Capital of the French Department of the Haute Garonne and administrative center of the region of the Midi-Pyrenees, Toulouse is one of the largest and most important cities in France. It's ancient name is Tolosa in the Occitan language.
The French also have a special name for the city of Toulouse, they call it "la ville rose" (the pink town). And when visiting the city the reason is obvious - most of the buildings are build with a typical local pink brick!
The climate of Toulouse can be considered to be temperate, primarily due to its location mid-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. Its climate is therefore characterised as being warm and dry in summer with relatively mild autumns and winters.
The region is also at the crossroads of three dominant winds: the wind from the west, typically bringing humidity from the Atlantic Ocean; the wind from the south-east, also known as the "Autan", especially hot and dry; and the wind from the north, less frequent and typically cold and dry. The Autan wind is often called "the wind that makes you mad", or "the devil's wind", since it affects everything with its stormy passage, including the behaviour of humans and animals. It is considered to "annoy". But indeed days when the Autan wind blows are not considered to be much better, and are not the most auspicious times to meet up with the locals!
However, Toulouse isn't just a major tourist destination, it's also a thriving hub of technology, serving any technologically advanced industries including medical, telecoms and aerospace. In fact Toulouse is known internationally as center of the European aerospace industry. But never a city to "let the grass grow under its feet", Toulouse is always at the forefront of research, and soon plans to become a world center in cancer research, with a major area to be given over to cancer research. Not surprisingly, Toulouse is also a major university town, second only to Paris.
Two key features of the city are the Pont-Neuf and the Canal du Midi which were completed in 1632 and 1682 respectively. Then there is the Capitole, constructed in the eighteenth century. In the 1920s, Toulouse was the pioneering center of the aviation industry, with the key Aerospatiale company being established in 1927, with such notable names such as Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Jean Mermoz.
The national center for weather prediction in France was established in Toulouse in 1982, which is responsible for forecasting the weather for the whole of the country.
Another feature of Toulouse, as witnessed by the many little shops found throughout the city, is that it a center for violets. Violets are cultivated around the whole Toulouse region both for the flowers themselves and for their perfume. Violets, violet sweets, violet flowers and violet fragrances abound throughout the city.
Toulouse is also home to a huge quantity of museums and cultural festivals. Indeed Toulouse is known throughout the whole of Europe as a city of many major international festivals. It is thus a major tourist destination. Visitors to the city will find it impossible to avoid coming into contact with major centers such as the Zenith, the Meditheque and the Congress Center. There are also the more recent Museum of Modern Art, known as the Abattoirs (since it was indeed the old city abattoir). Then there is the famous and impressive Cite de l'Espace (Space City). And not to be missed is the incredible Capitole Museum with its impressive Salle des Illustres - a giant room brimming with huge paintings and frescoes.
A particular mention is worth making of the Cite de l'Espace - a huge area just on the periphery of the city which opens up quite literally a whole universe of space, stars and space travel, by means of some creative animations and reconstructions. Take a look inside the Russian space station, Mir, or an Arianne rocket. Then go and view space in the impressive IMAX 3D cinema, not forgetting of course the planetarium, an incredible simulation of the universe.
As for high culture, there's lots to be found in Toulouse. Perhaps most impressively, the Capitole Theatre provides a memorable encounter not only with the world-famous Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, but also the impressive Toulouse Opera and ballet companies. The orchestra itself became renowned under the leadership of Michel Plasson, it's chief conductor for many years, with a wide-ranging repertoire ranging from the Baroque to contemporary performances. Today it is in the capable hands of the young Ossetian conductor Tugan Sokhiev, trained in St Petersburg.
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