Bordeaux to Toulouse

Larressingle

Toulouse is only about 2 hours from Bordeaux if you take the AutoRoute, but we took the scenic route to get there. After days of seeing vineyards, we started going through pine forests harvested for timber. And then rolling hills with fields planted primarily with wheat and corn, a version of Iowa with stone houses and chateaus. Our first stop was the tiny13th century medieval town of Larressingle. An American from Boston fell in love with this village and he financed the restoration of the village which was completed in 2001. This was the ancient site of the Abbey de Condom. We ran into a school group learning their French history and got them to practice some of their English with us. Then we talked to the Mayor of the town about the restoration work here.

Inside the walls

Lunch was in the town of Condom. We wanted a simple lunch and settled for pizza. Afterwards, we walked some of the town square and visited the 14th century St. Peter's Cathedral. We also ran into a group of pilgrims, taking one of the four paths for the Way of St. James ending up in St. Jacque de Composostelle in Spain. They were various nationalities and had met as they walked the pilgrimage. In the town square was a statue of the four musketeers, since this is the region where they were from.

Hikers on Way of St. James

Late in the afternoon, we reached Toulouse, a city of 447,000 inhabitants and famous for its Universities with 90000 students. The first thing we noticed was the change in architecture - most building now are red brick rather than the limestone building we've seen during the first part of our journey, leading to the name "Pink City". The first University was established here in 1229. The University today is known for its colleges of Law, Medicine, and Aerospace. Another key industry in Toulouse is Airbus which employs over 22,000 people.