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| YOU NEED ONE OF THESE TO GET THERE QUICKLY |
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| I WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE IBIS STYLES HOTEL IN BLAGNAC |
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| THE AIRBUS A400M AT AEROSCOPIA |
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| PLENTY OF ROOM INSIDE THE A400M |
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| AN OLD EAST GERMAN MiG-21 |
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| EVEN CHINA BUY THE A320 |
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| FATTY - THE AIRBUS BELUGA |
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| THEY HAVE PRETTIED UP THE LATEST 'XL' MODEL |
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| TOULOUSE TRAMS |
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| TOULOUSE MATABIAU STATION |
The past week has been hectic, with a multitude of last minute things to deal with before I go. Jobs included sorting out a new contract for my mobile phone, washing my hiking gear, deciding what I needed for the trek, checking out the equipment and getting some Euros - quite a lot of Euros in fact, because they don't take electronic payments at the mountain refuges as they have neither mains electricity nor a 4G connection. Cash is king!!
Rubi kindly helped me with packing on Saturday and drove me to Fareham Railway Station the following morning. I will be away for 5 weeks and will miss her lots.
Thus, Sunday 26th of August and the adventure begins. A routine train journey brought me to Gatwick Airport. Between dropping my baggage and passing through security I rang Axa to upgrade my travel insurance so that I could walk at altitudes up to 3,500 metres rather than the standard 2,500. I had forgotten to do this earlier, so was pleased that they were available to manage the upgrade on a Sunday.
The flight was uneventful up until when we descended, flaps down, on the approach path to Toulouse Blagnac Airport. Turbulence was making the ride quite bumpy when, suddenly, the noise increased dramatically as the engines were throttled up, the flaps were retracted and the aircraft started to climb again. The landing was being aborted because, apparently, an aircraft in front of us had suffered a bird strike and was still on the runway. Quite a few of the passengers were looking very pale indeed, presumably imagining that something much more serious had happened.
We circled the airport until the runway was clear and then had another go at landing, successfully this time.
I stepped off the aircraft into bright sunshine, which was a distinct improvement on the wet and overcast weather I had left behind. On leaving the airport terminal, it took me only 15 minutes to drag my case to the nearby Ibis Styles Hotel, where I would be staying for 2 nights. Directly opposite the hotel was a Subway, so that was my evening meal sorted too.
My hotel booking included breakfast, which I was down to eat by 7.00am the following morning. I had booked an English speaking tour of the huge Airbus manufacturing plant which employs 25,000 people locally and is, more or less, built around the airport runway. The tour was scheduled to start at 9.30am from the Aeroscopia Aeronautical Museum, a good 45 minutes walk away. I was required to get there in good time.
I joined the group for the, so-called , Discovery Tour and we were initially guided into a mock up of a telemetry room. Such rooms are used when testing aircraft, with data from cameras and sensors aboard the aircraft relayed down to the room in real time and displayed so that teams of engineers on the ground can study what is happening. We were shown real video footage as the latest Airbus jet, the double-decker A380, was put through its paces.
We were then taken by coach to the J L Legardère Plant where the A380 was being assembled. Like all Airbus jets, major assemblies such a wings, the tailplane, fuselage sections, etc., are made in different European countries and then brought together at Toulouse. Assembly takes about 3 weeks, but that does not include fitting out the interior, installing the engines and testing everything. We watched the process through the windows of an elevated viewing room.
The final part of the tour involved being driven back to the Aeroscopia Museum where we were able to step aboard an A400M military transport aircraft with its cavernous interior and 4 huge turboprop engines.
When I had checked in for the pre-booked Discovery Tour, the lady issuing my ticket suggested that I might like to also join the Factory Tour, which would enable me to see the other plants where the A320, A330 and A350 jets are assembled and tested. This involved a long coach ride all the way around the airport, but the tour was well worth the extra time and cost, and did not repeat any of what I had already seen. I was particularly interested in the odd looking Beluga aircraft, built around an A300-600 airframe, but with a huge fuselage to house major aircraft components, such as wings and fuselage sections. Five of these aircraft fly full-time to bring sub-assemblies in from the manufacturing partners in other European countries.
Unfortunately, taking photographs whilst in the Airbus plants was prohibited, though I did later take some pictures through the boundary fence on my walk back to the hotel. Although I did see a Beluga take off and another land, there were much better pictures available to download off the internet.
The tours over, I then spent a couple of hours in the Museum itself. It was very well laid out, and included a fascinating mixture of aircraft from various eras and countries - for instance there was a Lockheed Starfighter, a Dassault Mirage IIIC, an ME109, a MiG-21 and two Concordes.
Many of the aircraft on display had been restored by Ailes Anciennes (Old Wings), a group of dedicated volunteers who restore old aircraft. They had a large compound of aircraft awaiting their turn nearby.
It was 6.00pm by the time I got back to the hotel, having walked back via a rather roundabout route. The weather had been scorching and my day's activities both fascinating and educational.
I had brought my rucksack and camping equipment in a big holdall for the flight over, along with some spare clothes and a few items I wasn't quite sure if I would need or not. The hotel had agreed to look after the holdall while I was on the Pyrenees, so in the evening I made final decisions about what I thought I would need for the walk, put the rest in the rest in the holdall, and passed it over to the hotel receptionist.
I was in no particular hurry next morning so took my time over breakfast. Leaving the hotel at about 10.00am, I was in Toulouse City Centre an hour later. The T2 tram from the airport brought me to the Palais de Justice, so on the walk to Matabiau railway station I popped into the information office at Capitole to give myself something to read about the city whilst on the train. Once at Gare Matabiau, I purchased an SNCF ticket direct to Pau leaving at 2.37pm. That would give me a couple of hours to get some lunch and write up this blog.