The Good Life France Magazine November/December 2015 | Page 58

It’s a painless journey from the airport into town, as there’s a brand new tram which leaves from just outside the terminal and connects you to the metro network.

Toulouse is known as the Pink City, as most of its buildings are brick, and the historic centre is sandwiched between the Garonne River, to the West and the Canal du Midi in the East. It’s pedestrian friendly, with many streets closed to cars, and nothing is more than a 20 minute stroll. To get a flavour of the history, it’s worth wandering the narrow alleys, keeping your eyes pointed upwards, to take in centuries of architectural styles.

For more focus there’s a handy guide from the tourist office, called Discovery Itineraries and each of the five walks takes you past places of interest. Of course there’s an Art and History tour but I like Green Toulouse which takes you past the Canal du Midi, through the Botanical gardens and ends up at the Natural History Museum.

This is a city designed for the outside, so restaurant and bars populate the squares, ideal for people watching or just taking a refreshing cold drink. Indeed there’s a nightly ritual here where aperitifs are consumed between six and nine and then everyone drifts to the restaurants. As you’d expect, duck and all its offshoots are a mainstay of the menus and best of all the frites are always homemade – even better they advertise that they’ll refill your plate if you want more. If you’ve had your fill of confit, foie gras and magret de canard then there are a huge number of Indian restaurants, fortunately none of them offering Duck Tikka. Lebanese and Turkish cafés also make their presence felt and the standard is remarkably high.