Toulouse Open-Top Minibus City Tour

Place du Capitole and the Capitole building

Every Toulouse city tour begins in the Place du Capitole, the vast square at the heart of the Pink City. Its east side is filled by the Capitole, the city hall and opera house, whose 135-metre facade was completed in the 1750s in pink brick and white stone, with eight columns recalling the eight capitouls, the magistrates who once governed Toulouse. In the paving of the square lies a large bronze Occitan cross decorated with the signs of the zodiac.

Inside, the ceremonial rooms of the city hall, including the painted Salle des Illustres, are usually open to visitors on weekdays and weekends outside official events. Our minibus departs from Rue du Poids de l'Huile, just off the square, so you can visit the Capitole before or after your loop, or sit at one of the cafés under the arcades that frame the square on its western side.

The Basilica of Saint-Sernin

A few streets north of the Capitole rises the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, built mainly between about 1080 and 1120 and the largest surviving Romanesque church in Europe. Its octagonal bell tower of brick arcades soars 65 metres above the old town, and the church was a major stop for medieval pilgrims walking towards Santiago de Compostela, which is why it is listed by UNESCO as part of the pilgrim routes through France.

From the open-top deck you get a fine view of the apse and its radiating chapels, the most harmonious side of the building. Basilica of Saint-Sernin opening hours are generous: the church is open daily from morning to early evening, with the crypt and its reliquaries opening on a shorter schedule, so it is easy to return on foot after the tour for a look at the immense vaulted nave.

The Jacobins Convent and the pastel mansions

The tour passes through the old town between the Capitole and the river, where the Jacobins Convent stands out with its massive brick church. Built by the Dominicans in the 13th and 14th centuries, it is a landmark of southern Gothic, famous for its single column that spreads its ribs across the vault like a 28-metre palm tree, and for a peaceful cloister planted with box hedges.

Around it stand the grand Renaissance mansions built by merchants who grew rich in the 16th century on pastel, the blue dye extracted from woad grown in the surrounding countryside. Their towers and courtyards, such as the Hôtel d'Assézat, show why Toulouse is called the Pink City: almost everything was built from local terracotta brick, which glows pink and orange in the evening light.

Pont Neuf and the Garonne riverbanks

Despite its name, the Pont Neuf, or New Bridge, is the oldest bridge in Toulouse. Begun in 1544 and completed in 1632, it crosses the wide Garonne on seven unequal arches, with round openings in its piers that let floodwater pass, a design that allowed it to survive the great flood of 1875. From the bridge you see the copper dome of the La Grave chapel rising on the left bank.

The riverbanks below are where Toulouse comes to relax: the stepped quays of La Daurade and Saint-Pierre fill with students and families at sunset, and the Prairie des Filtres park spreads along the water. Many visitors wonder whether Toulouse is worth visiting for more than a day; an evening on the Garonne quays, after seeing the city from the minibus, is usually what convinces them.

The Canal du Midi

The loop also reaches the Canal du Midi, the 17th-century waterway that links Toulouse to the Mediterranean at the lagoon of Thau, near Sète. Built between 1666 and 1681, it runs about 240 kilometres through locks, aqueducts and tunnels, and together with the canal along the Garonne it forms a water route between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

In Toulouse the canal is lined with plane trees, moored houseboats and shaded towpaths, and the Ponts-Jumeaux basin, where three waterways meet, has a fine sculpted relief from the 18th century. The best time to visit Toulouse and see the canal at its greenest is from April to October, when the trees are in full leaf and the open-top seats are at their most pleasant.