Exploring Toulouse

Bridget and I arrived in Toulouse, France at about 4 pm, the third city and also the third and final country of our mini Europe backpacking trip.

As we disembarked the air conditioned bus we stepped out into 38 degrees of full sun and as it was to be a 30 minute walk to our hotel we decided to splash out £10.70 between us for an Uber. A great decision especially as a brand new air conditioned Mercedes arrived to pick us up!

Other than a small amount of French vaguely remembered from our school days many years ago, neither of us can speak in another language. But we did remember to switch from ‘por favor’ to ‘s’il vous plait’ and from ‘gracias’ to ‘merci’ when communicating with the Uber driver and hotel receptionist 🙂

Toulouse is known as ‘La Ville Rose’, the pink city as many of its buildings were constructed with terracotta bricks.

The main river running through the city is called the Garonne and a 17th century canal, the ‘Canal du Midi’ links Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea.

Rue des Blanchers is a charming street which is recommended for high quality French restaurants at reasonable prices… more on this later…

The Town Hall, above, is located on the Place du Capitole, the main square of the city.

Place du Capitole is lined with cafes, bars and restaurants. These were not recommended by our hotel receptionist as generally they are considered to overpriced and low quality tourist traps. The gold hanging strandy things above were I think to provide decorative shade.

Just off Capitole Square, the Dunjon du Capitole was built in 1525 and this tower is where the tourist office can be found.

There are many little chocolate and gift shops dotted around the city. This one, Mathilde, was particularly delightful and we were offered a chocolate sample as we entered 🙂

We spent a full day wandering around the quaint cobbled streets of Toulouse.

And coming across historic places of interest…

The Basilica of Saint Sernin is the oldest building in Toulouse and was built to honour the first bishop of the city. The original basilica was built in the 4th century and in 1998 it was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

The basilica is an important stop for pilgrims walking a section of the Camino Arles, one of 4 main French Camino routes which begins in Arles in the South of France and ends in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Pilgrims can stamp their camino passports here at the basilica.

The grand interior of the Basilica of Saint Sernin was quite magnificent.

Figure heads of saints can be found inside the basilica, for example, that of Saint Louis of Toulouse who was born on 9th February 1274 and died at age just 23. St Louis spent much of his early childhood in Italy but when his father, King Charles II of Naples was captured, he (and his two brothers) were handed over as hostages and taken to Catalonia where they were looked after and educated for 7 years by Franciscan friars. He later was granted the position of Bishop of Toulouse but he abandoned this in favour of serving the poor and feeding the hungry. It seems he died of a fever, thought to be typhoid.

From the basilica we decided it was time to indulge in some French cuisine… such as cake! Any excuse to share a delicious slice of banoffee pie and a coffee each.

Continuing our wander around the city…

We came across an interesting shop with an all olive focus!

Toulouse is also famous for its violets and we came across a violet shop too! Violets, the small purple flowers, have been cultivated in Toulouse since the 1850’s and you can buy violet confectionary, violet liquors, scented candles and all manner of violet products within the city.

Saint Etienne Cathedral is a roman catholic church which has been the seat of the Archbishop of Toulouse since 1862.

The current structure of the cathedral was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and is a mix of architectural styles. Saint Etienne cathedral is known for its impressive stain glass windows.

From Saint Etienne Cathedral we decided it was time to look for an aerial view of the city…

You can always rely on a sky bar for this and most often you get a sweeping birds eye view for the cost of a drink! Usually a good result 🙂 A quick scan of Google Maps and nearby we found ‘Ma Biche Sur Le Toit’ which is located on the top floor of a large department store called Lafayette.

Slightly intrigued by the name of this place, it means ‘My Deer on the Roof’ which implies a term of endearment… I think… (rather than the small mammal you see leaping around the English countryside, or when you are trying to dodge one that runs out from nowhere in front of your car…)

We enjoyed our rooftop drinks sitting outside… but not in the sun today. The weather remained overcast at around 26 degrees, a sharp but welcome drop from the excessive heat of the day before, when we had arrived. Although photos always look sharper and more appealing when framed with crisp clear blue sky at least exploring during an overcast day was more comfortable.

Continuing…

Pont Saint Pierre crosses the River Garonne and offers picturesque views of the river and the city. Traces of ancient Roman ramparts can be found in this area and former traditional tannery activities were discovered during recent renovation of the bridge.

Next to Pont Saint Pierre, Chapelle Saint Joseph de la Grave is a historic landmark in Toulouse. Its name comes from the gravel bank upon which it was built. We didn’t go inside but it is open to the public.

Toulouse is a university city with a large student population. Our hotel was close to a university and on our second evening in the city, we stood for a few minutes to watch a lively student band playing in a leafy square.

The area near the Saint Pierre bridge lights up at night.

