Saint-Gaudens

Introduction

Saint-Gaudens is a city in the French department of Haute-Garonne in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the south of France. It is part of the arrondissement with the same name and the city itself has about 12,000 inhabitants. Saint-Gaudens is also a town renowned for its rich culture and heritage. The Jean Marmignon theatre is the centre for performing arts, the national street performance centre is famous for street plays and the Saint-Jacques chapel hosts numerous contemporary art exhibitions

Its beautiful location and fine weather make this place and region a great destination for a holiday. The city itself is an ancient fortified town with medieval walls surrouding it. The fortifications and the cobbled streets inside are great fun exploring.
For more information on what to do and see, check the official Tourism Saint-Gaudens website.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• Fortification walls/ramparts
• Old cobbled streets
• Saint-Gaudens Municipal Musem
• Chapelle Saint-Jacques - Art Gallery
• Jean Marmignon's Theatre
• Arts-and-Crafts and Farm Produce

There is good hiking, mountainbiking, horseriding and fishing in the region around Saint-Gaudens.

Events and Festivals

In the month of May, Rencontres du Saxophone (Encounters with a Saxophone) is held in honour of the famous saxophone player Guy Lafitte, who was a native of the town.

The Comminges Exhibitions Hall that stages various fairs and exhibitions also hosts the ‘Pyreneennes’, the largest agricultural exhibition in the Pyrenees. This is usually held once in every three years in the month of September and attracts more than 40,000 visitors.

From July to September 2009 there is a photo expo about the Pyrenees Mountains.

Weather

Like most of the central southern region of France, the climate is perfect with generally warm, dry and sunny summers from June to September when temperatures frequently hit 30 °C or more. Nights are pleasantly warm. Winters last from December to March, when it is generally well above 0 °C (even at night) but sometimes frost or snow are possible. Temperatures during the day are around 10 °C.

Getting There

By Plane

The airports of Toulouse, Carcasonne, Pau and Perpignan are within an hour or maybe two. Lowcost airlines like Ryanair fly to Pau and Carcasonne, while more airlines serve Toulouse from countries in the south and west of Europe.

By Train

SNCF offers trains to and from Toulouse, about an hour away. Toulouse itself is served by TGV (highspeed) trains.

By Car

Saint-Gaudens is just south of the main highway that runs between Lourdes and Toulouse.

By Bus

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Saint-Gaudens offers plenty of good restaurants to the tourists, in which they can get a feel of the town, enjoy a glass of wine and also try the local specialties. These restaurants cater to the needs of both the budget and luxury traveler. One of the better known of these establishments is the Le Cork Pub which has a lot of local dishes on the menu. You can try the fillet steak with an apricot sauce, which combines the sweet and savory flavors, so typical of the southern France region.

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

La Poste in France is also referred to as the PTT (short for postes, télégraphes et téléphones). The mailboxes are painted bright yellow and often there is a slot for local city mail and another slot for "outside mail". Normally there is a queue in the post office, but most of the post offices have the self service machine installed which is quite easy to operate. Nowadays many of the tabac and even some of the souvenir shops also sell postage stamps. Normally an overseas postcard costs almost as much as sending a letter.
Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday, and 8:00am to noon on Saturdays. Apart from the basic job of mailing letters, most of the post offices do some banking activities also and some even have photocopy machines and cyber cafes for internet access.