Now the summer is gone. Also this year, I didn’t do anything interesting. Except I came to Toulouse for the very first time in my life. I decided to spend the end of this summer in Aveyron.
Toulouse was the nearest métropole to the region. The city was filled with a lot of narrow, curved streets, small residential buildings and ads, all of which reminded me of parts of Tokyo. Although I didn’t really know about the pink city, it didn’t seem quite foreign to me.
Where aircrafts are assembled
La place Jeanne-d’Arc
La place Roquelaine
La rue d’Alsace-Lorraine
I spent some quiet hours there enjoying a stroll though le centre ville and came to the Matabiau railway station. There I looked for the train I’d booked before my trip.
European railway companies usually offer fixed-time advance tickets at reduced prices. In Germany, where I used to live, it was common to purchase long-distance tickets online more than 2 weeks prior to the departure at the Deutchen Bahn.
In France, tickets can be booked in the same way at the SNCF — la Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français .
I took a printed copy of my ticket out of my suitcase and asked a station worker about the train and its platform. But she also didn’t know where the train should come. It seemed that the platform hadn’t been determined yet. It was neither shown nor announced until the last 20 minutes before the departure time. When I heard an announcement, I finally found where to board.
My train was a Transport Express Régional going from Toulouse to Rodez. It was convenient for me. I got on board at the train’s origin and off at its destination. No change was required.
Somewhere near Albi
After some 2.5 hours of travel, the regional express came to its last stop. Mes vacances d’été à la montagne ont commencé en Rodez!