Food & Drinks

Being new arrivals, Bridget and I set out in the warm, sultry atmosphere to explore the city for our first evening in Toulouse. As we neared the city centre we came across happy hour at La Reserve where a selection of drinks were available for €5 each. Nice 🙂

As mentioned many times throughout my many blog posts, sampling food in different places is an absolute pleasure and a key component of my travels. French cuisine is world renowned so I was keen that Bridget and I would find a traditional French restaurant.

My wishes materialised and after our first evening happy hour drinks, following a recommendation that the best restaurants are in the Rue des Blanchers area, we found Le Dahu, a small attractive looking French eatery. We enjoyed the most fabulous meal in there and for a set price of €29 each we could choose a starter, main and dessert from the varied menu.

I had fresh salad (melon, watermelon and feta) for the starter which was light and refreshing.

For the main I had chosen Tuna Steak with Sauce Vierge which was served with a little stack of dauphinoise potatoes, a small square of some kind of couscous and some roasted vegetables. It was perfect especially when washed down with a refreshing glass of French white wine. In fact, this now ranks as one of my favourite dishes of 2025…

A melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Fondant Cake, with a runny center and served with Lime Ice Cream 😃

What a treat to eat in there, easily the best meal of the trip, the food was delicious, the service excellent, the staff friendly and the presentation was superb.

By complete contrast our restaurant choice for our second night in Toulouse was a disaster… a huge mistake. Opposite the amazing Le Dahu, Latin restaurant El Chivito had an impressive Google Maps score average of 4.5 from over 1100 reviews. We were looking for a snack and having enjoyed such tasty burritos in Andorra La Vella, we were anticipating something similar. Unfortunately the food in El Chivito was literally inedible 🤮 a plate of overcooked fries, a couple of soft white rubbery buns with so-called vegetarian filling and some pretty rubbish nachos 😩 

A lesson learned… don’t trust Google reviews without putting them into context… some people love a plate of carbs, which maybe go down well after a few beers, but this wasn’t for us. This wasn’t exactly cheap either and in hindsight we could have gone back into Le Dahu and paid a similar amount for another fantastic meal in there.

Accommodation

We stayed in the Hotel de Brienne which was another excellent choice. The cost was reasonable, the shower was the best and the breakfast was scrumptious and in my view, the best breakfast of the 3 hotels of the trip. Breakfast wasn’t included in the room rate but we paid the extra to enjoy a range of freshly cooked and prepared products on our last morning before our lunchtime flight home.

Getting to Toulouse

We travelled from Andorra La Vella to Toulouse again by Andmar bus, again which was pre-booked with Get Your Guide. As before, we didn’t have to stop at the border between Andorra and France and enjoyed the magnificent mountain scenery especially at the beginning of the journey.

Budget summary

For this week long mini backpacking adventure, this is a summary of the overall cost for the 3 different countries visited:

• Ryanair flight from Stansted to Barcelona (no extras): £52.99
• Ryanair flight from Toulouse to Stansted (no extras): £41.56
• Stansted mid stay car park: £51
• 2 nights in Barcelona hotel: £138.45
• 3 nights in Andorra La Vella hotel: £134.25
• 2 nights in Toulouse hotel: £64.36 (breakfast was excluded)
• Bus from Barcelona to Andorra La Vella: £26.09
• Bus from Andorra La Vella to Toulouse: £31.14
• Pre-booked ticket to Sagrada Familia: £29.54
• Rest of the spending money (food, drinks and attractions): £398.43

Total cost: £967.81

These costs include my share of joint expenses, such as airport car parking and hotels. I had set myself a budget of £800 so I overspent by £167. For my attempt at budget travel for this year, making some small tweaks such as not paying for any extra luggage for the flights, walking or taking public transport instead of taxis and sometimes opting for a beer rather than a cocktail (unless it was happy hour) at least kept my expenditure to under £1000.

As with most things, balance and compromise come into play. Balance i.e. £5 each for an air conditioned Uber in a Toulouse heatwave was very justifiable and compromise, i.e. you need to split decision making when travelling with a companion. It was great to have Bridget with me to share these wonderful experiences and I think we do ‘give and take’ pretty well.

Finally, travelling independently in this way is far cheaper than paying for an organised tour. When Bridget and I did the last 100 km of the Camino Frances as part of a G Adventures tour in August 2023, I spent around £2000 on that adventure (although it was well worth it… I loved every minute of that trip too!)

Summary

Another fantastic and action-packed collection of wonderful memories shared with my fab friend Bridget 🙂 we had a week of contrasts, from cities to mountains and from upmarket restaurants to snacks and from being totally independent to one or two tours thrown in. Bridget and I have known each other for such a long time we are comfortable to share such a trip interspersed with either non-stop chatting or having quiet moments of reading (Bridget) and blogging (me). Things flow well and we are happy to start the day with a bit of a plan but to be flexible and chop and change as the day unfolds.