Understand
Toulouse has become a center of aviation and spaceflight in the past 20 years. More than 35,000 of the city's 400,000 citizens work in the civil aviation or space industries; Airbus / EADS is the largest employer in the region. The city has remained relatively unchanged despite the economic boom.
The city at the Garonne river is located on the site of an ancient Roman settlement; even today many of the smaller streets follow their Roman counterparts and many of the red brick buildings are of a pseudo-Roman style. These buildings are also what gives Toulouse its nickname La ville rose (The pink city).
In the middle ages, Toulouse was one of the richest cities of France due to the sale of blue coloring extracted from woad plants. This monopoly was only broken when the Portuguese began to import Indigo to Europe. Over 50 hotels, mansions, remain witness to the past wealth.
Get in
By plane
Regular scheduled domestic and international flights arrive at Blagnac airport, about 20 minutes from the city. It serves connections from Paris about every hour. There are many other flights as well, for example to Munich and Frankfurt.
To get to the city from the airport, you can use a Bus Shuttle for about 4.00 €. Going by Taxi will cost about 15 €.
By train
French railways :
Paris : 5h (by TGV) to 7h30 (common train).
Bordeaux : 2h30.
Marseille : 4h00.
The train station is almost in the heart of the city.
By car
Major highways towards Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille, Barcelona
By bus
Bus terminal at the railway station.
Get around
Toulouse has a network of bus and metro lines. The bus services tend to be not very reliable and miss the timetable. The metro is relatively small, with only about 15 stations; but then Toulouse is a small city. Consequently you can also walk to most destinations in the inner city quite comfortably.
By car
You should avoid going downtown with a car, as parking space is seriously limited.
See
Toulouse is a small city, and you can reach most interesting places in the downtown area comfortably on foot.
Tours
The tourism information office located in the back side of the Capitolium...
