Visiting an Old Friend in La Ville Rose

(Feb 24-26, 2023) This story begins in 1974 with a certain little small-town girl named Debbie who dreamed of visiting faraway places filled with exotic people living fascinating lives and speaking foreign languages. Young Debbie found ways to connect with several of those people from around the world, including a tall 11-year-old named Nathalie who lived in a suburb of the southern French city of Toulouse. There was little from that era that could give me a greater thrill than to pull those tissue-thin, air mail letters covered in foreign stamps out of the mailbox a few times a week, which always elicited a flurry of enthusiastic letter writing in response.

Nathalie and I would keep up a regular correspondence for years, relaying the events of our everyday lives, she in English, and I, in French. Included in each letter would be a dutifully prepared list of corrections, which could only have served to give us each a leg up in our respective language learning.

The opportunity to correspond had been arranged by our dedicated French and English teachers from opposite sides of the Atlantic, Mrs. Sellman and Mme. Lafuste. A jumelage, or twinning, was arranged between these international friends, by which groups of students would travel in alternating years to the other’s town to stay for a month with host families and to have an authentic and unforgettable American or French experience. Few events from my childhood had a greater impact on me than this cultural exchange, initiating my love of all things French, which continues to this day.

Over the years, as Nathalie and I went about our adult lives, we lost touch – that is, until Facebook came along. Since reconnecting on Facebook, we have met up several times, introducing our own families to each other and enjoying sharing our memories of those happy days, way back when.

I’m on the train to Toulouse now, heading for a weekend visit with Nathalie, a gratifying end to my week as a solo traveler in Paris. Even though, at five hours, the train trip to Toulouse is not such a quick jaunt, riding the rails is still my favorite way to get around in Europe. With a very comprehensive rail network that can take you to all but the remotest locations -- many routes on the super-fast Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) -- train travel like that in France is a convenience Americans can only dream of. The seats are comfortable, the wifi is free, the scenery is to-die-for, and the price is generally right.

On arrival, a smiling Nathalie greets me warmly, and suggests we take a stroll through downtown Toulouse before dinner. We peruse shop-lined, pedestrianized streets and stop to admire Place du Capitole with its majestic pink rose capitol building, and the medieval Basilica Saint-Sernin de Toulouse.

Nathalie has made a reservation for us at l’Entrecôte, a classic steak restaurant with a cult-like following. Reservations are an absolute must – we join the line that has formed for the first seating (it pays to be with someone in-the-know). According to Nathalie, the line outside will not end and the evening won’t be complete until all tables have been filled for the third time.

The menu at l’Entrecôte is simple: fresh green salad, large portions of very tender, very tasty steak served with all-you-can-eat, crisp shoestring pommes frites and a delectable sauce made from a well-concealed family recipe. We end the evening fully satisfied from our meal and time spent catching each other up on our lives since we last met several years ago.

On Saturday, Nathalie spoils me by serving a three-course lunch, after which we discuss an activity for the afternoon. She suggests a visit to the site of the old Toulouse-Montaudran Aerodrome, previously used by Air France for maintenance, which now houses two very unique museums: l’Envol des Pionniers and La Halle de la Machine.

L’Envol des Pionniers, or the Flight of the Pioneers, is a modern museum with interactive displays that tells the story of the first French airmail line, Lignes Aériennes Latécoère, founded in 1918 by aeronautic visionary Pierre Georges Latécoère. At the end of World War I, Latécoère, who had been manufacturing military airplanes in the Montaudran region of Toulouse, could foresee the end of the Great War, and devised a way to turn his airplane factory into a civilian operation, continuing to build airplanes and also employing military aviators who would otherwise have gone unemployed.

The mission of Lignes Aériennes Latécoère, later renamed Aéropostale, was to deliver mail via airplane, a seemingly impossible challenge at the time, over treacherous terrain for unimaginable distances. Aviators were required to traverse mountains and deserts to reach faraway locales in Spain, and, by the late 1920s, Morocco and Senegal, in addition to a South American route between Argentina and Brazil.

The exhibit painstakingly reviews all aspects of the endeavor. For instance, even though regular routes had been established by the company by the mid-1920s, Latécoère’s brave aviators still faced extreme conditions while flying, and in fact, fatal accidents did occur. Some of the hardships they faced were revealed in an in-depth tribute to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the young aviator who flew for Aéropostale in the mid-1920s and later garnered worldwide fame for his books “Night Flight,” and the beloved children’s book, “The Little Prince.”

Nathalie and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to l’Envol des Pionniers, but the other museum experience that day was one I will never forget. La Halle de la Machine is home to a menagerie of intricately constructed robotic machines created by Art Director François Delarozière and the engineers at Compagnie La Machine. The creatures who inhabit the space at La Halle de la Machine in Toulouse include a large spider and a gigantic wood and steel minotaur named Asterion.

When I say gigantic, I’m talking really big! Asterion stands nearly 46 feet tall and weighs in at 47 tons. He has articulated joints throughout, including expressive, eyelashed and blinking ice-blue eyes that glance around and seemingly lock onto you. His lungs expand in and out as he breaths and periodically releases a very loud blast of steam. He is conducted by three operators who ride in buckets attached to his body, but when he is on the move and headed in your direction, you may very well forget for a split second that what you’re witnessing is not actually a sentient being. He is magnificent to see as he makes his way out onto the old aerodrome runway, now called Le Piste des Géants, carrying a large basket on top filled with enthralled human passengers. Nathalie and I follow Asterion down the runway and around as he makes a slow right turn and heads back under the shelter of the hangar next to the museum.

The subjects of today’s museum visits have both been extraordinary, both displaying the very limits of human capabilities over a span of 100 years, whether physically, intellectually or technologically. It’s an understatement to say that Toulouse is the French epicenter for advancement in aeronautical and mechanical design and engineering.

The next day Nathalie and I head into town for some site seeing before my train ride back to Paris. It’s a beautiful, clear winter day. We make our way to the banks of La Garonne, the major river that bisects the city. People are out in droves to profiter from the crisp air and the sun as it sparkles off the surface of the water. We stroll across a large bridge and all along the opposite quay, which is flanked by beautiful old buildings, many constructed in the characteristic terracotta brick of La Ville Rose.

After our long walk, I’m inspired by the beautiful scenery, but also ready to call it a day as the wintery, early evening light begins to fade, marking the end of our weekend together. As Nathalie drops me at the train station, we say our goodbyes and make plans to try to meet up again when Bob and I come back in the summer, ready for another great adventure in La Belle France.