I was headed to India for work, and as I was traveling through Europe to get there, it was quite inexpensive to add a stop in Toulouse along the way. It had been quite a long time since my last trip to Toulouse, so it seemed like a good idea to stop in and see the team and to have a chance to meet up with some old friends.
The area right around the train station was finally completed! There was no more walls or scaffolding up over the train station, and it looked great! It actually looks just like the illustrations they had put up years ago when they first started the redevelopment.
My trip to Toulouse was a long one. To take advantage of the cheapest costs, I flew on British Airways (not my preferred airline). The issue with that routing is that you get stuck with a long layover at Heathrow - about 5 hours. That much time in an airport is always a challenge. I managed to sleep a bit on the flight to London and while the layover sucked, I managed to keep myself entertained.
With the long layover, the flight from London to Toulouse ends up getting in quite late. I think it was after 11:00 p.m. by the time I got to the hotel in downtown Toulouse. So needless to say, I didn’t do anything that night. I did manage to get some sleep, which was good as I had an early start to the day on Tuesday.
A fairly typical street scene in Toulouse.
After a full day in the office on Tuesday, I went out for dinner with a few of the people from work. We met up at a cool bar near one of the Metro stations that was close to the restaurant that Johann had picked out. It was great to be back in Toulouse. It had been a good day in the office, catching up in person with people that I had not seen in a long time. We got some things done, but mainly it was good to revive the personal connections.
Dinner was also great. It was a smaller group of us (most people are busy with their families), but Johann has picked a cool place. From the outside it looked like a wine shop, but when you went inside it was very Tardis-like - bigger on the inside. Dinner was excellent, we had a great time catching up outside the office and we had a great night. I was fading pretty fast, so it was back to the hotel after dinner and off to bed!
Wednesday was another busy day in the office. There were a few more people that has not been there on Tuesday, so I got to see a few more people. We had another productive day, and the day flew by. Wednesday night I was meeting up with three old friends and former colleagues that are no longer at Semtech, and most I had not seen in years - probably since before COVID. While all of them had left to move onto other things we have kept in touch and I was touched that they made time in their busy lives to meet up and have dinner.
Dinner out with Francois, Fabienne and Sebastien!
Francois had picked a restaurant that was quite close to my hotel. It was a little up scale and the food was amazing. I finally broke down and tried cassoulet - a traditional dish from the area that I had been avoiding for years. It was a cold, misty night, so it seemed appropriate to finally give it a try.
We had a great time catching up - none of them had gotten together since leaving the company, so it seemed I was the catalyst for all of us to get together. It was a fun night. All of them seem happy with their new jobs and it was interesting to hear about the things they were working on.
The night flew by. But eventually we all had to go our own ways. I was fading and needed to get back to the hotel and get to bed. I was flying back to London and then back on to Mumbai in the morning.
Thursday morning I had a little bit of time before I had to head to the airport. I got up a bit early to go out for a walk around the city before I headed to the airport. Sadly it was still dark and it was rainy and misty. I wish i had had more time to explore and go back to some of the places I’ve enjoyed over the years. It’s unclear if I will get back there again, any time soon.
Before long, it was time to get back to the hotel and then on to the airport. I had a long trip ahead of me, and I will post an entry on my time in Pune, as soon as I can.