TOULOUSE Runway of regeneration

New attractions and ongoing development ensure that Europe's centre of aerospace remains a hub of innovation

My day in Montaudran, a once forgotten but now transformed suburb in the southeast of Toulouse, started offon a surreal note. I was standing next to a runway yet instead of watching aircraftthere was a 14-metre-tall, 47-tonne minotaur called Asterion crossing paths with a giant spider named Ariane, a cloud of steam and an array of special effects adding to the show. For arachnophobes, the image of a towering eight-legged creature would be the stuff of nightmares, but for me it seemed a sign of the city’s innovative spirit and ability to regenerate.

The animated creatures, operated by a team of technicians, are relatively new, and retrace the path of the earliest pioneers of civil aviation. Toulouse’s first aeroplane took off from this 1.8km runway in 1918 when it was used by the French airmail service (Lignes Aériennes Latécoère, which later became Aéropostale) to deliver post to destinations such as Barcelona, Morocco, Argentina and Chile. The runway was subsequently taken over by Air France in 1933 and used for aircraft maintenance purposes until 2003.

Today the airstrip is aptly known as Piste des Géants (The Runway of Giants) and lies at the heart of a 56-hectare innovation district named Toulouse Aerospace. The runway plays a cultural role, housing museums and acting as a playground for free theatrical street performances and concerts. This includes hangar-like museum L’Envol des Pionniers which tells the stories of the Aéropostale trailblazers through archives, exhibits and performances by costumed characters which resemble scenes from the film Night at the Museum.