This square takes its name from the Director of the Société des Transports en Commun de la Région Toulouse (STCRT), promoter of the tramway including the Toulouse-Colomiers line inaugurated in 1913. It had its terminus at the bottom of rue de l’Eglise. Jeanine and Robert Sautel remember the good times in the 50s and 60s: “There were a lot of shops and entertainment. We went to the Grand Café Terminus. What folklore! This shop served as coffee, tobacco, pastries and even cinema set up in an adjoining room… we all knew each other, there was something to laugh about!” Unfortunately, the Grand Café Terminus, located where the Childhood House parking lot currently stands, suddenly collapsed one night in 1965. Robert’s uncles, aunts and cousins, having heard sinister cracking sounds, just had time to escape before the total collapse”*. Subsequently, the Sautel family managed the restaurant Le Vieux Logis, today replaced by the residence of the same name.
“The first house at the bottom of rue du Fort was occupied by a Spanish woman, Pepita prepared toast there for the children’s snack.”. Jeanine lists the other businesses in the neighborhood: “bakery, butcher, grocery store, haberdashery and later the Belou hotel, the Francino hardware store. There was even a small leather suitcase factory, the Louge factory on the site of the ‘current parking lot (between Rivals and de l’Eglise streets)’. A few anecdotes come to mind: “Mélanie, the famous cashier, systematically replaced the tram cane between arrival and departure from the terminus.” It also happened that the tram did not manage to go up the hill, so the users went up on foot to the Place de la Bascule where it was waiting for them…”.
Yes, today the place has three traders: the pastry chef and chocolatier Alexandre Zanghieri, the hairdresser Sèverine Lasserre and the pizza maker Valentino’s; tomorrow it should find a more user-friendly layout thanks to the upcoming renovation work on rue Gilet and its adjoining roads which will give greater emphasis to soft mobility.
2024-03-10 05:48:38
#History #anecdotes #Place #FirminPons
