giant Airbus has a large base just outside Toulouse and tours of the production line for the new A380, or super jumbo, can be easily booked. Visitors who like to dream even bigger can check out the home of European space exploration at Cite de l'Espace.
Art lovers should keep their eyes peeled for decadent works of graffiti around town, whereas more traditional paintings can be found in the Les Abbatoirs Museum and the Les Augustins Monastery. No trip to Toulouse would be complete without sampling the local gastronomic specialities of Toulouse sausage and cassoulet, a bean and pork stew that can be sampled in many restaurants.
Transport connections:
By air: Toulouse-Blagnac international airport is 8 km west of the city. The city centre is easily reached by the airport shuttle service or by taxi. All the usual car-hire firms are present at the airport. An airport shuttle service departs every 20 minutes between the airport and Toulouse, with four stops in the city centre: Pierre Baudis Conference Centre- Place Jeanne d'Arc - Allées Jean-Jaurès - and the coach station terminus (next to Matabiau SNCF railway station). Journey time is approximately 20 minutes, depending on traffic, and it costs EUR 6. Taxis are parked outside the arrivals hall on the ground floor of the airport. It is about 20 minutes to town, and costs about EUR 25
By car: Toulouse is a major motorway junction between France and Spain and has direct motorway connections to the main capitals of Northern and Southern Europe. If you're planning on driving, make sure you remember that most motorways in France are tolled.
A61 (Carcassonne, Montpellier, Barcelona),
A62 (Montauban, Agen, Bordeaux, Limoges, Paris),
A64 (Pau, Lourdes, Bayonne, Biarritz, San Sebastian),
A68 (Lavaur, Albi)
A66 (Pamiers, Foix, Andorra).
By rail: Matabiau SNCF railway station is in the city centre. As you arrive in Toulouse, you can admire the Canal du Midi, which is just opposite. UNESCO has now classified the Canal du Midi as one of the 469 World Heritage Sites.
RWC Matches:
12 Sep: Japan V Fiji
16 Sep: France V Namibia
25 Sep: Romania V Portugal
29 Sep: New Zealand V Romania
Post-match hostelries: Like any city of its size, Toulouse has its fair share of bars and cafes sprinkled around the city centre. Typically, the areas with the best nightlife are Place St. Pierre, Les Carmes and Boulevard Strasbourg. The recently expanded Metro system can get you from A to B quite easily
The Planet Rugby choice: As in other cities, Toulouse suffers the plague that is Irish bars. Two in particular, are the most popular rugby bars in the city. They are Trevor Brennan's DeDanu on the Canal Du Midi and the Killarney Bar in St. Michel. The George & Dragon and the Frog & Rosbif are also worth a visit.
Dedanu
9 rue du Pont Guihemery
Metro: Francois Verdier
Killarney
Rue Alfred Dumerill
Metro: Palais de Justice
Other Bars:
L'Esquile
63 rue du Taur - Metro Capitole
Le Piccadilly
10 place de la Trinité - Metro Esquirol
Special People
24 rue Bachelier - Metro Jean Jaures
La Capriciosa
40 rue de la République - Metro St. Cyprien
Esquirol Bar
19 place Esquirol - Metro Esquirol
Les Coulisses
5 boulevard de Strasbourg - Metro Jean Jaures
Brasserie le Grand Comptoir
29 Grande Rue St-Michel - Metro St. Michel
L'Almodo'bar
27 rue de Stalingrad - Metro Esquirol
Job Dionysos
35 rue Job - Metro Capitole
Le Saint Sernin
2 rue St-Bernard - Metro Capitole
La Chope Matabiau
70 rue Bayard - Metro Marengo SNCF
Café des Amidonniers
43 allée de Brienne - Metro Capitole
Accomodation:
Luxury:
Crowne Plaza
7, place du Capitole
31000 Toulouse
05 61 61 19 19
Grand Hotel de l'Opéra
1, place du Capitole
31000 Toulouse
05 61 21 82 66
Mid-Range:
The Holiday Inn - Centre
13, place Wilson
31000 Toulouse
05 61 10 70 70
Hotel Novotel- Centre
5, place Alphonse Jourdain
31000 Toulouse
05 61 21 74 74
Budget Hotels:
L'Ours Blanc - Wilson
2, rue Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse
05 61 21 62 40
Wilson Square Hotel
12, rue d'Austerlitz
31000 Toulouse
05 61 21 67 57
