Stage city: for the 28th time
Prefecture: of Haute-Garonne
Population: 505,000 (Toulousains), 818,500 for the 37 communes of Toulouse Métropole
Personalities: Claude Nougaro, Zebda, Juliette, Groupe Image, Bigflo et Oli (singers). Stade Toulousain rugby players in the French national team: Vincent Clerc, Cédric Heymans, Clément Poitrenaud, Fabien Pelous, Frédéric Michalak. Cyclists: Anthony Perez, Quentin Pacher, Didier Rous.
Specialities: foie gras, cassoulet, Toulouse sausage. Violet (flower, candy, perfume). 5 Michelin-starred restaurants.
Sport: 85,000 members, 500 sports clubs: Stade Toulousain rugby à XV (23 French championship titles, 6 in the European Cup), Toulouse Football Club (L1), Fenix Toulouse Handball (Division 1), Spacer's Toulouse (Ligue A volleyball), Toulouse Olympique XIII (rugby à XIII), Dauphins du TOEC (swimming), Aviron toulousain. 11 medals won by Toulouse Métropole athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and 8 at the Paralympic Games. Events: Vélo Tour (April), FilVvert (mountain bike tour, June), Toulouse plages (July-August, 350,000 visitors), Toulouse Métropole Marathon (October). Cycling clubs: Aware, Stade Toulousain cyclisme, Team Campilaro, Toulouse Olympique Aérospatiale Club.
By bike: 829 km of cycle paths in the metropolitan area. More than 15,400 on-street cycle parking spaces, 15 car parks with secure cycle parking facilities. Nearly 1,200 spaces in stations and park-and-ride facilities and 400 cycle stations in Toulouse (3,300 self-service bicycles, 50% of which are electrically assisted).
Economy: Aerospace (10,000 jobs), electronics, biotechnology, IT, telecommunications. Airbus (civil and military aeronautics and space), ATR (aeronautics, regional transport aircraft), Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (research and development centre for travel of the future), Météo-France national centre. 163 R&D centres, 200 start-ups, 3,000 ICT companies. France's second-largest student city (over 110,000 students). Tourism (5 million visitors a year)
Festivals: Printemps du Rire (April), Rio Loco (music, June), Toulouse les orgues (October), Siestes électroniques (June)
Labels: Active and Sporting City (2018) / European Capital of Science in 2018 / Lonely Planet guide to the world's top city to visit in 2025 / City of Music awarded by UNESCO
Websites / social networks: www.toulouse.fr / www.toulouse-tourisme.com / www.toulouse-metropole.fr / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / #TDFToulouse
TOULOUSE AND CYCLING
The Tour never passes very far from Toulouse and when it doesn't pass directly through the city, as it did for the last time in 2019, when Caleb Ewan won his first stage in the race, it is very close by. It has landed twice in Blagnac, on the site of the town's airport, in 2012 and 2017. Or in Cugnaux in 2011, in Muret in 2015 and in 2021 or in Cazères in 2020, three towns located in the urban area of the pink city. 2008 was the year of the revelation of Mark Cavendish, who won in Toulouse the second of his 35 stage victories. The man from Man had opened his account three days earlier in Châteauroux. It's true that the terrain is ideal for sprinters, and it's hardly surprising to find the names of Rik Van Steenbergen, André Darrigade and Jacques Esclassan among the stage winners near the Capitole. But it was also here that the most prestigious of the stage winners in Toulouse, Gino Bartali, won a sprint in 1948. Although it featured on the map of the inaugural Tour in 1903, the city was ignored by the race for thirty years from 1909 onwards. Henri Desgrange had been bored to death during the stage won by Jean Alavoine in 1909 and had decided to take a trip to the Pyrenees in the near future to spice up the proceedings! There are countless riders born in Toulouse, but the best known are undoubtedly Jean-Christophe Péraud, second in the 2014 Tour, and Frédéric Moncassin, winner of two stages in 1996. Sylvain Marcailllou, 5th in the 1937 Tour, as well as Christian Chaubet and Robert Forest in the 1980s, have also represented Toulouse on the roads of the Tour. In the current peloton, Toulouse's Anthony Perez made his Tour debut in 2018.
SIGHTS
The Capitole
Construction : 1190, 18th and 20th centuries.
History and features : Toulouse doesn't have a town hall, but a majestic Capitole. An emblematic building, it houses the town hall, a theatre and ceremonial rooms where the city's celebrities meet. The seat of municipal power since its construction, decided by the Capitouls in the 12th century, the Capitole has been transformed and embellished with each passing era, and its majestic neoclassical facade stands on the unmissable Place du Capitole.
Its walls recount the great moments in Toulouse's history: from the Cathar episode to the creation of the Floral Games, from the Counts of Toulouse to the siege of the city.
Upstairs, you will pass through magnificent reception rooms, decorated with allegories of love by Paul Gervais and 10 giant canvases by Henri Martin, including the Salle des Illustres, whose paintings retrace the history of Toulouse and whose busts bring to life the personalities who have left their mark on the city.
Listed as : Historical Monument in 1840, 1911 and 1995.
Saint-Sernin Basilica
Construction : 11th century.
Style : Romanesque.
