City of Toulouse
Toulouse is capital of Haute-Garonne in the Occitanie region. According to the rankings of L’Express and Challenges, Toulouse is the most dynamic French city. The city’s unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks has earned Toulouse the nickname La Ville Rose (“The Pink City”).
Basic tourist information
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Toulouse counts three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Canal du Midi, and the Basilica of St. Sernin (map), the largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998 along with the former hospital Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques (map) because of their significance to the *Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route.
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Toulouse is a big city, but the historical centre is quite small, and mostly pedestrianised. You can walk to most attractions. The old centre of Toulouse is east of the River Garonne: it’s compact and most places of interest can easily be visited on foot. It’s bounded to the east & north by Bvd Lazare Carnot (map) / Bvd de Strasbourg (map), and to the south by the cathedral, rue Metz (map) and Pont Neuf (map).
Le Château d’Eau (map), an old 19th-century water-tower, was converted as a gallery in 1974 by Jean Dieuzaide, a French photographer from Toulouse and is now one of the oldest public places dedicated to photography in the world.
Basilica of Saint-Sernin (map). It is considered the largest remaining Romanesque church in Europe. With more than two hundred relics (including six apostles), many of which were donated by Charlemagne to the shrine that preceded the present church, Saint-Sernin is the church with the most relics after Saint Peter of Rome (map).
Cathedral of Saint-Etienne (map) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse. Its construction, which was mainly done at the beginning and then at the end of the 13th century, reflects the history of this decisive century which saw the city lose its independence to become a French city.
Convent of the Jacobins (13th century / early 14th century, map) was the Dominican convent of Toulouse and is considered to be, together with the Albi Cathedral, the pinnacle of Southern French Gothic architecture.
Musée des Augustins (map) is the fine arts museum of Toulouse, it is located in the former Augustinian convent.
Bemberg Foundation (map), housed in the Hôtel d’Assézat, presents to the public one of the major private collections of art in Europe.
Musée Saint-Raymond (map) is the archeological museum of Toulouse, located in a former college of the university it presents the ancient history of Toulouse and a very rich collection of Roman sculptures from the imperial Roman villa of Chiragan.
Muséum de Toulouse (map) is one of the most important natural history museums in France, housed in the former convent of the Discalced Carmelites.
The areas around Place du Capitole (map), Rue de Bayard (map) and Place St Georges (map) are lined with cafes and restaurants. The restaurants generally open for dinner around 19:00.
There’s a flea market every Saturday morning in just outside of the Basilique Saint Sernin. While it does not offer anything too special as flea markets go it’s a great way to mingle with a local crowd. Another flea market is held every first weekend of the month at the Allées François Verdier (map), at the Grand Rond (map).
Also сheck оut мore info about Toulouse: Wikipedia • Wikivoyage
Must to See & Do
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Regions & Cities of France
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The *French Riviera (Côte d’Azur, map), in southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region. Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice (map), Antibes (map) and Cannes (map); Cap Ferrat (map) is also a popular destination.
Provence – numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon (map), the Camargue (map), the Calanques National Park (map) and the typical landscape of *Luberon.
Loire Valley – This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise (map), Angers (map), Blois (map), *Chinon (map), *Orléans (map), and Saumur (map) >> +*Châteaux of the Loire Valley)
French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (map) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions. Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble (map), Chamonix (map), Annecy (map) is called “the Venice of Savoie”, Chambéry (map), Évian-les-Bains (map) and Albertville (map).
Corsica – is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (cities *Ajaccio and *Bastia) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse, map).
