Taking In Toulouse Just North Of The Spanish Border, The Laid-Back, Barefoot Paris Of The South Sports Sidewalk Cafes And Upscale Boutiques Within Wandering Distance Downtown

If you were magically transported to a wicker chair under the red awning of a Toulouse sidewalk cafe, at first you might think that you’d arrived in Paris: similar architecture, wide boulevards, exquisite pastry shops, and shoulder-to-shoulder cafes.

But a visitor soon recognizes that Toulouse is not Paris. Toulouse lacks the grandeur of France’s capital city, its style, its excitement. Nothing in Toulouse compares to the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees, the romantic Left Bank.

And nothing in Toulouse compares to the irascibility of Paris, its noise, its confusion, its rocketing traffic.

Only 60 miles north of the Spanish border, Toulouse gets through its day at a slower pace than most parts of France. It’s friendlier, quieter, looser, but it’s also less tidy. Graffiti desecrates the student district; too many buildings reveal cracks; cans and bottles float in the downtown bend of the Garonne River. Paris must be scandalized by her southern cousin, and perhaps somewhat envious. Toulouse is what Paris would be if Paris moved south to a warmer climate and went barefoot.

Toulouse (population 380,000) is a walkable city. At the center of the old town, a mile or two on each side, lies the Place de Capitole, a vast open square surrounded by shops, a row of arcaded sidewalk cafes, and the block-wide neoclassical city hall. If you stay in one of the many hotels on the streets radiating from the square, you can forego rental cars, taxis, and exhausting long walks.

For a first, short excursion, take the Rue de Taur from the Place de Capitole to Toulouse’s preeminent attraction, the imposing Basilica of St. Sernin. You’ll see how the 85,000 students of the venerable University of Toulouse dominate this area, crammed with bookstores, record shops, and inexpensive cafes. Three popes graduated from this 750-yearold institution, as did the celebrated essayist Michel de Montaigne. Francois Rabelais, the 16th century scholar, writer and general rascal, fled before graduation due to the university’s propensity to burn freethinkers at the stake.

The 12th-century St. Sternin, the largest Romanesque basilica in Europe, was built to shelter thousands of pilgrims passing through on their way to the Shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. St. Sernin’s 200-foot-tall octagonal belfry with its five tiers is an unforgettable sight. Plan your visit for a sunny late afternoon when the exterior bricks turn rosy (Toulouse, built largely of pink brick, is known as “la ville rose”).

To see the shopper’s Toulouse, walk east two streets from the Place du Capitole to the wide Rue d’Alsace-Lorraine. Here you find upscale shops and department stores. Even more interesting are the boutiques and cafes on the narrow Rue St. Rome and Rue des Changes, leading south from the Place. Restricted traffic makes these two streets ideal for a slow ramble.

The Rue des Changes leads you near the Musee des Augustins at 21 Rue de Metz, the best of Toulouse’s many museums. (The city has an inordinate number of museums, cathedrals and cafes.) Housed in a 14th century building that was once a monastery, the museum displays painting and sculpture from the early Christian period to the 20th century. Modern works include paintings by Delacroix, Utrillo, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monet.

The city sits at a wide bend of the Garonne River, which starts in the Pyrenees, cuts through Toulouse, and then flows northwest to Bordeaux and the Atlantic. It’s a fifteen-minute walk from the Place du Capitole to the Garonne and its best-known bridge, the Pont-Neuf. Although many buildings fronting the river lack character, you’ll nevertheless enjoy sauntering along the riverbank in the early evenings (but avoid the area after dark). This is a gathering place for bikers, cuddlers and idlers. One evening my wife and I came upon a jazz trio under the Pont-Neuf, whose music resonated off the underside of the curved stone arches.

If you have another cathedral visit in you, stop at the nearby, 13th century Les Jacobins (at place des Jacobins), a southern French Gothic building that’s plain on the outside except for its brisling gargoyles. When the four-tier bell tower was completed, the St. Sernin folks felt a sudden divine need to increase their own tower from three tiers to five.

Try to visit during a sunny midday, when the stained-glass windows cast gorgeous reds across the interior.

My favorite walk is along the Canal du Midi. The canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, turned Toulouse into a major inland trading center when it was completed in 1681.

