It has been a while since my last post. I have been abroad quite a bit but I am back in the pink city feeling fabulous for having spent some weeks with my family back in Canada.

In case you are planning a visit next year you need to know that 🏉 Toulouse ‘terre de rugby’ land of rugby, will be a host city for the 2023 Rugby World Cup from the 10th September until the end of October. Read Toulouse land of rugby.

If you live in Toulouse you will be aware that the summer season is about to kick off in earnest when the kids get out of school at the beginning of July. The recent heatwave has felt like August and what a wonderful ‘avant gout’ (little taste) of things to come.

The guingettes (ephemeral outdoor bars, often on the river) are open, and the music festivals are back on!

Rio Loco is the festival not to miss in June. It has been around since 1995, a world music festival with a different theme each year. For the last 27 years it has been growing into a happening event with music and other visual art projects, diverse and international, at the Prairie des Filtres on the Garonne riverside.

It closed last night with Keziah Jones! A magnificent creature and guitar player from Nigeria and his amazing rhythm section. Blufunk, blues and funk, is his thing and he does it SO well. 

This Tuesday, June 21 is the Fête de la Music, a yearly tradition in France. The idea is anyone who plays gets out and ….plays their instrument. It has become a little more organised and structured than that over the years but the bottom line is there is music everywhere in the city late into the night with pretty much every genre of music vibrating somewhere in the city.

See https://31.agendaculturel.fr/festival/fete-de-la-musique-toulouse-2022.html for free concerts in Toulouse 🎼 

Toulouse plage 🏖

Summer vibes

The guinguette at port Viguerie is up and running for the season. The ferris wheel will operate from the 15 July until 10 September and from the end of this week Les Caboteurs (boats for hire, no licenses required) will be available until mid October; a very cool way to see the Garonne. 

note: The site closes from the 10 to 15 July because of preps for the fireworks display celebrating Bastille Day! 🇫🇷 

There is no shortage of guingettes in Toulouse or anywhere else in France for that matter.

Read ToulouseToulouse – On the Waterfront. for more on guingettes in Toulouse

Summer sports in the city!

From the 22 July until the 28 August Prairie des Filtres opens with lots of activities from 09h30 until 21h00

In anticipation of the Olympic summer games in 2024 all kinds of disciplines will be available to practice : beach volley, badminton, grass hockey, rowing, rock climbing (8 metres) for 6 years and over. Other activities for kids include pétanque (outdoor bowling with little balls and no pins, so so

French), 3 on 3 basketball, and an outdoor gym. There is also a riverside ‘beach’ with inflatable games, water games, trampolines, tree climbing etc.

You can also opt to just chill out and make use of the beach library and enjoy the sun!

Parc de la grande plaine stretches from the City of Space to the Argoulets just a hop skip and a jump from the town centre and easily reachable by public transport. 

Parc de la grande plaine has a jogging path, a children’s playground, 5000 trees for shade on hot afternoons with picnic tables and a kiosk just next to the City of Space.

At the Argoulets end of the park there are tennis courts and the Alex Jany swimming pool with outdoor sunning area. There is also a circus school (no animals) where they have circus related events and sometimes concerts. The outdoor tennis courts are free, first come first served 🎾. 

City of Space/ Parc de la grande plaine  – bus 23, 37, 83 L8

Argoulets Metro Ligne A

I hope that you have enjoyed this article Toulouse vacation staycation, follow me to keep up with me on my travels around beautiful Occitanie. A bientôt……………………..Christina.