Toulouse 2026 : Gael’s view (Day 0)

Hello everybody, I am Gael Audoye from Toulouse, and I am the local correspondent for this 14th USK Symposium in Toulouse. Nice to meet you !

I arrived at “Baudis”, the convention center around 14:00 and met the team and some of the volunteers. there were a lot of new faces and new names, but a lot of friends as well. After getting my badge and everything, I started sketchin’ the volunteers making the goody bags. And what an organization, they filled 850 bags ! But as soon as I started sketching, they finished and I had to hurry up and improvise.

14:53 Gwendalys and Vincent preparing stamps, 14:52 Volunteers finished the goody bags

When everything was put away, Amélie, the volunteer coordinator, freed them all.

(Around 15:00) Portrait of Amélie, the volunteer coordinator and cappuccino expert

So I left as well and found my volunteer friends Anthony and Geoffrey at the bar “La Jarretière”, where Anthony has a sketch exhibition (which is worth a look btw). Some other sketchers joined so, of course, it turned into a drink and draw session. It was cool, I met a lot of new people.

18:46 At Anthony’s expo at “La Jarretière”

(Pardon my french on the drawing I forgot I’m suppose to wright in English for a moment)

20:09 Still at the bar (didn’t have time for colors)

After a quick dinner I left to go welcome my correspondent colleagues, Raul and Ivan. We met at the Mercure hotel. A lot of the USK crew were there as well. There was also a big TV with the Final Cup football match. France loosed against Spain, but I’m not interested in football so whatever.

To conclude, everyone is super-nice, and I feel like I got the best job so I am really happy to be there and I can’t wait to really start tomorrow morning. But right now it is 02:39 and it’s still 29° so I’ll take a cold shower and go to bed ! See y’all tomorrow !

Gael