Blue Cat’s opportunities for international travel have really increased due to his new job – not only does his new company (Loft Orbital) have an office in France, but one of their primary suppliers is there as well. So Blue Cat got to go to Toulouse, France recently and had an enormously great time.
Toulouse is the fourth-largest city in France and is the southern part of the country. You can read all about it here. What’s important for Blue Cat is that Toulouse is the center (or centre if you’re from Europe) of the European aerospace industry and is the home of Airbus Defense and Space, the French space agency CNES, and other European space groups. Since Blue Cat “works” (as much as he works at anything) in the space business, this is just the place to go.
Here’s Blue Cat getting ready to board his flight to Europe. You can’t get to Toulouse directly from Denver – on this trip Blue Cat had to go by way of Frankfurt, Germany. Hence the Lufthansa flight – which brought back Blue Cat’s scribe’s memories of three wonderful years in Germany before Blue Cat was created. But that’s another story.
So – a quick stop in Germany, where Blue Cat was able to indulge in several of his favorite pastimes – shopping and eating. Or a little of both!
Then off to France. Blue Cat arrived in the afternoon and checked into his hotel – the Hotel Helios. The Hotel is run by the owner who lives on the premises and is both very nice and very helpful. Here’s a picture of Blue Cat’s room – a suite with a sitting area and a bedroom – which was very comfortable but (alas) on the 3rd floor. (For those of you who don’t know, European buildings start counting their floors from zero, so to an American the room was on the fourth floor, which was a lot of steps on the otherwise cool spiral staircase.)
While Blue Cat can’t talk about his work, he can talk about the great places he went in Toulouse. His first meal (a vary jet-lagged dinner) was at the Hippopotamus Steak House, which was a very short walk from his hotel. Their serveuse (or waitress) was very helpful to someone who didn’t speak much French (and that poorly), and helped Blue Cat get a great rotisserie chicken. You’ll get a great meal there – just make sure you really want the large bottle of Perrier and a carafe of table water.
Toulouse also has a large (and old) Roman Catholic cathedral – the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse – that is open to visitors. Blue Cat took some pictures and enjoyed the peacefulness inside, but the cathedral has so much history that you should read about it here.
Here are some other places Blue Cat on his tour of Toulouse:
And some fantastic meals…
Toulouse also has a lot of Roman history. There’s a great museum right by the cathedral – the Musee Saint-Raymond – that explains a lot of that history, with some amazing sculpture. Blue Cat says “don’t miss it!”
But the coolest thing was a children’s playground in the center of the town – shaped like a dragon.
One more tip from Blue Cat’s Toulouse adventure – make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get through checkin and security when leaving Toulouse. Blue Cat’s flight was at 6am, so when he got to the airport at 4:30am he wasn’t expecting this:
But then he did get to enjoy this:
As you can tell, Blue Cat really enjoyed his visit to Toulouse. The people were friendly, the city was interesting, and the food was great. He looks forward to returning for more business trips soon.
Do you have a favorite city to visit? Let Blue Cat know in the comments below. And travel safe!
(c) William P Doyle, Jr 2023
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