Start where it passes near the traffic circle called the Grand Rond, a 15-minute walk from the Place du Capitole. Trees on both sides shade the canal and the benches placed at regular intervals.

It’s easy to strike up a conversation with boaters on the canal. Little commercial traffic remains; most barges today are rental boats piloted by vacationers.

It’s easy to fantasize quitting one’s job, selling the house, buying a barge, and sailing at slumbering speeds through France’s thousands of kilometers of rivers and canals. We met a British couple doing just that.

For a change of pace, visit the flea market that takes place each Sunday in the shadow of the Basilica of St. Sernin. You’ll find worn hand tools spread across the pavement, new and used clothing in picked-over piles, spindly-wheeled black baby buggies, and anything else you can imagine. Enjoy the show and watch the vegetables, hanging sausages, foie gras, anchovies, pigs feet, and canned truffles (a can one inch tall and one inch wide - resembling a toy can belonging in a toy kitchen - fetched $18).

Toulouse is short on quiet green spaces, but if you walk for 20 minutes northwest from the Place du Capitole you’ll come to the formal Jardin Compans-Caffarelli with its carousel and Japanese pavilion.

An equal distance south of the Place du Capitole lies the larger and busier Jardin des Plantes. Children will enjoy the carousel and playground and delight in the peacocks on the loose.

This is a good destination for anyone weary of sightseeing. Sprawl on a park bench. Kick off your shoes. Think seriously about going barefoot. After all this is Toulouse, not Paris.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO

Information French Government Tourist Office, New York, (212) 838-7800.

Transportation The airport/downtown bus costs $5 each way, with taxis charging about $35. Several trains make the daily eight-hour trip from Paris. Toulouse is easily accessible from Paris by air or train (an eight-hour trip). The Information Center resides in a magnificent 16th-century building on Rue Lafayette, just behind the Capitole. The English-language guide “The Museums of Toulouse” describes the city’s dozen museums. Inquire about walking tours.

Accommodations Toulouse’s top hotel in a former 17th-century convent is the elegant Grand Hotel de l’Opera, with a quiet interior court, air-conditioned rooms and an inside pool. Located right on the Place du Capitole, its doubles cost $210 to $275. Less pricey but centrally located on Rue St. Jerome, the Mercure St. Georges charges $110 to $130 for a double. Students, backpackers, and anyone wishing to relive their youth cannot go wrong with the Hotel du Grand Balcon, a dozen steps from the Place du Capitole at 8 rue Romiguieres. It’s clean, faded, subject to street noise, and inexpensive. The writer/aviator Antoine de St.-Exupery frequently stayed in room 32. The breakfast nook’s walls are covered with photos of him and other French fliers from the 20s and 30s. About $40 for a double with bath.

Dining The Brasserie Beaux-Arts looks out on the Pont-Neuf and offers a 19th-century atmosphere, excellent seafood, and dreamy but expensive desserts ($7-9). Our waiter even swept away the crumbs between courses (a disappearing tradition). When we tried to order coffee with dessert, he let us know that this was not done, simply not done, that coffee comes after dessert, and that’s when he brought it. About $70 for two, with wine. Only two of the sidewalk cafes on the Place du Capitole offer full meals. The food isn’t the finest in Toulouse, but this is the best place in town to sit and watch the world go by. The Cafe des Arcades and the Brasserie le Capitoul offer meals in the $14-18 range. A good eatery in the student section is Le Sherpa, two blocks from the Place du Capitole on Rue du Taur, with salads about $6 and meal crepes $5-6. For a picnic meal to eat along the canal, go to the untranslatable “Ca tombe bien, On a faim!” at 10 rue du Taur. Sandwiches are made fresh (vegetables, cheese, ham , tuna, crab) for $4-5.

Other attractions For boat rides on the canals and river, call the Association du Bateau Cap d’Ambre. To rent a bicycle, try A.2.L. Location, 54 rue du Cimetiere, St. Cyprien, or Association Expedition, 30 Rue des Blanchers 31000. About $18 a day. For the best route, follow the blacktop towpath from the Grand Road area south along the Canal du Midi. You’ll reach sparsely settled areas within 10 minutes, and can pedal many miles farther into the countryside.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Story and photos by David Aldrich Special to Travel