Toulouse

Toulouse is everything one would expect of a French city. Wide boulevards choc-a-bloc with traffic, medieval buildings housing modern fashion outlets, fantastic squares with locals enjoying their hourly coffee sur le terrase and plenty of opportunities for fine dining. It was slightly regrettable, therefore,  that my first visit to this magnificent city was short-lived, serving only as an overnight stop before my venture to the neighbouring region of Lot-et-Garonne. Modest accommodation near to La Place du Capitole is worth putting up with in exchange for an ideal location. For dinner, I took the tried and tested advice from the EasyJet magazine that I had picked up on the short transfer from a wet Bristol to a sunny Toulouse (Blagnac). The recommendation in the €30 category was Restaurant au Gascon and it certainly fitted the bill. Had it not been for the large group of businesspeople enjoying the local cuisine, the restaurant would have seemed reasonably empty. Luckily for the two of us, our waiter seemed keen to get our order in before the group placed theirs, and so was keen to plug the Bœuf du chef which we both ordered, along with the house red.  Both were served promptly and both hit the spot. The beef, doused in a delicious dijonny sauce, was accompanied by juicy green beans with pan fried, and heavily salted potatoes.  The wine, described plainly as de la region, neither overpowered nor shied away from the food. All in all, the two of us were in and out in around an hour, well fed and paid only €35. Granted we had not experienced the “massive salads” mentioned in the EasyJet mag, but we still felt we had done well to savour the local culture in a place that was a stone’s throw from the main place, but still felt very local.

The kindness that Toulouse had shown us that evening was not repeated the following morning. With the rain unrelenting, we sat for over an hour in our rental car on the Allée Charles de Fitte hoping to reach the Périphérique at some point before lunch. Blast my small town upbringing for not educating me in big city rush hour etiquette!!

Restaurant au Gascon, 9 rue des Jacobins, 31000, Toulouse (05 612 167 16) Closed on Sunday.

Les bars dans La Place du Capitole