Avoiding driving in Toulouse

Hi Barb, we took a train into Toulouse and then utilized their trams to get around town - easy connections. If you look at tisseo.fr, there's info for tram maps, etc.

Details of the Toulouse transport network are here Compared to many French cities Toulouse does not have much in the way of a tram network - most of it is either subway or bus.

I'll just reiterate my usual response to people who want to stay in the suburbs of a city:

Check carefully how far your proposed hotel is from the nearest transport stop or station. Look at the road layout, not just the distance as the crow flies - there might be walls or private land in the way. Check the frequency of transportation, not just in the daytime but at weekends and in the evening. Is the last journey late enough for you to be able to eat out without having to get a taxi home? Check how much you will be paying to get from the city to your base. English-language information on transport websites often assumes you only want to travel within the city centre, and detailed zonal information in particular may only be available in the local language. Also, is the city centre sufficiently small that if you stayed there you would rarely have to use transport at all?

If you want to stay on the outskirts because you are worried about what to do with your car, it may be better to look for a hotel which has its own parking. The hotel should be able to advise you how to get there without breaching restricted traffic areas.

I visited Toulouse by train last November. If I were arriving by car, I would not stay outside the city. I would find a parking garage near my hotel in centre ville or perhaps arrange parking through your hotel. Though not inexpensive, the convenience might be worth it. Staying in the center of Toulouse is great since almost all sites are walkable - and this from a couch potato. Start at the TI where you can pick up city maps with 5 easy walking tours of France's fourth largest city.

Tourist office has a great website that's filled with info. If you go to the bottom of the home page, there's a link to PDFs of their brochures. Incidentally, finding their office isn't the easiest since it isn't well marked and one of the employees said they constantly hear about their "invisibility." It's located in the Donjon du Capitole, the small building on the south side of the Capitole.

For a great gastro treat, have the cassoulet at Le Colombier restaurant. They were part of the original association that developed the Charte for this regional specialty.