Toulouse

Our Toulouse series takes you all over the ‘pink city’, starting with top sights like the Place du Capitole and the Saint Sernin Basilica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We also visit the riverside, the picturesque back streets and a whole variety of museums and galleries. There are also day trip ideas, along the Canal du Midi, to the popular medieval fortified town of Carcassonne and to the ancient city of Albi, home of the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.

The 9 episodes in our City Break Toulouse series bring you all the background history and culture you need to fully understand this lovely city. In short, here is all the research you’d do yourself if only you had the time.

Each episode centres around a podcast, available here or on all the usual providers. The blog posts here on the website include a summary of the main information, plus pictures, useful links and ideas for further reading. So, let’s go, or as the French put it On y va!

TOULOUSE : HISTORY & CULTURE

Useful websites for tourists
Toulouse Tourist Office
Haute-Garonne Tourism
Guide to Toulouse and the Pyrénées

Four useful guidebooks
The Rough Guide to Languedoc and Roussillon
Toulouse and the Haute Garonne by B G Preston
Toulouse Travel Guide by Aaron Ellis
Cycling the Canal du Midi by Declan Lyons

Travel Writing on Toulouse and surroundings
Floating through France by April Orcutt Life Between Locks on the canal du Midi
Notes from the Languedoc and Rouissillon by Rupert Wright
Virgile’s Vineyard, A Year in the Languedoc Wine Country by Patrick Moon
Arrazat’s Aubergines: Inside a Languedoc Kitchen by Patrick Moon
A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures by Mort Rosenbaum (only one chapter on Toulouse)

History and Biography
Toulouse-Lautrec – A Life by Julia Frey
The Lost Airman by Seth F Stevens A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
Kill them All by Sean McGlynn Cathars and Carnage in the Albigensian Crusade