Aix-en-Provence
Ajaccio
Albi
Amboise
Amiens
Angers
Angoulême
Arles
Arras
Aurillac
Autun
Auxerre
Avallon
Avignon
Bayeux
Bayonne
Beaune
Beauvais
Besançon
Béziers
Biarritz
Blois
Bordeaux
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Bourges
Brest
Caen
Calais
Cannes
Carcassonne
Chablis
Châlons-en-Champagne
Chambéry
Chamonix
Chantilly
Chartres
Château Gontier
Cherbourg-en-Cotentin
Chinon
Clermont-Ferrand
Colmar
Dieppe
Dijon
Douai
Dunkirk
Eguisheim
Épernay
Épinal
Fontainebleau
Fontenay-Le-Comte
Grenoble
Honfleur
Kaysersberg
La Baule
La Rochelle
Laon
Le Havre
Le Mans
Le Touquet
Lens
Les Sables d’Olonne
Lille
Limoges
Lorient
Lyon
Mâcon
Marseille
Mayenne
Meaux
Metz
Migennes
Montpellier
Montreuil
Mulhouse
Nancy
Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne
Nantes
Narbonne
Neuf-Brisach
Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Nevers
Nice
Nîmes
Orléans
Paray-le-Monial
Paris
Périgueux
Perpignan
Poitiers
Provins
Quiberon
Quimper
Reims
Rennes
Ribeauvillé
Riquewihr
Rouen
Saint-Brieuc
Saint-Claude
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Malo
Saint-Nazaire
Samoëns
Saulieu
Saumur
Sélestat
Semur-en-Auxois
Sens
Strasbourg
Toulon
Toulouse
Troyes
Vannes
Verdun
Versailles
Vézelay
Vitré
Vittel
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes / adm. center Lyon
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté / adm. center Dijon, Besançon
Brittany / adm. center Rennes
Centre-Val de Loire / adm. center Orléans
Corsica / adm. center Ajaccio
Île-de-France / adm. center Paris
Normandy / adm. center Caen, Rouen
Nouvelle-Aquitaine / adm. center Bordeaux
Occitanie / adm. center Toulouse
Pays de la Loire / adm. center Nantes
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / adm. center Marseille
Alsace / adm. center Strasbourg
Champagne-Ardenne / Châlons-en-Champagne
Lorraine / adm. center Metz
Hauts-de-France
Nord-Pas-de-Calais / adm. center Lille
Picardy / adm. center Amiens
For the most up-to-date information, see the official tourist resources.
Transport around Toulouse
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TISSEO – The bus, tram and metro lines.
⇒ Public transport (parisinfo.com) • Getting to France (uk.france.fr)
sobus.travel — sells bus tickets for all the bus companies.
The Noctilien (Map of Noctilien) is a night bus service that operates in Paris and the Paris region from 12.30am to 5.30am. Ouibus • Isilines • FlixBus • Eurolines • Megabus >> (*Intercity buses in France)
Trains are a great way to get around in France. For regional trains, schedules can be found at ter.sncf.com. You can get from pretty much anywhere to anywhere else by train.
For long distances, use the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, or High-speed train) on which reservations are obligatory. TGV • Thello • Ouigo. + RailEurope • Eurostar • Thalys • izy (Paris-Brussels) • TGV Lyria (Switzerland) • DB (Germany) • RENFE (Barcelona) >> *Rail travel in France
Several weekends throughout the year in France are known as ‘Black Saturday’ (Samedi noir) because of the start or end of school holidays and the coinciding traffic jams on French roads caused by thousands of tourists travelling to and from their holiday destinations. When possible it is wise to avoid these days. For traffic reports, see the website of the French traffic service.
⇒ Driving in France (wikivoyage)
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Brittany Ferries • P&O Ferries • DFDS Seaways
England ⇔ France:
- P&O Ferries – operate freight and passenger services from Dover to Calais.
- DFDS Seaways – operate freight and passenger services from Dover to Dunkirk.
- LD Lines – operate freight and passenger services from Portsmouth to Le Havre.
- Brittany Ferries – operate freight and passenger services from Portsmouth to Caen, Cherbourg, andSt Malo, from Poole to Cherbourg and from Plymouth to Roscoff.
- Condor Ferries – operate freight and passenger services from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, Poole to St Malo and Weymouth to St Malo.
Ireland ⇔ France:
- Brittany Ferries – operate ferry services from Cork to Roscoff.
- Celtic Link Ferries – operate ferry services from Rosslare to Cherbourg.
- Irish Ferries – operate ferry services from Rosslare to Cherbourg and from Rosslare to Roscoff.
Video source: Office de Tourisme de Toulouse
Haute-Garonne (wikivoyage)
Occitanie (wikivoyage)
Tourism in France (wiki)
List of museums (wiki)
List of World Heritage Sites in France (wiki)
List of castles (wiki)
List of cathedrals (wiki)
Centre des monuments nationaux. (wiki)
List of national parks (wiki)
Regional nature parks (wiki)
List of spa towns (wiki)
Culture (wiki)
French cuisine (wiki)
French Alps (wikivoyage)
Links to additional resources with useful information for planning your trip.