Toulouse: On Earth as it is in Heaven

 

Dubbed the Pink City for the brick that makes it so warm and inviting, Toulouse gives full play to the magic of light, creating a kaleidoscopic palette of its charms.

Toulouse’s City Hall (La Capitole) will draw you into the beauty and grandeur of its embrace. Past belltowers and along historic streets will your travels lead you, before the Pink City takes your hand for a romantic stroll on the banks of the Canal du Midi. Ranked by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1996, this 240 kilometre long canal—the oldest of its kind in Europe—boasts no less than 382 works of art.

Yet Toulouse is far from trapped in the past: today the Pink City is home to the world’s second largest space centre and is Europe’s leading centre for aeronautics.
This aeronautic vocation has been growing since the 1920s, when Pierre-Georges Latécoère set up a major aircraft manufacturing plant there. In 1927, this visionary created Aéropostale to fly mail from Toulouse to Dakar on old warplanes.
From 1920 to 1933, Aéropostale saw over 120 pilots, including Jean Mermoz and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Aéropostale then came up with one of the century’s greatest innovations by linking France to South America. Antoine de Saint Exupéry recounts this incredible story in his famous novel Night Flight.

After the Second World War, Toulouse won acclaim in the civil aviation field for the construction of the supersonic Concorde (1969) and Airbuses (1972), among other feats.
Proud of its aviation heritage, Toulouse invites you for a behind-the-scenes look at the aeronautics world under exceptional conditions.

With Airbus Visit, you can practically touch the sky and its history through original and unique tours of assembly lines for the Airbus A330/A340, the first production Concorde, and even the A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner.

Explore airport life and understand the airport environment with Touch & Go.

Delve even deeper into the aviation world with an evening stopover at gourmet restaurant and lounge L’Envol, where the culinary flight plan never disappoints.

Wind up your day at Hôtel du Grand Balcon, a magnificent historic monument where Aéropostale pioneers such as Mermoz, Delaunaye and Saint Exupéry used to lay their heads. This completely revamped luxury hotel will reopen its doors in early 2009.