Toulouse, in southwest France, is the European capital of the aerospace industry, with notably the headquarters of Airbus, but also many other key actors of the European aerospace industry such as Thales Alenia Space, Galileo, CNES's Toulouse Space Centre, and many more. Once one of the major cities in Europe (it was the fourth largest European city at the fall of the Roman Empire, and later the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse which extended from the Loire Valley in the north to the Strait of Gilbratar in the south), Toulouse fell into decline after the Renaissance and completely missed the Industrial Revolution, thus falling down the ranks of European cities. However, the fortunes of the city have been revived since the relocation of key aerospace industries there in the 20th century.
Due to its flourishing high-tech industrial base, as well as its southern climate and vibrant character, Toulouse is attracting lots of new residents (including many foreign engineers from northern European countries) and is thus one of the fastest growing cities in Europe. Between the 1999 and 2006 censuses, the metropolitan area of Toulouse registered a population growth of nearly 2% a year, which is enormous for a European city. The metropolitan area of Toulouse (as defined in 1999) saw its population grow from 841,152 in 1990 to 1,102,882 in 2006. Population growth has remained high since 2006, and the city has not been affected by the world crisis so far (the aerospace industry usually lags 2-3 years behind the rest of the economy, and in previous downturns of the aerospace industry Toulouse nonetheless continued to grow steadily). The metro area is thus on its way to reach 1.5 million by 2025, perhaps even 2 million by mid-century, which would have Toulouse rank once again among the major cities in Europe.
As a consequence of this huge population growth, many suburbs have appeared around Toulouse in the past 40 years. Toulouse is one of the most "suburbanized" cities in Europe, so to speak. People there like to have their detached houses with garden and swimming pool, so the urbanization is now spreading more than 30 km from the center of Toulouse in all directions. It's quite different from the denser urbanization in northern Europe. Toulouse is also one of the European metropolitan areas with the most use of private cars, and the least use of public transportation (despite the opening of two subway lines in the past 15 years).
I've always found Toulouse fascinating because it's so different from the rest of France and indeed from the rest of Europe. I often find life there more American than European in many respects, but you be the judge. I took some aerial pictures of the suburbs of Toulouse with
Bing Aerial Images. The pictures were taken all over the suburbs, north, south, east, west, with different levels of zooms, trying to show the varied aspects of the suburbs. Most of the areas shown in the pics are less than 20 years old, so what you'll see here are essentially the suburbs that have appeared since 1990.
So, European or American? Feel free to comment.
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3. This huge shopping mall, where I shopped once, is actually quite pleasant at ground level.
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5. The Roman atrium still lives on in the suburban villas of Toulouse (at one time the fourth-largest city in the Western Roman Empire).
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7. And the building boom continues... Got to accomodate 20,000 new people every year in the metro area.
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10. This one is actually officially the largest hypermarket in France, perhaps also in Europe, I don't know. I went there once, it's BIG.
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17. Airbus-land.
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19. A380, baby!
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