Monday 28th September The Donjon du Capital This is the building that the Information Centre is housed in and was built by the magistrates in 1525 when they decided to build a new tower on the same site as the former tower and it was built to house the city's archives. The building continued to be used for this purpose until 1946 and from that time it has housed the Tourist Office. The turrets on the four corners were restored in the mid 1800s by Viollet-...

Monday 28th September - Salle Henri Martin This room features 10 paintings by Henri Martin who lived between 1860 and 1945 and his style is very close to that of the great impressionists. The most amazing of these paintings is also the biggest and is called the Dreamers, (Les Reveurs) and features Jean Jaures and others including the painter himself wandering along the river Garonne. The painting is huge and goes from floor to ceiling and takes up the en...

Monday 28th September - Salle des Illustres The basic design of this room goes back to the time of the original magistrates in 1674. However it was redesigned later in the 19th century. The room is enormous and nowadays is used for official receptions but still also hosts wedding ceremonies. I hate to think how much this would cost to hire out?? The gallery has some 15 painting that are huge. The arches in between the painting have a statue in each arch, ...

Monday 28th September - Salle Gervais The first room at the top of the stairs, the Salle Gervais, was first used for wedding receptions. It was decorated by the same fellow that painted all of the painted walls and ceilings in the grand stairway. There are ornate arches all of the way around the room and the painting are meant to portray love at various stages of people's lives. The chandeliers are lovely and show off the painted ceilings which are not...

Monday 28th September - The Great Stairway In the last part of the 1700s a majestic stairway leading up to the great hall of the Salle des Illustres but it was replaced with the current stairway in 1912 and the walls were decorated by a Toulouse artist, Jean-Paul Laurens. There are huge paintings all of the way up the stairs and the gold gilding is magnificent.