The locals fondly nicknamed Cité de L’eSpace as Space City. Space City, located on the eastern outskirts of Toulouse, is a scientific discovery centre in France which focused on space flights.
Journey Contemplation
We were in Fatima, Portugal before landing ourselves here in Toulouse. The travelling time from Fatima to Toulouse by bus is approximately 11 hours. Considering that we are intending a day at Space City, it will be too exhausting to do it immediately after an 11-hour travel. Therefore, we decided to go directly to Lourdes and making the market-town our base.
After spending a restful night in Lourdes, we made a trip to Toulouse, while making Lourdes our base. It was much easier as most accommodations allow check-in from 14:00hrs or later.
Cité de L’espace
Cité de Le’space focuses on Space flights, astronauts, stars, comets, within and beyond our solar system and how cosmic events can impact mankind on earth.
Full scale models of space crafts
Spread across 3.5 hectares of Park area, there is approximately 2,000m2 of exhibition space.
Full-scale models of the Ariane 5 rocket (55m), Mir space station and Apollo Lunar Module replica can be seen in the museum.
On the left is the Ariane 5 rocket and the Apollo Lunar Module replica at The Kids Cité.
Studies have led that life can be sustained in some planets somewhat similar to the earth’s atmosphere. However, it has not yet been ruled that life will be the same as earth.
LuneXplorer
The LuneXplorer is one of the most popular interactive activity. The queue time can take up to an hour in the Gardens to enter into the indoor museum.
The LuneXplorer can take up to 40 people at one time. Though it is accessible to people with disabilities, there are health warnings especially to pregnant women, those who recently had surgery or individuals who are suffering from heart problems and so on. The acceleration of 2Gs can create crushing sensation that would cause dizziness.
Participants will experience being an astronaut on a mission to the moon. Before embarking on the mission, visitors will attend Preparation and Briefing before buckling up when onboard a capsule. Each capsule takes up to 4 individuals. Once blast off, participants will experience phases of acceleration, deceleration up to 2Gs. Like astronauts, participants will carry out operations during the journey. Once mission is over, participants will be debriefed on their flight and mission.
That was a very interesting activity even though at some stages, I experienced the 2Gs and felt dizzy. The graphics were amazing and so beautiful that I could not keep my eyes off the screen.
Of course in every activity, there are safety measures which Cité de Le’space in due diligence will publicise so that those participating or intending to participate will be aware of dos, don’ts and exclusions.
Tip: For those planning their trip to Cité de Le’space, click here to plan ahead.
The Avenue of Infinite
The Avenue of Infinite is a passive activity featuring satellite images of our earth taken using different power of telescope, then images of our stars, nebulas and the universe more than thousands of light years away.
Not everyone has a telescope and not everyone has seen the stars through telescope. The Avenue of Infinite highlights that there are possibilities that this universe could just be a series of stars within a much larger universe millions of light years away.
How to get there
- From Toulouse Matabiau, walk 3 mins to get to Marengo SNCF.
- Take Metro A from Marengo to Jolimont (1 stop).
- Exit Metro at Jolimont bus stop exit. At bus stop take bus 37 for Ramonville.
- Alight Cite de L’Space and cross the road for Space city.
To get back to Toulouse Matabiau is just the reverse.
Information
- On Fridays, opening from 10:00hrs to 17:00hrs
- All other days, opening from 10:00hrs to 18:00hrs.
- Opening hours depends on season of the year.
- Entrance fees for 1 day – Euro39,00. Fees varies for those in the EU residents.
For all updates, click here for Cité de l’espace Official website.
