Toulouse

Capture d’écran 2023-08-04 132809 copie-

General information :

Population : 498.003 inhab.

Coordinates : 43°36′16″N 01°26′38″E

Altitude : 115 Min. m - Max. 263 m

Airport : Toulouse Blagnac Airport - LFBO

Description :

Toulouse is a municipality in south-west France, capital of the Occitanie region, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne département and seat of the Toulouse Métropole.

With a population of 498,003 at 1 January 2020, Toulouse is the fourth most populous city in France (after Paris, Marseille and Lyon). The Toulouse urban area had a population of 1,360,829 in 2017, making it the fourth largest in France (the Toulouse conurbation had 1,019,460 inhabitants in 2018).

The inhabitants of Toulouse are known as Toulousains.

Toulouse was also the capital of the former Midi-Pyrénées region until its demise on 1 January 2016. In the fifth century, it was also the capital of the Visigoth kingdom, one of the capitals (from the seventh to the ninth century) of the kingdom of Aquitaine, capital of the county of Toulouse founded in 852 by Raimond I and historic capital of Languedoc.

With its architecture typical of the cities of southern France, Toulouse is often nicknamed "the pink city" because of the colour of the traditional local building material, terracotta brick. The growth of the Toulouse violet in the 19th century made it an emblem of the city, earning it the nickname "City of Violets". It is also, much more rarely, known as the "Mondine city" (la Ciutat Mondina in Occitan), in reference to the dynasty of the city's counts, often named Raymond.

Linking Toulouse to Sète, the Canal du Midi has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. The Basilica of Saint-Sernin, the largest Romanesque building in Europe, has also been listed since 1998 as part of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

Toulouse is the European capital of the aeronautics and space industry, with the sites of Airbus Commercial Aircraft and its parent company Airbus. It has over 100,000 students, and according to L'Express, it was the most dynamic city in France in 2009. The business magazine Challenges repeated this title in 2012 and 2015.

Toulouse's flagship sport is rugby union, with its Stade Toulousain club boasting the richest record of success at both national and continental level, with twenty-two French championship titles and five European championship titles.

Cassoulet, sausage and violette are emblematic specialities of Toulouse gastronomy.