Flights to Toulouse with Air France

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Holiday in Toulouse and enjoy a treasure-trove of beautiful buildings from bygone times

The 'pink city' as the southwestern French city of Toulouse is known, is the capital of the Occitanie region and home to around 460,000 people.

A university city and high-tech industry hub, Toulouse is a relatively sunny city which can get quite warm in summertime. The city is often used as a base for tourists wanting to explore the nearby Pyrenees whether for winter sports or walking in the summer. Flying from Dublin to Toulouse will generally take around 4 to 5 hours and includes a stopover in Paris or Amsterdam.

What really marks Toulouse out from other cities is its outstanding built and industrial heritage. It's home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Canal du Midi, a 17th century marvel of engineering which connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, and the basilica of St. Sernin, the largest surviving Romanesque building in all Europe. In addition to these iconic sights, there's a whole range of beautiful churches, former convents, mansions, hospitals, bridges and municipal buildings, all made from a characteristic pinkish terracotta brick.

Key amongst these are the Capitole (a complex containing city hall and the opera); the church of the Jacobins, one-time home of the old University of Toulouse, one of the oldest in Europe (1229), with its beautiful cloister and striking octagonal bell-tower; the Augustins convent (containing Toulouse's fine arts museum); the Cathédrale St Etienne and the many 'hôtels particuliers' (town houses). The latter date from the 16th century. Some are still in use as private homes, such as the Hôtel du Vieux-Raisin, others are open to the public. The most famous is probably the Hôtel d'Assézat, which now houses the Bemberg collection. This offers an outstanding selection of sculpture, paintings and objets d'art from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Featured artists include luminaries like:

• Canaletto
• Pieter Brueghel the younger
• Titian
• Auguste Renoir
• Bonnard
• Gaugin
• Picasso

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Toulouse - the aerospace city par excellence

No other city in western Europe can boast Toulouse's incredible links to the worlds of aviation and space travel. Major early airline 'la Compagnie Générale Aéropostale' (which later merged with several other companies to become Air France) was founded here in 1927, and counted Antoine de Saint Exupéry amongst its pilots.

Toulouse is now the headquarters for the Airbus Group, and many pioneering projects have been developed here under the aegis of this European multinational, including Concorde and the Airbus A380. In fact, it's possible to take a tour of the factory where the A380, the world's largest passenger airplane, is currently built.

The city is also a centre for the development and construction of satellites and other space-related projects. As such, it's not unusual that it was decided to build the Cité de l'Espace theme park in Toulouse. This attraction explores the topics of space and space travel. Key exhibits include a full-scale model of the Ariane 5 rocket, the Mir Space station and the Soyuz spacecraft. There's also a planetarium, an IMAX cinema and a mock-up of a control room, allowing you to try your hand at launching and flying a rocket, and then putting a satellite into orbit.

Maybe you don't want to travel quite that far afield, but would like to benefit from the convenience of having access to your own vehicle? The dedicated car rental section on the Air France website is there to help, meaning you can make the most of the outstandingly beautiful scenery in easy reach of Toulouse, including the Pyrenees National Park.