We put our panniers on our bikes in the meeting room of the hotel, where our bikes were stored overnight, then headed out to the centre of Montauban to get bread for lunch. Being summer, roadworks are in full swing everywhere, and the town centre is no exception - it was a case of walking the bikes around the diggings for an underground car park. Then we were on our way to Toulouse! For once it seemed like it took a long time to get clear of the town. Our route took us along streets that were busy, and lined with car yards, furniture barns and garden centres, as well as building suppliers and factories, so much like Australian city fringes, but hitherto something we have not had to deal with. Eventually we left the traffic and entered farming country interspersed with forests and fallow ground. Pretty flat going, and even flatter once we re-connected with the canal cycle path. Whether it was because it was a Monday morning, or perhaps we have now moved into a less scenic area, but there were fewer boats on the canal today. The locks between Montauban and Toulouse have infrastructure (mills, mini-hydro) associated with them as well, making use of the flow of water we could observe in this section of the canal. Riding along the canal means that generally trees and green belts planted alongside cut you off from nearby towns, and so it was today. Only the glimpse of a spire between the trees betrayed the presence of a town. Of course we were also shielded from the sight of the nearby rail line and highway, which we could hear above the birds singing, the frogs croaking and the mosquitoes whining, though we did get to glimpse an enormous yard filled with cars, awaiting delivery presumably. Thus we arrived at the centre of Toulouse, popping up from the end of the cycleway near the port, which was close to our accommodation too, so not having to ride any distance in city traffic. The Toulouse metro area, with 1,312,304 inhabitants as of 2014, is France's fourth-largest metropolitan area, after Paris, Lyon and Marseille, and ahead of Lille and Bordeaux. It is also the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus (formerly EADS), the SPOT satellite system, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. It hosts the European headquarters of Intel and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space centre in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, ATR, SAFRAN, Liebherr-Aerospace and Astrium Satellites also have a significant presence in Toulouse. The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 103,000 students, it is the fourth-largest university campus in France, after the universities of Paris, Lyon and Lille. (The accommodation we are staying in is obviously built as student accommodation, and the other wing of the same site is actually a student residence). A city with unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks, which earns it the nickname ‘la Ville Rose’ ("the Pink City"), Toulouse counts two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Canal du Midi (designated in 1996 and shared with other cities), and the Basilica of St. Sernin, designated in 1998 because of its significance to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. We arrived early enough to go for a long walk after checking in and having a shower. Being such a big place, we concentrated only on the very centre, and still feel a little overwhelmed! After a very hot night, we elected to go separate ways on Tuesday. I headed off to see the aviation museum out near the Airbus assembly site, while Penny stayed in town and did more sightseeing there. The hot night was due to cloud cover, and it was under a heavy sprinkle of rain that I made my way to the metro station to buy a day pass to get out to Aeroscopia. Billing itself as ‘THE reference for aviation museums of the world’, it is certainly impressive. A huge collection of planes (2 of the 20 Concordes ever made, an Airbus A300, MIG 15, etc, etc) housed in an enormous purpose built display area, plus lots of displays on the history of aviation (from a very French perspective - ‘Of course, the Midi-Pyrénées region is the cradle of aviation. Consequently, both the greater area of Toulouse and Blagnac are considered Europe’s premier aeronautics platforms. In fact, the first ever powered aircraft was secretly built south of Toulouse, in Muret, in 1890, by Clémence Ader. Over a century later, both the Airbus A380 and the Concorde made their maiden flights from Toulouse, in 2005 and in 1969 respectively. Aviation is the driving force of the region’s economy with about 80 000 people currently working in the industry’). I could have chosen to do one of a number of factory tours of the Airbus site, but there was enough for me just at the one museum (there is also another museum next to this one concentrating on restoration of planes - there is only so much one can do!) The displays on the side were also interesting - everything from flight simulators, to investigations of plane crashes around the Midi-Pyrenees (lot of these, especially in the 20’s and 30’s and of course during the war - flight activity and fog and mountains are a tragic mix), working in aviation, how aircraft are designed, and so on - hours of fun right there! But 4 hours of walking around was enough for me. Heading back for a late lunch, I stopped by the EDF Bazacle Complex: a museum, a large terrace overlooking the Garonne, temporary exhibitions, a photo gallery, a fish pass, and an active hydroelectric plant! All free!