VIRTUOSE HALLE AUX GRAINS

This unusually shaped building is an unmissable landmark in the city: its façades, clad in brick and Garonne pebbles, are inseparable from the obelisk in Place Dupuy. Straddling the boulevards and the Port Saint-Sauveur, the Halle aux Grains, which opened in 1861, served as a vital commercial link between the city and the Canal du Midi. Yet, with the decline of inland waterway transport, the hall’s story was only just beginning.

Over the decades, the city has continually repurposed this space. Its Eiffel-style iron framework and rustic grain stores have seen agronomy students, sweaty boxers, red-nosed clowns and, later, graceful ballet dancers pass through its halls. Hard to believe? Over the course of an hour, this tour recounts the hall’s fascinating history whilst also taking you through the corridors of a mini underground town built in the 1970s, when Michel Plasson persuaded the local council to turn this venue into a temple of the performing arts.

Although the Halle aux Grains remains the home of the Toulouse Capitole National Orchestra, this venue hosts around 140 performances per season, and the orchestra’s musicians share it with artists who are sometimes less conventional, but always talented.