Toulouse is called la ville rose because there was no building stone in the alluvial plain of the Garonne and there was a great deal of clay, so the city was built from fired brick. The colour changes through the day, orange at noon and genuinely pink at dusk, and it is the first thing anyone notices. It is the fourth largest city in France, it has the largest university population outside Paris, and it builds aircraft: Airbus assembles the A350 and the A320 here, and the city has been the centre of European aerospace since Latecoere started flying mail to Morocco in 1918.
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It is also the end of one canal and the start of another. The Canal du Midi runs from here to the Mediterranean, finished in 1681 and UNESCO listed, and it was one of the great engineering projects of the seventeenth century. Toulouse is the capital of Occitanie, the language of the troubadours was spoken here, and the city is closer to Barcelona than to Paris, which shows in the food, the temperature and the pace of the evening.
What Makes Toulouse Different to Pack For
It is hot, and hotter than most of France
Toulouse sits in a plain between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and gets weather from both. Summers run 28°C to 35°C with heat waves above 38°C, and the brick holds the heat into the evening. Winters are mild at 5°C to 12°C. Spring and autumn are the good seasons, and they are also the wettest.
A merino wool base layer for women is here for the cool evenings of spring and autumn, when a 24°C afternoon becomes a 10°C night on a terrace by the river.
The wind has two names and both matter
The vent d'autan blows from the southeast, dry and strong, often for days, and locals will tell you it makes everyone irritable. The Atlantic wind from the west brings the rain. Neither is the mistral but both will take a hat.
The centre is flat, brick paved and walkable
Almost everything is inside a bend of the Garonne and you can cross it on foot in half an hour. The brick paving is uneven and polishes to a shine in the wet.
A student city, so the rhythm is late
Term time fills the bars and the squares until well past midnight, and August empties the city almost completely as everyone leaves for the coast.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Toulouse Packing List
Footwear
Comfortable flat shoes with some grip, because the centre is brick and cobble, uneven underfoot and slick in rain. This is a walking city and you will do five or six kilometres a day without noticing.
For the Canal du Midi towpath by bicycle, or a day trip into the Pyrenean foothills at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges or the Ariege caves, waterproof hiking shoes are useful. The towpath is packed earth and turns to mud after rain.
Clothing
Light breathable clothing for summer, with a warm layer for spring and autumn evenings. A packable rain jacket, because the Atlantic side of the weather arrives quickly.
Covered shoulders and knees for the Basilique Saint-Sernin and the Couvent des Jacobins, both working religious buildings. Toulouse dresses neatly and casually, in the southern French manner, and the students keep it relaxed. One smarter outfit for dinner, because this is a serious eating city.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat, sunscreen and sunglasses. The Place du Capitole is a large unshaded brick square that becomes an oven in July, and the brick radiates heat back at you from every direction.
Practical
A refillable bottle, since there are public fountains. Cards work everywhere. A transport ticket for the metro and tram, which are cheap and cover the centre. Book restaurants at weekends. And note that many museums close on Mondays and many shops close for two hours at lunch.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Place du Capitole and the Capitole
The main square, enormous and entirely brick, with the eighteenth century Capitole along one side housing the city hall and the Salle des Illustres, a corridor of nineteenth century paintings of Toulouse history.
Practically: the Salle des Illustres is free to walk into during office hours and most visitors never realise it. Flat shoes, sun hat in summer. The square holds a market on Wednesdays and is the city's meeting point every evening.
Basilique Saint-Sernin
The largest surviving Romanesque church in Europe, built from the eleventh century as a stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago, with a five tier octagonal belltower and a crypt full of reliquaries.
Practically: shoulders and knees covered. The nave is long, cool and dim, which makes it a genuine relief in August. The crypt has a separate small charge. UNESCO listed as part of the Camino routes.
Couvent des Jacobins
A Dominican church in brick with a single row of columns down the middle, the last of which fans into twenty two ribs across the ceiling, known as the palm tree. Thomas Aquinas is buried under the altar.
Practically: shoulders and knees. Look up at the palm, which is the thing people come for. The cloister next door is quiet and green and worth the extra ticket.
The Garonne, the Pont Neuf and the Prairie des Filtres
The river through the middle, crossed by a sixteenth century bridge, with a long park on the left bank where the city sits out in the evening.
Practically: the sunset view back at the Hotel-Dieu and the dome of La Grave from the Pont Neuf is the city's picture. The Prairie fills with people, picnics and guitars on summer evenings, which is pleasant and entirely safe. Do not swim in the Garonne, which has currents and cold water.
The Canal du Midi
The canal starts at the Port de l'Embouchure and runs 240 kilometres to the Mediterranean, lined with plane trees, locks and towpath.
