Is Toulouse Worth Visiting?

When I lived in London and told people I came from the south of France, they would often ask me, is Toulouse worth visiting? Usually just before asking if it was by the sea. It’s not, and that question alone told me they had no real idea where it was.

I get it, though. Toulouse may well be the third largest city in France, but it’s not the most famous city in the south, and honestly, that’s part of why we love it so much. It’s still authentic, even if that’s been changing fast over the past few years. It has that traditional south of France, Occitan atmosphere, while still offering everything you’d expect from a big city.

It’s also home to Airbus, which plays a huge role in the local economy, and to one of the best rugby teams in France. Ask any Toulousain and they’ll drop the “one of” and just tell you it’s the best.

The architecture is mostly red brick, dotted with blue shutters, a nod back to the Renaissance, when Toulouse was the capital of the pastel dye trade and one of the wealthiest cities in Europe because of it. You can walk pretty much everywhere in the centre, which makes the whole place feel far more manageable than its size suggests.

So, Is Toulouse Worth Visiting?

Absolutely. But only if you also explore Occitanie around it.

For me, the real perk of living in Toulouse, or visiting it, isn’t just the city itself. It’s everything within reach of it. You have access to lush countryside, gorgeous hikes in the Pyrénées within two hours, sometimes less, and beautiful Mediterranean beaches like Leucate and Gruissan. There are stunning valleys too, the gorges of the Aveyron, the Lot, the Célé, which was my favourite discovery this summer. You can even reach the Basque Country in about three hours.

That’s really the case for Toulouse. It’s not a city that tries to be Paris or the Côte d’Azur, and it doesn’t need to. It works as a base, a genuinely liveable, walkable, pink brick base, with the whole of the south west opening up around it.

WhyI think Toulouse is worth visiting:

• It’s the only big pink city in France, there really isn’t anywhere else that looks quite like it
• An authentic atmosphere, with a strong local culture that hasn’t been flattened out by tourism
• It still feels very French and very local, rather than a city built around visitors
• Cheaper than most big cities in the south of France, without feeling like you’re missing out
• Access to genuinely varied landscapes, mountains, sea, valleys and countryside, all within a couple of hours

If you’re only weighing Toulouse against the obvious names, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, it might not win on paper. But if you think of it as your entry point into Occitanie rather than a standalone destination, the answer to whether it’s worth visiting stops being a question at all.

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