Cité de l'Espace, Toulouse

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Fri 01 Jan 2010 19:26

We had the pleasure of spending New Year's Eve in Toulouse this year and decided today to visit the Cité de l'Espace.

What a day out!!!

We took the additional option of a guided tour and paid 66 euros for three adults. (Teachers get in free of charge!)

We started in the main pavilion. Had a go at walking on the moon and spent hours looking - and playing - with the interactive attractions as well as watching some interesting little films and images.

After three hours we thought we should go for lunch as our guided tour was booked for 15h30 and it was already 14h00!

We went into the main restaurant and had a fantastic lunch - St Jacques with ribbon leeks and lightly cooked foie gras for Mr Thumbs, a chevre mousse with confit of tomato and the best caviare aubergine that I've ever tasted. Our friends decided against the menu of the day and took a simple assiette. 'Simple'! They had beef kebabs (large - and beautifully cooked, tender beef), with chips and salad. Our main dish of the day was a very tasty potato rosti with magret of canard in a mushroom sauce with chestnuts. Dessert was a carpaccio of pineapple with a boule of coconut icecream. Apero's all round, half a bottle of wine and a bottle of san pellegrino, four coffees and the bill was 92 euros for four of us.

Our guided tour was absolutely outstanding! Our guide was absolutely passionate about space travel and personally knows several astro/cosmo nauts. He made the tour so interesting and really brought the idea of space travel to life. The tour around a real Mir space capsule was just great.

After the guided tour, a visit to the Imax theatre to watch a fascinating film about the moon landings.

The Cité closed at 18h15 so we had to leave.

But we're going back tomorrow as we've only done about half of it!!

An absolutely fabulous day out which I cannot recommend highly enough!

Second installment tomorrow

Nigel and Karen · Post by **Nigel and Karen** » Fri 01 Jan 2010 19:49

You can feel your enthusisam in the way you have writen it.

Look forward to tomorows post.

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Fri 01 Jan 2010 20:02

Thanks Nigel! I really loved it. I can't WAIT to go again, tomorrow !

john · Post by **john** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 09:38

thumbelina wrote: We went into the main restaurant and had a fantastic lunch - St Jacques with ribbon leeks and lightly cooked foie gras for Mr Thumbs, a chevre mousse with confit of tomato and the best caviare aubergine that I've ever tasted. Our friends decided against the menu of the day and took a simple assiette. 'Simple'! They had beef kebabs (large - and beautifully cooked, tender beef), with chips and salad. Our main dish of the day was a very tasty potato rosti with magret of canard in a mushroom sauce with chestnuts. Dessert was a carpaccio of pineapple with a boule of coconut icecream. Apero's all round, half a bottle of wine and a bottle of san pellegrino, four coffees and the bill was 92 euros for four of us.

Only in France could a trip round a space museum be turned into a gourmet experience,Thumbs!

But,seriously,it sounds fab. It must be big;you can do the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in one day easily. I've driven past it several times on the A62. Didn't realise it was open to the public.

Funnily enough,someone has recently also put me on to an Air Museum at Toulouse Airport,with the option of a trip round the Airbus factory. Sounds like I'll have to pay a few visits to Toulouse in the near future.

Nigel and Karen · Post by **Nigel and Karen** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 12:21

Have you a link to the Air Museum please.

opas · Post by **opas** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 13:14

Not quite the same but in Manchester there is the Science and Indusrty museum, we only went for an afternoon and I recon It could take me a week to do every exhibition in there. My sister and her son go on a regular basis as there is always something that you did not see last time or a visiting exhibition.........oh and it is all free!

One of our daughters did mention the space centre at touslouse as one of or neighbours works there, so that could be on our list of things to see,

Steve&Julie · Post by **Steve&Julie** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 13:27

We visited the Space Centre in Summer and confirm it is really a two day visit to see everything - absolutely fascinating - great day out. Well worth booking in advance online so you don't have to stand in the horrendous queue to get in like we did.

