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Toulouse
Prefecture and commune in France

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in Southern France, the prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania region.

Plan a trip to Toulouse→From Montpellier/Méditerranée

The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea, 230 km (143 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean and 680 km (420 mi) from Paris. It is the fourth-largest city in France after Paris, Marseille, and Lyon, with 514,819 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (2023); its metropolitan area has a population of 1,529,112 inhabitants (2023). Toulouse is the central city of one of the 22 metropolitan councils of France. Between the 2014 and 2020 censuses, its metropolitan area was the third fastest growing among metropolitan areas larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France.

Get in

Getting to Toulouse

  1. 01
    Toulouse–Blagnac Airport

    It has flights at least hourly from Paris (Orly Airport and CDG).

  2. 02
    Toulouse-Matabiau Station

    TGVs run from Paris Montparnasse every hour or two and take 4 hr 30 min via Bordeaux.

See

Worth seeing

The old centre of Toulouse is east of the River Garonne: it's compact and most places of interest can easily be visited on foot. It's bounded to the east and north by Bvd Lazare Carnot / Bvd de Strasbourg, and to the south by the cathedral, Rue Metz and Pont Neuf.

Do

Things to do

What's on? For local events read La Dépêche du Midi or Intramuros, or watch TV Sud or the local section of France 3. Take a walk along the river quays. Théâtre du Capitole hosts the opera house and orchestra, Box Office +33 5 6163 1313.

  1. 01
    Stade Toulousain
  2. 02
    Stadium de Toulouse
  3. 03
    La Grainerie

    61 Rue Saint-Jean, Balma (5 km east of centre),.

  4. 04
    L'Usine

    La Kermesse is a music festival at the Pony Club near the airport, next held 16–19 Aug 2023.

Eat

Where to eat

Local specialities are: Duck, for instance canard confit (roast duck leg) or canard foie gras (duck liver pate). Cassoulet is a stew made with white beans, meat (such as Toulouse sausage), and pork skin. Violets used to make candy. The areas around Place du Capitole, Bvd de Strasbourg and Place St Georges are lined with cafes and restaurants.

How locals move

Getting around Toulouse the local way

  • Get aroundBus, tram, metro lines and cable car are operated by Tisseo.
  • Go nextCarcassonne is within a day trip, but you really ought to stay overnight in its fantastical citadel, which inspired Disney Castle.

From Wikivoyage: Toulouse, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.