About 80 kilometers from the picturesque town of Montréal in Lauragais, Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France. Numerous magnificent buildings and sights make Toulouse with its famous Canal du Midi and the Garonne a great excursion destination. Beautiful green spaces, excellent shopping facilities and cozy cafés and restaurants await visitors to the capital of the Occitan region, surrounded by an idyllic landscape.
Sightseeing in Toulouse
Toulouse, important trading city in the Middle Ages, has many magnificent buildings that once served as residential palaces and radiates a cosmopolitan flair with its many students and employees of international corporations. Also known as the “ville rose” (red city) because of its numerous red brick houses, the southern French metropolis is home to many sights best explored from the central Place du Capitol. The artfully decorated Romanesque basilica of Saint-Sernin is an important pilgrimage center located on one of the four Way of St James in France and a landmark of Toulouse. In addition to other magnificent churches, a trip to Toulouse should include the Capitol, now used as a town hall and theatre, and the Gothic Jacobin monastery with its 13th century cloister. Noble Renaissance patrician houses and interesting museums, such as the Museé des Augustins are in the former Augustinian monastery. Here you can see masterful paintings by French painters from the Middle Ages to the 20th century during a city tour in Toulouse.
Nature Enjoyment And Leisure Fun
Toulouse does not only have a lot to offer for people interested in art and culture. The Jardin Japonais, a Japanese garden with small ponds, a tea pavilion and colourful flowers, offers the finest enjoyment of nature. Families with children love a walk in the Jardin des Plantes, the city's largest park with several playgrounds. A boat trip on the Garonne or the famous Canal du Midi, a UNESCO World Heritage, which connects the city with the Mediterranean Sea, rounds off every trip to Toulouse successfully. The shores of the two waters are also ideal for leisurely cycling tours, with beautiful views of the idyllic surrounding countryside. An interesting family excursion destination in Toulouse is the Cité de l'Espace theme park: various exhibitions, a planetarium and a walk-in replica of the MIR space station guarantee exciting impressions of space and space travel.
Culinary and shopping delights
In Toulouse you can find many cozy cafés and restaurants, many of them in the old town and on the banks of the Garonne and Canal du Midi. You must definitely try the cassoulet, a stew with white beans and meat, and the desserts decorated with violettes de Toulouse. The masterful chocolatiers and delicatessens around the Marché Victor Hugo are also worth a visit for culinary enthusiasts visiting Toulouse. The many small and medium-sized shops in the pedestrian zone around the Rue Saint-Rome offer a variety of shopping pleasures.
With so many cultural highlights, the dream location on the waterfront of Garonne and Canal du Midi and a friendly and cosmopolitan charm, Toulouse is always worth a visit. Get to know this lively city on a trip from Montréal and spend a wonderful day here.
