City breaks to Toulouse bring out a blush-coloured skyline, plus an old town that boasts pretty churches and ornate squares.
City breaks to Toulouse
Toulouse has a got a bit of a familiar feel about it. The bustling square of Capitole de Toulouse is giving Madrid and St Petersburg vibes, with views of the pink-stone Grand Palace and cafés lining its edges. There’s even a Japanese garden in the middle of the Compans-Caffarelli park, complete with a tea pavilion and a lake full of carp, turtles and frogs. And the city’s a stop on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, with the Basilica of Saint Sernin – part of one of its earliest routes – now considered one of the greatest churches in France and Toulouse’s second UNESCO World Heritage Site.
La Ville Rose
This is a city that seems to change colour as the day goes by – the rooftops shift in different lights from sunset orange to rosy pink. That’s where its nickname, La Ville Rose – the Pink City – came from. Its biggest draw is the mazy old quarter, which has Romanesque basilicas, archaeological museums, and the restaurant-laden Capitole neighbourhood up its sleeve. Riverside walks are easy to come by, thanks to the Garonne River scoring a squiggly line through the city centre.