Bonjour à tous!
If you’re interested in visiting or maybe even taking a placement in France, I’d recommend one city, and one city only: Toulouse.
I lived in La Ville Rose for my first semester of my Year Abroad, where I undertook a Work Placement with Air France as an English Tutor. It was the most rewarding, challenging and enjoyable six months, and I’m dying to tell people about this small, beautiful and quirky city in Southern France.
I first arrived in Toulouse at the beginning of July. My Dad drove all the way from my hometown (near Portsmouth) to Toulouse in one day. It was a journey that I thought would never end, firstly because it’s a 9 hour drive from Caen, Normandy to Toulouse; and secondly because I was so nervous to finally arrive, part of me wanted to stay in the car. But at the height of summer, the further south we drove, the hotter it became. When we finally arrived in Toulouse, the temperature was 36·c, and I really did want to get out of the car.
The first thing that I noticed in Toulouse was pink. Everywhere. There’s a reason that the French refer to this as The Pink City: The architecture is superb and something exclusive to the Toulouse region. For the whole six months I was in Toulouse, I never stopped marveling at how beautiful the buildings all over the city were.
The city is very well organised, with such friendly people (this is where Toulouse wins hands down against Paris). It has 2 metro lines, a tram and bus; and if you’re a student, you get to use unlimited transport for just 10€ a month! Even better: If you’re on a work placement with a big company, they pay for 50% of your transport… This made my fee just 5€!
What’s more, I got to spend my summer discovering the south of France and even parts of Spain, seeing as Barcelona is only a 3 hour car journey away, it’d be rude not to hop down to sunny Spain! During my time in Toulouse, I managed to visit: Lourdes, Carcassonne, Agen, Albi, Montpellier, Béziers, Sitges, Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca and Sevilla.
My work placement with Air France taught me so many things. I absolutely cannot recommend this placement enough. The staff in Toulouse are an absolute delight. After a week, I felt right at home. Not only were they welcoming, but they were so enthusiastic to learn what I had to teach them about the English language, no matter their level of English.
It taught me to be creative and really have fun with my work, because I knew how much it was appreciated by my students. Thanks to my placement there, I have become a lot more patient, organised and prepared. I was so happy to have a job that I looked forward to going to every day.
I was the only Aston student out in Toulouse this year, which had both its advantages and disadvantages. I study French and Spanish, so my only objective was to improve my French, which is always easier when you’re not surrounded by English speakers. I also got to keep this little slice of French heaven to myself and it meant that I really had to throw myself in at the deep end. I was on a work placement, thus making it really difficult to meet other people my age. But I got there, after numerous tandems and erasmus events, I met people and made friends.
One thing that I regret about Toulouse is my living arrangements. I feel this is too important to leave out of my Toulouse experience, and I’d say to anyone to meet the people you live with before moving in. My flat was in a beautiful quarter of Toulouse, in the centre. However, the devil does exist; it wears orange leggings and was my landlady who lived with me. I’m not joking when I say that I was chased out of my own house, shouted at, and generally been taken for a complete and utter idiot. “The nightmare” stole my keys, didn’t care if I couldn’t get in at night, asked me to clean a toilet with my bare hands, and even went as far as washing my baguette. So please, if a lady called Martine offers you residence in Toulouse, say NO. But she has equipped me with enough storytelling for a lifetime, I’ll thank her for that!
But as far as Toulouse goes, it’s an incredible city, there’s always something happening: from quirky little markets to gatherings at Capitole. This is my favourite French city for a reason. It has the buzz of any big city, yet a local, familiar atmosphere, which is what made it feel like a second home to me.
Even though I haven’t been back to Toulouse since December, I still feel like I’m going back tomorrow. It felt so much like home. I seemed to know this foreign, French city 100 times better than my university city of Birmingham… That really does say something about how welcoming TLS is.
Thanks to my time in the most beautiful city in France, my French speaking has dramatically improved, I’ve made some friends for life, and I discovered a truly French atmosphere.
Toulouse, it’s been a pleasure.
À bientôt,
Amy Hares