Where to live in France? Heard about Blagnac?

In 1995, having never stepped foot in France, I was given the opportunity through work to transfer to Toulouse. So off I went on a work-sponsored familiarisation visit with Blagnac marked on my airline ticket (yes they still had tickets back then). “Where’s Blagnac?” I asked, “I’m, supposed to be going to Toulouse!” Blagnac, they told me, was the home of the main airport for the area and where the work was located. OK.


So with visions of little men wearing berets, riding bikes and sporting chains of garlic round their necks I boarded the plane fully expecting to find a quaint little town, miles from all the action in Toulouse (hey, I was much younger then – action was important to me!).

Turned out the airport was nothing like the grass landing strip in the middle of nowhere that I was imagining. It was pretty modern, all shiny and polished. For some reason I thought I’d be going back in time – but turned out I was going forward! (Here's a list of airlines using Blagnac Aeroport).

Meeting me as planned was the smiling and welcoming Heather (now, funnily enough, my business partner in Purchase in France!). She looked after the car hire, got me checked in at the hotel, pointed me to the shopping centre, provided loads of info and arranged for someone to show me around. Great. It was time to explore.

I won’t bore you with a full travel log of that first trip though it was a great laugh – it’s obvious, I guess, that I liked the place. Blagnac for me and many other people that moved here around the same time, was our landing spot. Our Ellis Island is you like, our “Bienvenue en France”.

Blagnac is close to everything. It’s a “suburban hub” with a population of around 22,000. You can easily get to the centre of Toulouse (just about 15 minutes to the Capitole), and all of the surrounding towns. Easy motorway access helps everyone move around quickly and a new tramline opening soon will make Blagnac even more desirable.

It’s a popular place with lots to offer. Not only is there a large shopping centre, cinemas, ice-skating, parks, schools, restaurants, cafés…. (I could go on and on) but Blagnac is also home to most of the European aeronautical industry companies (eg. Airbus). You may be qualified for some of the jobs on offer (check out www.monster.fr and search for jobs near Blagnac. Try using the key word “Anglais” to help you find jobs currently on offer that require spoken English). The Blagnac Mairie offers a nice little slideshow of photos to give you a feel for the town as well as lots of useful info (sorry there's no English on the site, but look at it as an opportunity to practice reading in French).

There’s also a large selection of properties available in or near Blagnac. One of them may be your dream home. Just enter “31” into the keyword search (that's the department: Haute-Garonne) on breeze-france.com and then select “Airport”, “Within 30 minutes” in the Location Search – or click here for a selection of properties near Blagnac.

Here are the names of a few towns around Blagnac that are also worth typing into the breeze-france.com search engine: Grenade, Aussonne, Beauzelle, Cornebarrieu, Colomiers, Pibrac, Léguevin, Plaisance du Touch, and Tournefeuille.

Click the comments link below if you have more information about Blagnac that readers may be interested in.