Since it was the first Sunday of the month, I guess most public museums are free in France. About 6 of us took advantage of this, as we traveled to downtown Toulouse in search of two different museums. The first one was actually split into three different locations, an old water tower, a hidden room under a road, and a theatre. Each place had different photographic art. The water tower was probably the best simply due to the fact that they had put a thick plexiglass down as the floor of the lower level. They had kept all of the water wheels and pipes intact, so us engineers were more fascinated by the equipment than the photos of people from Africa with exotic pets. Sadly, photos were not allowed, so all I have are the photos of the exterior. The second museum contained modern art. There was an exhibit of a house that rained inside of it. There was also a room with art involving space, but the rest of the museum was a bit too modern if you know what I mean. We then went to take pictures of Le Pont Neuf which is the oldest bridge in Toulouse, but its name means “The New Bridge.” We ended up stumbling upon the same Moroccan festival that I was at a few nights before. From the bridge we were able to see their stunt show on horses. It was getting kind of late since we got a late start, so we went to a restaurant a few of the people in the group were at earlier in the week. It’s called Le Pinocchio. The food was okay, but we at least had a better idea of what we were going to get since they had English menus. I ended up getting a Sicilian Pizza and a Banana Split. I have to say, the Banana Split was probably the best I’ve ever had.
After 5 days in Toulouse, it was time to start classes. Our first unit was over aviation safety and air transport economics which were taught by two instructors at the ENAC campus. The first day we had two 50 minute sessions of aviation safety followed by our French language class and lunch. We ended with two more session on aviation safety. After classes, I went back into Toulouse to the places we were at last Friday to take some better pictures and explore a bit more before heading back to SUPAERO for dinner and bed.
Tuesday morning came a bit too soon again, but it’s not good to skip classes that are packing quite a bit of information into just a few sessions. We started again with two sessions of aviation safety followed by French and lunch then three sessions of air transport economics. I have to say that I found the classes to be interesting if for no other reason that I don’t know of any class at U of M that teaches these topics. We learn a lot about how to make things fly, but there is a lot of logistics that we never learn until we are in industry. This was actually the first day I didn’t go into the city, but there really isn’t much of a reason to go into the city since I’ve already been to the bigger sites in Toulouse.
By Wednesday morning, we had settled into our standard breakfast of yogurt, cereal, and a croissant, then 2 sessions of aviation safety and French. Today, we did have a rushed lunch since we had to be back at SUPAERO to catch the bus to our Airbus visit. I decided to wear my khakis and polo all day, so I didn’t have to rush back as fast as some people. Once we got to Airbus, our program leaders collected our passports so we could get visitor badges. Sadly, we couldn’t take photos inside the buildings, so they confiscated our cameras until the end of the visit. None of us knew why that was necessary since you can find photos and videos of the assembly online. I’ve posted some of those online photos and videos since I wasn’t able to take the photos or videos myself. But anyways, we were first taken to the final assembly line of the A380. All of the parts for the A380 are made in different counties and places in France except for the engine pylons which are made on the North side of Toulouse by a private company that specializes in titanium and hard alloys. In this assembly, they get the fuselage in 3 sections, to finish the wiring and other electronic systems. Then it is moved to another station where the three sections come together before attaching the wings, stabilizer, and tail fin. Once, it is done with that station it is moved to the next hanger for testing of all of the systems. Next, we drove to the other side of the Toulouse airport to see the facility for the A330 and A340 models. In a few years, this will also be the assembly for the A350.
On Thursday, we finished up our aviation safety unit in the morning. Then we had a break for lunch plus two extra hours. During the break I went back to SUPAERO to buy more dinner tickets and a laundry card. It was a bit more difficult than we thought it would be, but luckily we stopped a SUPAERO student to help us translate to the guy at the front desk. I decided to try to look up some of the train options for my second hour. I still haven’t decided where I want to go during the breaks, but I am kind of leaning toward Barcelona and Madrid over our 5 day break. Anyways, I had to head back at 3pm for our last air transport economics lecture. After classes were done, a few us had dinner and went over to campus to study. Each of us took a section and made a study guide. It took about 5 hours, which may have been too much study or not enough. I guess I’ll find out when I get my grade back.
We had breakfast and headed over to ENAC on Friday for a review session before our quiz. It was optional, but I figured it I didn’t have anything to lose by going. The quiz multiple choice with 25 questions each worth one point. It was also open book and open notes. I have to say there were a few ambiguous questions and potential answers, so it’s hard to gauge how well it went. We then had our French class and lunch. Afterwards, we hopped on the bus to Carcassonne. Carcassonne is basically a medieval city that survived into the modern age. It’s only about an hour drive, and once we arrived, we had a guided tour of the city followed by some free time to explore the city. The original city is fortified by two walls that circle the entire city. Our guide went over many of the reasons why this city was basically impossible to attack. We also went into the basilica and to learn more about the rise and fall of Catharism due to differences with the Catholic Church and inquisitions they used to bring down the Cathars. Since I visited this city a few years ago, I already knew the layout of the city pretty well. It helped knowing all of the better spots to take photos. After a bit of walking around, it was time to go back to Toulouse. I kind of went to sleep right after getting into my room since we had to be up quite early to head to Marseille.
Today we were up at 8am, so we could leave for Marseille which is the 3rd largest city in France. It is a port city on the Mediterranean with quite a bit of history and current progress. I tried to sleep for most of the bus ride, but when I couldn’t sleep I worked on typing up my reports on Airbus and Carcassonne. We arrived at the hotel just a bit after 12pm. The hotel is Cercle de Garnison which is just off the harbor. It’s actually reserved mainly for military personnel, but since our study abroad schools are associated with the military, they were able to set up the reservations. The first thing on my list to do was to find some food, and other felt the same since most of us didn’t have a breakfast. We ended up having about 25 of us at one restaurant which was serving mussels and fries as their plate of the day. Our group leader says mussels and fries is a very famous French dish especially on the coast. I opted to go for a Cesar salad since I’m not a big seafood person. To work off our lunch, we hiked to the Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde. It’s on the top of one of the mountains around Marseille. It took us about a half an hour to get up there, but I must say the view was worth it. After walking down, five of us went to do more sightseeing in the harbor area. We managed to find a few shops to look around in until it was time for dinner. After having a very good dinner of calamari, we went for a walk to take us to the other side of the harbor. We had to get back to the hotel after a little bit since three of us are taking a wine tasting tour tomorrow, plus I wanted to finish my paper on Airbus with my partner.
We will be in the Marseille area until Tuesday night. During that time, I’ll be going on a wine tasting tour, a trip to the Aix en Provence, and a visit to Eurocopter. After we get back to Toulouse on Tuesday night, we will be back to our school schedule, but this time at the SUPAERO and ENSICA campuses which make up ISAE. This new unit will be covering aircraft structures and some propulsion. I’ll probably post again sometime next weekend, so I can give more information about how the rest of Marseille went as well as the progress of our second unit.
Until next time,
Gary
