International Student Accommodation in Toulouse
City Guide
The City
Toulouse is a great place to live. Its streets contain all of the conveniences of a large city, without actually being all that big, making it very easy to get around to see and do everything. Outside of Paris, Toulouse has one of the largest student populations in France. As a result, it is a lively and vibrant city, with much to entertain throughout the week, both day and night. It is also easy to explore further afield, with the Atlantic to the West, the Mediterranean to the East, and the Pyrenees and Spain to the South. All of these destinations are approximately 2-3 hours away by train.
Toulouse is often called “la ville rose” (the pink city) because a lot of its buildings were built with a pinkish coloured stone. This has a very pretty effect, brightening up the city during the day, and giving it a lovely glow at night. The centre has many narrow cobbled streets, buzzing with people sitting outdoors at cafes or perusing all of the great shops. Toulouse has a typically French feel to it, which is perhaps sometimes lost in other larger cities. There always seems to be something going on here, as it is a very busy place with very crowded streets. The exception is Sunday, when everything is closed with the exception a few bars and restaurants.
Out and About
Place du Capitole – this is the main square in Toulouse. While it is not the biggest of squares, it is very pretty, lined on three sides by bars and restaurants, and on the fourth side by “Le Capitole”, a beautiful building which today houses the city hall and a theatre. It can be pretty expensive to eat or drink here, but it is very nice to sit out on one of the bar terraces and take in the surroundings, especially when the weather is good. Pizza Marzano, part of the Pizza Express chain, is very decently priced for its situation, and the Italian hot chocolate in Le Bibent is not to be missed! As is usually the way, the streets surrounding the square are cheaper, with many cafes offering formules – sandwich, drink and dessert for a few euros. One of the streets leading off, Rue du Taur, takes you to the very beautiful Basilique St. Sernin. Well worth a visit.
Place Wilson – this is another pretty square, just two minutes walk away from Capitole. Again, it is lined with restaurants and bars, which can get very busy and lively. One of the best bars is “Le Cardinal”, which does great cocktails. However, it is probably not the best place to go to if your on a budget, as cocktails are around 7 euros each. The wine is cheaper, as is the same of most of the bars in Toulouse. Place Wilson is also the place to go if you want to watch a film. There are 3 cinemas, showing both mainstream and French films. Remember to check whether it is being shown in “Version Originale” or “Version Française”, as many of the English language films are dubbed over in French. One of the cinemas, Utopia, always shows the “Version Originale”.
Place Saint Pierre – this is an area down by the River Garonne, and is one of the main student haunts, with its bars generally being cheaper than everywhere else, it can get very crowded here, especially on Saturday nights. La Couleur de la Culotte, Bar Basque and Pub St. Pierre are favourites, or if you want somewhere more lively, a new club called St. des Seins has recently opened. I would recommend staying away from Chez Tonton because, while it is the cheapest, it is also pretty horrible inside! A warning – at Bar Basque a bottle of dry white wine will set you back 15 euros, whereas at Pub St Pierre, which is just across the street, the exact same bottle will cost only 10 euros! If you are feeling hungry after your night out, the street leading up to Place Capitole is lined with many, many kebab shops, which are always open late.
Place Esquirol – yet another square, but contains more shops than bars. One good shop is Midica, which is a bit like the French version of Ikea, but a little more expensive. It is a handy place to go for when you move over and need essentials for your flat. The streets leading off the square in every direction have many more great shops and cute cafes where you can stop for a drink and watch the world go by.
Shopping – the best shops are pretty much situated in and around Capitole, Wilson and Esquirol. Rue d’Alsace Lorraine has many of the high street stores, including Zara and Mango, as does St. Georges, a nearby shopping centre. Rue St. Rome is also good for shopping, as are many of the other nearby streets, which contain smaller, boutique and vintage stores. Near to Place St. Georges, you can find many of the designer names, as well as Mac and Sephora make-up stores.
River Garonne – the river is very pretty and it is nice to sit on the grassy banks and sunbathe when the weather is good. It is also a good place to go for a run or bike ride. There is not much else to do other than that, as I read somewhere once, “the city has turned its back on the river”. However, there are a couple of boat restaurants floating about, and there are some irregular river boat tours.
Place des Carmes/ Palais de Justice – yet more bars and restaurants here for you to try out. Eating and drinking is obviously a very popular past time here! You should check out the Palais de Justice as well. It is a more modern building, but it looks great set against the more traditional buildings surrounding it. If you walk there from Carmes, I suggest you take Rue du Pharaon, as it is an extremely pretty, cobbled street.
Markets – there are several markets that come and go throughout the city centre. By, the Jeanne d’Arc metro stop and at Place Victor Hugo there are fruit and vegetable markets, and markets selling various items are regularly set up on Place du Capitole. On the first Sunday of each month there is a big market there, so the surrounding roads are closed off to cars.
Transport
Toulouse has a very efficient metro system. While it only has two lines, this is really all you need to get around the main areas of the city and its surroundings. It is run by Tisseo, which also runs the bus lines. If living here for a while, it is definitely worthwhile to purchase a Tisseo Pastel card. With this, if you are within the ages of 16-25, you can travel on the metro and on all of the buses as much as you like for only 22 euros per month. Both metro lines start running between 5am and 5.30am, and finish at 12am Sunday-Thursday, and 12.40am Friday and Saturday. If you miss these times, you can usually find taxis at Place Wilson and Place du Capitole, but they can be quite expensive. Always ask the taxi driver how much the journey is going to cost before getting into the car – they especially like to overcharge foreigners. For more information on metro prices and times, you can go to "http://www.tisseo.fr" www.tisseo.fr.