Practically: hire a bicycle and ride out as far as you like, then take the train back from Castelnaudary or Carcassonne. The plane trees have been hit hard by canker stain and many have been felled, so the shade is patchier than photographs suggest. Sun protection and water.
Aeroscopia and the Airbus tour
An aviation museum at Blagnac with a Concorde and an A300, next to the Airbus assembly lines, which can be toured with advance booking.
Practically: the Airbus factory tour requires booking well ahead and photo ID, and non-EU visitors need to supply passport details in advance. Tram T1 from the centre. Flat shoes, and a layer, because the hangars are cold.
Eating, and the violets
Cassoulet, saucisse de Toulouse, duck in every form, and Fronton wine from just north. The Marche Victor Hugo is a covered market with restaurants on the floor above, which is where to eat lunch.
Practically: the market restaurants serve from noon and stop around two, and they are busy, loud and excellent. Toulouse also candies violets, which are sold as sweets and in liqueur, and the violet season is roughly February.
What Not to Bring
Leave heels for brick paving. Leave the assumption that southern France means Mediterranean, because Toulouse is a river city with Atlantic rain.
Leave an August visit if you want the city alive rather than shuttered. Leave a heavy coat, since winter here is mild. And leave a plan that depends on museums on a Monday.
Essential Resources for Women in Toulouse
Emergency numbers in France: 112 is the European emergency number and works for everything. 15 reaches the SAMU medical service, 17 the police, 18 the fire service.
Tourist support: France has no dedicated tourist police force. A theft requires a plainte filed at a commissariat, which can be pre-registered through the pre-plainte-en-ligne service, and you need the report for insurance and for a replacement passport.
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Paris at fr.usembassy.gov covers France, with the Consulate General in Marseille and a consular agency in Bordeaux being the nearest posts to Toulouse. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the CHU de Toulouse runs Purpan and Rangueil, both large teaching hospitals with 24 hour urgences, and the network is one of the strongest in France outside Paris. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance.
Official health authority: Sante publique France at santepubliquefrance.fr, with Meteo France for the summer heat wave alerts, which this city gets regularly, and for the vent d'autan wind warnings.
US State Department travel advisory for France: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for France: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the national terrorism threat level and the advice on demonstrations, which affect French cities periodically and Toulouse as much as any.
Official tourism authority: Atout France at france.fr, with Toulouse Tourisme for the Airbus tour booking, the Pass Tourisme and the market days.
Solo women safety assessment: Toulouse is a comfortable and easy city for a woman travelling alone. It is prosperous, young and busy, the centre is compact and flat, the metro and tram run late and are clean, and the enormous student population means the streets and squares are occupied until well past midnight rather than empty. Violent crime against visitors is rare. Petty theft is the practical risk and it follows the standard French city pattern: pickpocketing on the metro line A, around Matabiau station, in the Place du Capitole crowds and at the Victor Hugo market, plus phone snatching on terraces. Keep a bag zipped and in front of you and nothing in a back pocket. By day the whole centre is fine. In the evening the Place Saint-Pierre, Saint-Georges, Carmes and the Capitole are all busy and comfortable, and the student drinking around Saint-Pierre is loud rather than threatening. The area immediately around Matabiau station and the Boulevard de Strasbourg is scruffier after dark with some drug dealing, and the Bagatelle and Mirail districts on the western edge have a rough reputation and nothing for a visitor; a tram or a taxi covers both. Street harassment exists and is the ordinary southern French version, mostly verbal on terraces and outside bars, and walking on without engaging ends it. Drink spiking is the standard bar caution in a student city. The genuine physical risks are small and worth knowing: summer heat in a brick city that holds it overnight, which causes more visitor trouble here than crime does, so carry water and use the cool churches in the afternoon; wet brick paving, which is slippery; and the Garonne, which looks calm and has currents and cold water, so it is not a swimming river. Cycling is well provided for but the drivers are southern and assertive.
Reading On
Toulouse is an hour from the Pyrenees, two from the Mediterranean and four from Paris by TGV, and it is the least touristed big city in France. The France travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the France packing list for women covers a trip across it. West, the Bordeaux packing list for women and the Dordogne packing list for women cover the Atlantic side. East, the Provence packing list for women, the Marseille packing list for women and the Nice packing list for women run along the Mediterranean, with the Corsica packing list for women offshore. North, the Lyon packing list for women, the Loire Valley packing list for women, the Reims packing list for women, the Strasbourg packing list for women and the Paris packing list for women cover the rest. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why a thin wool layer suits a city that is 32°C at six and 12°C at midnight, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
