the essential
Urban exploration fans entered the Hyperloop TT site, based at Toulouse-Francazal, a few days ago. They photographed these installations which seem abandoned.
You only have to take a look at the Instagram account of Florian, alias Flo la Friche, to understand that we are dealing with a specialist in Urbex, this practice which consists of exploring abandoned places. Chapels, castles, houses, cars, hospitals… This 30-year-old loves to visit the most unusual and least known sites in Occitania. Illegally, of course, but always with respect, since he is content to take photos and does not touch anything on the premises.
In the case of the former military air base of Francazal, it is more precisely an “infiltration”, because the site is still under surveillance. And therefore a special case for this Urbex pro, who has been practicing for several years. “It’s atypical as an exploration,” he confirms. It’s not what we’re used to doing. It is a sensitive, hidden project. A huge and a little weird place, where you don’t really know what’s going on. It was quite impressive to go there. »
The capsule of the “train of the future”.
A hole in the fence
Florian went there a first time alone, and another time accompanied by a companion. After doing some Google scouting, he arrived on the scene after dark and spotted a hole in a wire fence. This is how he entered this huge property in Toulouse Métropole, binoculars in hand, to take a tour of the premises. The presence of a guard did not slow him down. “At the beginning, I was hiding, but when I saw that they let me do it, I made my life,” he says.
The tube 320 meters long.
And he was thus able to visit for hours the installations of the base and especially the equipment of Hyperloop TT: the capsule supposed to move up to 1,000 km / h and the long tube 320 meters long. Both are empty and seem abandoned. “The capsule is like an airplane without wings, with a very long nose. I saw her from afar. It’s a beautiful jewel, which we leave in the rain. It’s quite amazing to leave such technology abandoned, continues Florian. For the moment, few people are aware that it can be accessed so easily, but it will not last. There are risks of damage of all kinds in the future. »