The main train station, Matabiau, offers easy access to all the towns and cities throughout France. If you are between 16 and 25 you can purchase a discount card for 50 euros "la Carte 12-25", which will allow you to purchase train tickets for up to half price. A must if you plan on travelling a lot.
Toulouse airport is not the greatest. It is pretty small, and Easyjet does not have many destinations from there – only London Gatwick, Bristol, Madrid and Paris Orly. Jet2 flies to Belfast, but only between May and October. Flying with Ryanair is another option, but they only fly out of Carcassonne, a 45 minute train journey away. When coming to and from the airport, there is a bus that only costs 4.60 euros return (valid for a month after the date of purchase). It has several stops in the city centre and runs every 20 minutes.
University
If you are studying languages in Toulouse, you will go to Université Mirail II. It is outside of the city centre, but line A of the metro runs very frequently and has a stop right outside the university campus, called Mirail Université. When registering for the first time, it can be rather hectic and stressful as the university is extremely disorganised, a common feature of most French universities. The most important thing you should remember when approaching this, is to bring photocopies of every document you could ever possibly need, a red pen, and lots of passport photos. The red pen is for filling out certain forms – the university administration is very particular about them being filled out in red for some reason. You need photos for your student card, and also for each class that you are registered for. If you are an Erasmus student, you will be assigned an Erasmus coordinator who should be able to help with any problems you may encounter.
On arrival, you will have to do an exam to determine what level of French you are at, and therefore what year of French classes you can attend. The levels range from 1-5, but you should not stress too much about it. When it is time to start lectures, do not expect to be handed a pretty printed timetable. You will have to physically wander around the university campus searching notice boards for timetables of potential modules you may want to study. It can be a rather interesting experience, and can also be rather time-consuming, which is why you are given three weeks before you have to hand in final module choices.
If you are at all interested in skiing, then you should definitely go on a trip with the university. They go every Saturday during ski season and, while it is just for the day, it only costs 25 euros and this includes skis, boots and poles. It is also the same for snowboarding.
Food and Drink
There is a very large choice of restaurants in Toulouse, which cater for all tastes. If you want traditional French cuisine, it should be pretty easy to find a place on any street. There are also a rather large number of Italian restaurants serving the usual pizza and pasta. Pizza Marzano on Place du Capitole is very nice, especially when it is hot enough to eat outside on the terrace. Cheaper Italian places can be found near St. Pierre and Esquirol. Tapas bars are also a popular choice, and are usually very good value for money. Two that stand out are Bodega-Bodega on Rue Gabriel-Peri, which is also a club, and Borriquito Loco on Rue des Paradoux. Indian, Chinese and Thai restaurants can also easily be found throughout the centre, with Rue Peyrolières having a particularly high concentration. If you are looking for crepes, there are many stalls, but a particularly good one is on Rue St. Rome near Place du Capitole. Restaurants are generally reasonably priced, especially if you go off the main squares, and they generally have a variety of set menus at different prices for you to choose from. During the day, you will find cheap places for a sandwich and drink almost anywhere.
If you are feeling homesick at all while here, there are a large number of Irish and British bars. De Danu and the Frog and Rosbif are among the most popular, both of which have student nights every Tuesday. De Danu is also good for its rather large Irish fries! The Melting Pot is another good choice. If you are looking to save money, Café Pop has a special offer on every Monday – 13 drinks for 13 euros. As a result of this, it does get extremely busy. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the most popular nights for going out to the bars at St. Pierre and to the clubs. Most places stay open until 2am throughout the week and until either 4am or 6am on Saturdays. There are a few good clubs in the centre, such as Bodega-Bodega, Sept, Le Frigo and Maximo Café. St. des Seins is a club to go to if you like rock music. Depending on the night, you may have to pay an entrance fee but that usually comes with a free drink. Some of the clubs are very expensive, with drinks costing about 8 euros. The bigger clubs are outside of the city centre, meaning you usually have to pay extra for transport and the entrance fee and drinks will be expensive. The cheapest way to have a few drinks is to buy a bottle of the extremely cheap wine you can find in all of the supermarkets, and stay in with friends.
Day Tripper
As mentioned already, a day trip skiing in the Pyrenees with the university is a great option. Even when the ski season is over, the university does trips to the Pyrenees to go hiking. The resort they take you to is 2 and a half hours away by bus, so you need to leave pretty early in the morning in order to have a decent enough time out there.
Approximately 45 minutes away by train is the city of Carcassonne. It is a medieval city, with an extremely beautiful castle and walls surrounding it. It is well worth a visit – it can feel like you have gone back in time when walking through the streets.
Other options are travelling to the coast, either to the Atlantic or to the Mediterranean, as one is as close as the other. Although, perhaps it would be worthwhile to stay for a few days. Montpellier is another beautiful city, which also has a large student population, making it very lively.
Guide written by Keira Dinsmore, English exchange student Toulouse, 2007/2008.
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