History and features : this 11th-century brick and stone basilica is no less than one of the largest Romanesque buildings in the West. A former stopover on the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. Beneath its octagonal bell tower lies a huge 21-m-high vaulted nave and a crypt containing numerous relics. These include those of Saint Sernin, the 3rd-century martyr bishop after whom the basilica is named. You can also admire the enamelled reliquary of the True Cross, in the shape of a sarcophagus. The richly decorated transepts feature moving medieval frescoes. The basilica and its immediate surroundings are the subject of a vast renovation project known as the Grand Saint-Sernin.
Listed as : Historical Monument in 1840. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 as part of the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela.
Jacobins Convent
Construction : 13th and 14th centuries.
Style : Gothic.
History : the convent was built in four phases on land acquired in 1229 on the northern part of the old Roman rampart, with money donated by a wealthy capitoul, Pons de Capdenier. The first building campaign began in 1230 and involved the construction of a rectangular church in keeping with the ideal of poverty that characterised the Mendicants. The second enlargement campaign lasted from 1245 to 1252 and extended the church to the east, where a new chancel was built with funerary chapels. The third campaign (from 1275 to 1315) was particularly important, giving the church an apse with Gothic rib vaults rising to 28 metres, supported by three columns erected on the east-west axis of the existing pillars. From the top of the eastern column, 22 ribs form a gigantic mineral palm tree with geometric branches. The bell tower was completed in 1298 and houses the University bell. Its 45-metre-high tower supports an octagonal spire that was destroyed during the French Revolution. The last building campaign dates from the 14th century and removed the contrast between the palm tree of the apse and the timbered nave.
Characteristics : the remarkable feature that will surprise visitors is the unique palm-shaped vault. The church, with its painted double nave and superb stained-glass windows, has also housed the relics of Saint Thomas Aquinas since 1369. As for the convent cloister, an island of tranquillity in the city, it regularly hosts concerts and exhibitions. This jewel of southern Gothic art was founded in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Dominican order.
Listed as : Historic Monument in 1840.
Canal du Midi
Characteristics : Several canals cross the town: the Canal du Midi, the Canal de Brienne and the Canal Latéral à la Garonne. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Canal du Midi links Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea. Built under the reign of Louis XIV by Pierre-Paul Riquet and supplemented in the 19th century by the Canal Latéral à la Garonne for navigation to the Atlantic, this waterway can be explored on foot or by bike, or by boat. In summer, you can enjoy the freshness of the plane-tree lanes and the calm green waters.
The Abattoirs
Built : 1825.
Style : Neo-classical.
History : in 1823, the city of Toulouse decided to bring its various abattoirs together on a single site. Architect Urbain Vitry was commissioned to design the building in 1825. He designed a basilica-style building, with symmetrical articulation and a neo-classical style.
Characteristics : in these slaughterhouses converted into a museum of modern and contemporary art, there have been no animals for a long time... This unusual place uses its 3,000 m2 to house the 4,000 works in its permanent collection and the major exhibitions that it regularly hosts and for which it is renowned. The rooms are very spacious, making it easy to move around, even when it's busy. Some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art are on show. Outside, 16 monumental works form an original and colourful trail that begins in front of the museum entrance with Fernand Léger's *Les Femmes au Perroquet*.
Listed as : Historical Monument in 1990.
Cité de l'Espace
Characteristics : Take a walk on the Moon, board the Mir station, contemplate the Ariane 5 rocket, dream with your head in the stars... You can do it all at the Cité de l’Espace, just a stone's throw from the centre of Toulouse. The Cité offers 2,500 m2 of interactive exhibitions, so you can learn everything you need to know about the Earth and the Universe, find out all about spaceflight and even learn how to forecast the weather.
Its 5-hectare gardens, home to life-size replicas of spacecraft and a large telescope, its giant-screen IMAX® cinema, its interactive planetarium and its many activities for young and old make the journey into space even more fun.
Halle de la Machine
History and features : Halle de La Machine opened its doors on 9 November 2018 in the Montaudran district, on the Piste de Géants, Aéropostale's historic former runway.
Since then, visitors have been able to tour the stable of show machines designed and built by François Delaroziere and the teams at Compagnie La Machine, through a permanent, lively exhibition. Designed as an invitation to travel, Halle de La Machine brings this extraordinary stable of machines to life before the eyes of the public, bringing back their tales and legends. In particular, it houses a singular and monumental new creature, the Minotaur, whose first appearance took place in Toulouse from 1 to 4 November 2018, on the occasion of the show *Le Gardien du Temple*.
TO EAT
Fenetra
Characteristics : This typically Toulousian pastry, made with meringue, almond powder and candied peel, was largely forgotten by the Toulousians themselves before certain pastry chefs and tourist guides brought it back into fashion.
History : This cake dates back to Roman times, when it was eaten during the Feretralia, a festival celebrated on the ides of March. Toulousans would go in procession to the great necropolis in the south of the city. In the 18th century, this festival became a procession and a family meal, during which Toulousans ate fenetra.
Today : Today, however, it's hard to find fenetra in Toulouse. A few pastry shops make it all year round, as does the Regals shop on rue du Taur, which has revived its popularity.
