The suburbs of Toulouse - European or American?

[uaarkson]

People always dog on American cities for their suburban sprawl, but I knew this would eventually start happening in Europe.

[JAOILERS]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

For an idea of what I meant in my last message, this is the scenic countryside around Toulouse where many people choose to live despite the long commutes (especially the newcomers from crowded northern Europe who come to work for Airbus and the other high-tech industries). The ski slopes of the Pyrenees (which you can see in the first pic) are only one and a half hour by car from Toulouse:



This one is only half an hour by car from downtown Toulouse:


This one is 40 minutes from downtown Toulouse:


This one in the 3rd ring of suburbs to the north of the city (the guy carefully shot his picture so the suburbs are not visible, but they are there just behind the photographer). Toulouse authorities plan to build the new Toulouse airport there, but local people are admantly opposed:


On that picture you can actually see the 2nd ring of suburbs up the hills on the horizon. Those hills are 20 minutes by car from downtown Toulouse (without traffic jam of course):


Young families typically move to these old villages in the 3rd ring of sububs, about 30 km from downtown Toulouse, where a lot of land is being opened for development (the 21st century suburbs are built litterally next to the Medieval village nuclei):


A typical pre-18th century farm in the 3rd ring of suburbs (about 30 minutes from downtown Toulouse by car). Maybe it's a German or Northern French engineer working at Airbus who lives there, who knows.


Another typical pre-18th century farm around Toulouse. These are dearly sough after by upper-middle class people (they renovate them, usually add a swimming pool and sometimes a tennis court, not to forget the BBQ area):


Typical Medieval church in the 3rd ring of suburbs:


Again the rolling countryside around Toulouse. This is only a 20 minutes drive from the main Airbus site, and about 35 minutes from downtown Toulouse:


Another Medieval church in the 3rd ring of suburbs:


An ancient ruin in the countryside around Toulouse (Toulouse is sometimes reminiscent of Spain, and sometimes of Italy; definitely NOT Parisian):


One of the many rural estates dotting the countryside around Toulouse, but that's for the rich people. This one is only an incredible 15 minutes drive from the main Airbus site:


This one is interesting because you can see a bit of the suburbanization that is little by little engulfing the vast countryside beyond the 2nd ring of suburbs. As I said, people prefer to live in this scenic semi-rural environment on the edges of the city rather than in crammed apartments in the inner city.

In the first photo is so beautiful I have see so far about france

[New Brisavoine]

Since I opened this thread (almost 17 years ago already!), the suburbs of Toulouse have kept growing in a very un-European way. Between the year 2009 (when I created this thread) and 2023 (last French census), the population of the suburbs and exurbs of Toulouse grew by 22.5% (i.e. +1.46% per year on average).

Here the population in each suburban and exurban municipality in 2011 and in 2023:



Since a lot of the pictures I posted back then have been automatically deleted over time, here are some new uploaded ones.

Toulouse combines a dense central Medieval core largely untouched since the 18th century (a few pictures I took on a rainy winter day some years ago):













Narrow streets in the city center, with a subway network:



And beyond the center, suburbs and exurbs resembling more North America than Europe (although other southern French cities have the same pattern of sprawling low-density suburbs with high quality of life):













Airbus plants are surrounded by suburbs on all sides now, whereas they were on the edge of the urban area, surrounded by farmland when they were first built:

[dimondpark]

what a gigantic Carrefour!

[New Brisavoine]

Yeah. The largest supermarket (hypermarket rather) in Europe is actually in the suburbs of Toulouse (if the stat hasn't changed).

[New Brisavoine]

A couple more pictures showing construction going on in the suburbs of Toulouse. All the countryside surrounding the city in a radius of 15 miles is being turned over to developers little by little. Some of these suburbs have their population growing by 4% per year, which is ENORMOUS by European standards.

This one is in one of the last undeveloped areas of the city of Toulouse proper (in a former market gardening/truck farming area). It's being developed around a new subway station. I took the pictures on a rainy winter day a few years ago.



"Borderouge, a new city heart is going to beat day and night!" (admire the poetry )













"Urban project around the subway" ("project" in French doesn't mean social housing, it just means literally the project of a new urban area here)



Down in the subway station. Sign says: "When leaving the subway train, take your newspaper with you."



"Keeping your feet on the ground is not complicated!" (French people love puns)



15 minutes of fast subway and you're in the heart of the Medieval city. This stone says: "The Duke of Montmorency was executed here on October 30, 1632." The Duke of Montmorency was the governor of Toulouse and Languedoc. He had rebelled against the king, so Richelieu had him executed despite the fact he belonged to one of the most prominent aristocratic families in France, no mercy.



That's him, the Duke of Montmorency. The Parc Montmorency in Québec City was named after him (because the Duke of Montmorency was also viceroy of New France, although he actually never set foot in North America). If you visit Paris, you can see his marvelous Renaissance château in the suburbs of Paris, often overlooked by tourists despite the fact it's one of the most beautiful châteaux in the Paris area.