Bed and breakfast accommodation in Toulouse Monasteries

Toulouse is all too often overlooked, it is one of the most historic and fascinating cities of France. It has got a romantic nickname as the “Pink City” because most buildings in the city used pinkish coloured bricks, giving the cityscape a look that you can’t compare with any other city.

You can start with a simple walk through the city and along the Canal du Midi or along the Garonne river from St Pierre bridge and Pont-neuf during the evening. The architectural heritage is astonishingly large and well preserved.

You can also discover the fine art collection of Italian renaissance artists, and Flemish and Dutch masters like Rubens, van Dyck, van Goyen, Cuyp and Jordaens all from the 1400s until the 1700s. This fine collection is located in a beautiful monument dating to the early-1300s and exemplifying the southern Gothic style.

Airbus offers tours of their facilities in French and English. The tour takes about 60 minutes and includes a guide who will tell you some background about the company, the screening of a promotional and historical video, and a look at the A380 production line.

The Cité de l'Espace (space city in English)  is another of Toulouse's "aviation" attractions. However you must be aware that it is not exactly a museum but a sort of scientific theme park without rides. There are some replicas of spacecraft and other exhibits, many of the latter interactive in some minor way. There's also a small planetarium. 

How to get around 

Toulouse has a small center, and you can reach most interesting places in the downtown area comfortably on foot.

The train station in Toulouse is centrally located. Trains to Paris take 5-7.5 hours, trains to Bordeaux take 2 hours, and trains to Marseille take 4 hours. There is also the bus and metro terminal at the railway station. 

Regular scheduled domestic and international flights arrive at Blagnac airport, 11 km west of downtown Toulouse. Air France operates flights to/from Paris flight time of approximately 30 minutes

Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France, located on the banks of the river Garonne in the south of France. 

Chritianity came around the Middle Ages and Toulouse has got much religious heritage left, but three of them are of remarkable architectural and historical interest.

Saint-Sernin Basilica, part of the Way of Saint James and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest remaining Romanesque church in Europe. The church was built at the beginning of the 12th century to welcome the crowds of pilgrims, its double-sided aisles and the ambulatory surrounding the apse make it the perfect archetype, where pilgrims could make the circuit around the church and were able to stop for meditation and prayer at the apsidal chapels of the transept and the radiating chapels of the choir.

Cathedral of Saint Stephen is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse. Its construction, which was mainly done at the beginning and then at the end of the 13th century, reflects the history of this decisive century which saw the city lose its independence to become a French city. The single nave is the very first example of Southern French Gothic, at 19 metres wide. The higher choir that adjoins it was built shortly after the city became part of the Crown of France in 1271.

The convent of Jacobins and the church were built in the 13th century to fight against local "cathare" heresy along the crusade led by French nobles that took place at the same time. The church part is very interesting as its beautiful and typical paintings have been preserved, and contains Thomas Aquinas' relics.