TOULOUSE – GASTRONOMY and WINE
A 3 day/2 night cultural break for corporate groups.
Base: Toulouse
Accommodation: central hotel
Activities:
gastronomy – French cuisine course with top chef
wine chateau visit with tasting
market visits accompanied by chef
discovery of a thriving French city
Extras: possibility of Airbus plant visit, Michelin-star restaurant, seminar/meeting facilities
Access: direct flights into Toulouse airport (20 mins hotel) from London. Dublin and most UK cities
Toulouse is only 90 minutes from Gatwick but presents visitors with a very French experience: chances are that participants will not have visited the town previously and know very little about it.
Apart from being the HQ to Airbus industries, maker of the jet airliners, Toulouse is regional capital of the greater south-west of France, an area renowned for its relaxed living, excellent cuisine and wines and mild climate. Toulouse is regularly voted 'Most desirable place to live' in French polls.
Our gastronomy and wine programme is, therefore, an opportunity for corporate visitors to learn more about French cuisine, wine-making methods and a city which has a lot to offer.
The programme goes something like this:
Participants fly into Toulouse airport (the commercial airport is 'shared' with Airbus which tests its planes from the same runways) and get their first sighting of the A380 and a couple of retired Concordes. The city-centre hotel is a 20 minute transfer, giving time to settle in and explore the immediate surroundings. Dinner at a typical 'small' restaurant with local duck-based dishes and regional wines.
French cuisine is the theme of the day and it begins early with a visit to the food market in company of an english-speaking chef. He then takes the food and the group (all this on foot) to his kitchen where the group will learn how to transform the ingredients into a presentable dish. Lunch is the morning's production with a few locally produced wines. The afternoon is spent tracking down these wines in the Gaillac AOC vineyards with an oenology lesson and more tasting involved.
Dinner at another restaurant rounds off the day.
The final day can be devoted to exploring the mediaeval core of Toulouse – the 16th century townhouses, the Jacobin and Augustin monastries and cloisters, the Romanesque churches and leafy squares ... or to continuing with the cuisine theme and exlploring the many other food and flea markets that abound.
Return flight in late afternoon.
The basic 3 day/2 night formula can be extended by a night or two to give extra time for visits to other local vineyards (Corbières, Minervois, Fronton, Madiran, etc) or to more cooking lessons.
All enquiries and reservations to:
+33 561 120 794
Toulouse - gastronomy
