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The French Road Trip
My journey home from Toulouse to Newcastle!
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Weekend Trips from Toulouse – Exploring the South of France
by Sarah Cross, Sciences Po Toulouse, France Despite the impact of the strikes (see my previous post!), the trains both within and beyond the Occitane region of France have allowed me and my friends to visit lots of other towns and cities nearby. To make it even better, at the start of each months, some of these regional trains cost only 1 euro!!! We recently made the most of this with a trip to Avignon, Nîmes and Montpellier.
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Demonstrations, Strikes and Blockages in Toulouse
Sarah Cross, Sciences Po Toulouse, France Macron’s controversial decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 certainly has not gone down too well with French workers, with strikes and protests occurring all over the city, and country, since January. An estimated 50,000-100,000 people have taken part in each of the marches in Toulouse alone, with an estimate of over 3 million across France. Whilst precise numbers are heavily debated between the police and the CGT (the main left wing trade union group), it has been impossible to ignore the impact this reform proposal has had on French society.
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Weekends and Days off in Toulouse!
by Sarah Cross, Sciences Po Toulouse, France Despite having more classes and a fuller timetable than I’m used to in Manchester (those 8:30am lectures will stop me from ever complaining about a 9am again!), there remains plenty of time to explore the beautiful city and surrounding areas. I’m lucky enough to also have Fridays off this Semester, giving me even more time to explore. I thought I’d tell you about some of my favourite things I’ve done outside of classes and the library in my first two months.
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La fête de Noël (even if a little late)
By Eva Kristinova (Sciences Po Toulouse, France) Hi everyone and happy new year! I’m back with another post, this time a little past its relevant time frame, but one that I hope you will find interesting nevertheless. I am, of course, talking about the wonderful end-of-year holiday (also my personal favourite) that has become celebrated pretty much everywhere – Christmas! Or, for those who prefer to go with the French spirit of laïcité, simply the holidays (so, belatedly, Joyeuses fêtes!). Now, even though I was lucky enough to go home for Christmas itself, I have still been able to experience and ask about the French twist to this popular time.…
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Academia and the university system in France
By Eva Kristinova When you come to university in your first year you have a lot to learn about how it all works. Then, if you decide to spend a year abroad, you often have to go through that learning experience again at your host university. And because there are plenty of other things you could be (and you would probably like to be) doing instead, let me make it a bit easier for some of you. Here are four key aspects of student life and the university system in France that I learned about during my first weeks at Toulouse.
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