There are lots of outside and indoor areas for picnicing if you don't want to buy lunch and there was also a smaller snack bar type restaurant as well as the more formal one. However, all the food vending seems to shut down at about 4pm so we could not get anything for 'tea' after that. We found a steak house quite near however and had a nice meal there on our way home. It is much bigger than you first think when you arrive and you have to be quite savvy about seeing the films etc in rotation or you miss some of them. They are all in French with no English surtitles or translation whatsoever but I think you can get a headset of some kind if you pay extra. This was a bit of a problem for our son but we managed to kind of get the drift of what they were saying most of the time.

A very good day out all in all.

john · Post by **john** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 16:52

Nigel and Karen wrote:Have you a link to the Air Museum please.

Here it is. Not been yet ,so cannot say much

www.taxiway.fr

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 20:15

Second installment!

Fabulous second day! Did another five hours and we STILL haven't finished!

It's not that it's particularly big, John, there is SO much to do (if you want to have a go on every interactive thing and watch every video presentation etc. (and, being a saddo, I want to do EVERYTHING!)

Decided on a snack type lunch today

sandwiches and cold drinks all round (four of us) for 26€ - so not extortionate by any means!

Brilliant Meteo France presentation - explaining climate change, meteorology, climatology, oceanology etc. Could have spent hours in just this area. You can also film yourself presenting the weather - absolutely hilarious! And SO difficult to read an autocue and point to the right place on a map at the same time lol

Headsets are available in several languages at a price of 4€90 for adults and 3€90 for children. (The guided visit that I mentioned yesterday is the same price and available in several languages in the summer months) There are also several educational books and guides you can buy for both kids and adults.

Group rates are also available apparently (you will need to telephone for details).

http://www.cite-espace.com/

The place you mention sounds fabulous too, John.

Toulouse is definitely a spot on place for a weekend away!!

(And, incidentally, the Christmas lights are beautiful!

)

Caliceo (a Caldea type of place here in Toulouse) tomorrow!

collioure_bee · Post by **collioure_bee** » Sat 02 Jan 2010 23:25

Did the 66 euros cover the two days Thumbs or do you have to pay for each day?

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:02

No, Bee, you have to pay for each day.

mrob343 · Post by **mrob343** » Mon 19 Apr 2010 21:29

thumbelina wrote:We had the pleasure of spending New Year's Eve in Toulouse this year and decided today to visit the Cité de l'Espace.

What a day out!!!

We took the additional option of a guided tour and paid 66 euros for three adults. (Teachers get in free of charge!)

We started in the main pavilion. Had a go at walking on the moon and spent hours looking - and playing - with the interactive attractions as well as watching some interesting little films and images.

After three hours we thought we should go for lunch as our guided tour was booked for 15h30 and it was already 14h00!

We went into the main restaurant and had a fantastic lunch - St Jacques with ribbon leeks and lightly cooked foie gras for Mr Thumbs, a chevre mousse with confit of tomato and the best caviare aubergine that I've ever tasted. Our friends decided against the menu of the day and took a simple assiette. 'Simple'! They had beef kebabs (large - and beautifully cooked, tender beef), with chips and salad. Our main dish of the day was a very tasty potato rosti with magret of canard in a mushroom sauce with chestnuts. Dessert was a carpaccio of pineapple with a boule of coconut icecream. Apero's all round, half a bottle of wine and a bottle of san pellegrino, four coffees and the bill was 92 euros for four of us.

Our guided tour was absolutely outstanding! Our guide was absolutely passionate about space travel and personally knows several astro/cosmo nauts. He made the tour so interesting and really brought the idea of space travel to life. The tour around a real Mir space capsule was just great.

After the guided tour, a visit to the Imax theatre to watch a fascinating film about the moon landings.

The Cité closed at 18h15 so we had to leave.

But we're going back tomorrow as we've only done about half of it!!

An absolutely fabulous day out which I cannot recommend highly enough!

Second installment tomorrow

Just got back home Thumbs, and given we could'nt get to go to Portugal for our hols we decided to go there today and i totally agree....
ITS BRILLIANT !

If you're into anything in relation to the world we live in and mans reaches far far beyond it, it's a must place to visit !
Well Impressed !

Cheers
Rob

thumbelina · Post by **thumbelina** » Mon 19 Apr 2010 21:35

So glad you liked it Rob!

I can't wait to go and see this year's exhibits!!

FORUM