Toulouse Walking Tours

03/01/2025

💚 2025 tours have lift off!

✨️ Such a fun morning on my 'Beyond the Postcard' tour with this lovely group from the UK, Australia + France yesterday. Both visitors to Toulouse + locals alike.

💚 The streets were so quiet - our very own historical + cultural playground!

✨️ Some might have said - nah too cold...
Some might have decided to stay home on the penultimate day of their holidays...
These mighty Toulouse Walking Tourers said yes, let's do this!

💚 Parting comments of 'we'll definitely have to return to Toulouse for another trip + do your Key Sights tour', 'thoroughly enjoyed this - don't know this part of town so well', and 'a fabulous morning, yet again' gave me a lunchtime spring in my step.

✨️ 2025 is going to be a year of sparkle for me, my little business + and it feels so wonderful to have started helping clients have a great time in 2025 by discovering the authentic Toulouse.

📷 couple of great pics from when he enjoyed my Beyond the Postcard tour previously.

Penny Dickinson

01/01/2025

💚 Happy New Year!

✨️ May 2025 bring you + your loved ones much happiness, good health, mixed with personal + professional growth.

💚 Thank you all for your support in 2024. As a small business owner every like, comment or share is really appreciated and does make a difference in this crazy online world.

✨️ I was hoping to have done one of those fancy reels of key moments in 2024 for you. Time was short + then serendipity struck when a wonderful repeat client the v talented sent me these stunning shots. So Voilà!

💚 Looking for some serendipity to guide the start of your year? Come join us tomorrow on my 'Beyond the Postcard' tour for historic + cultural discoveries blended with plenty of fun + a morning strolling! Plus homemade gingerbread + a warming cuppa of course!

Penny Dickinson

20/12/2024

Delighted that my walking tours have been recommended by Simon Beasley in his rugby fan's guide to Toulouse. If you're heading to la ville rose to watch Stade Toulousain or Toulouse Olympique XIII then do reach out if you'd like to book a tour. I'd love to help you have an adventure here and a private rugby group walking tour of my 'Key Sights, Highlights & Hidden Gems' route is peppered with rugby anecdotes, historic secrets, gastronomic recommendations to help you get the most from your trip here!

When are you visiting?!

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Mercure Hotels

Stade Toulousain is a team steeped in rugby history. Top 14 champions 23 times and European Champions Cup winners six times makes them the most successful team in Europe.The black and red play thei…

23/11/2024

🤔 Struggling to come up with a festive gift for your loved one! Don’t want to buy more ‘stuff’ that clutters? I have you covered!

🎁 Why not give the pleasure of unearthing Toulouse’s secrets 'à la Penny' this Christmas with a Toulouse Walking Tours Gift Certificate for a 2025 tour ?

🗓️ Valid for 12 months, they are printed on coloured card (green of course) with a matching envelope + sealed with silver wax (I love doing that bit!), they make an ideal gift for any curious friend or relative. Available for both public & private tours.

🌏 Can be posted worldwide (postage applies). Order before 30th November for delivery outside France.

18/11/2024

✨️ Crazy yes, like an onion, there's always another juicy layer waiting for you!

✨️ Come peel back the layers with us on my 'Beyond the Postcard' tour:

Sunday 24th November
9.30 a.m. - 12 noon

✨️ We'll go on a voyage of fun + historic discovery to get under the skin of the building, streets + monuments we'll find. We'll focus on the magic underneath - the people, the stories and bring the past to life.

✨️ Oh and the wheels will be carrying my famous, homemade gingerbread + a warming cuppa.

✨️ Usually only available as a private tour so book your place now! €27 adult, €5 under 16s.

✨️ Who's joining us for inspiration, fun + a thoroughly good time?

Penny Dickinson

14/11/2024

🏆 Have you heard the news? is ranked 1st by Lonely Planet in its best urban destinations to visit in 2025. This is the perfect complement to it being awarded UNESCO status as a Creative City of Music last year.

👏 Bravo to Toulouse + Toulouse Team for this achievement.

✨️ It's always a privilege to help clients fall under the charm + magic of 'la ville rose'. It's truly such a special destination - when's best to visit is a question that I'm often asked! Quite simply there's no bad time as there's a reason to visit Toulouse in every season.

🏈 Visit in spring for fresh starts to sunny days. Enjoy a freshly bewed coffee 'en terrasse' on one of the picturesque squares.Take in a pastel workshop to see blue gold magic in action. A busy season for sport, a great time to take in a match + soak up the rugby spirit pre + post match!

☀️ Come in summer for the slower pace of life, enjoy a chilled glass of white with tapas at a guingette - a pop-up outdoor bar. Experience the city from the water on a canal cruise or hire an electric boat for a pootle on the Garonne. Local music superheroes Bigflo + Oli Rose music festival at the end of August is a must.

🍁 Choose autumn for leaf-peeping in the city's parks including the Japanese gardens. September's piano concerts in the Jacobins are quite special. Then end November the Christmas markets start - vin chaud anyone?

🏛 Travel here in the winter for crisp days, blue skies, quiet streets plus incredible views of the buildings. A great time to take in an opera at the theatre du Capitole and the violet festival held every February.

✨️ Friends - which is your favourite season in Toulouse? And if you've not been when are you planning to visit? My walking tours run in all 4 seasons so I know the best tips to give you whichever season you visit in! When are you joining me? Penny Dickinson

11/11/2024

💚 OUT OUT! Yes, we were!

💚 Thank you to the lovely friends who gifted us a truly special evening out on Saturday at Les Passionnés. A very thoughtful present for my 50th birthday that was back in June.

💚 Mr D + I love the ethical, unpretentious, local values + vibe there. Not to mention the mouthwatering delicious + different menu. On-point wine pairings, as always from their sommelier.

💚 Adjacent to the Canal de Brienne, cosy inside in the cooler months, the terrace is where it's at when warmer! Bon appétit!

💚 Love foodie talk with my clients + helping them find places that work for their tastes + budgets in Toulouse is all part of why I enjoy my 'job' so much.

💚 Which do think was our favourite dish? Sorry for blurry pics... Penny Dickinson

04/11/2024

✨️ What do all these people have in common? It’s not their nationality, gender or favourite food! Quite simply, they have all fallen under Toulouse’s magic spell on one of my recent private tours.

💚 Having listened to clients’ frequent post-tour musings: ‘Wish we’d had your insight earlier’; ‘We should have planned more time in Toulouse’; ‘We won’t be able to do that as we’re booked to go to x,y,z’ I am pleased to announce I have a solution (with a drum roll)…

✨️ …my NEW VIP limited edition - ‘private tour plus’ - option is now available to book! This option packages a 2025 private tour with a 30-minute video-chat with me prior to your trip to help plan your schedule whilst in Toulouse.

💚 As a special bonus for anyone buying one this week, the video-chat is FREE. This offer applies to 2025 private tours + the video chat is based on mutual diary availability & can take place any time before your tour date. To qualify for the bonus you must buy before midnight 10th November CET.

✨️ Given the festive season will soon be upon us this offer can also bought as a Gift Certificate (with Gift Certificates valid for tours upto 31st December 2025). Lovingly printed on green card with a matching envelope and sealed with silver wax they make an ideal gift for a culturally curious friend or relative.

2.5 hr private tour €225 (+ postage for gift certificates)
3.5 hr private tour €300 (+ postage for gift certificates)
Supplements apply for large groups & Sundays/national holidays

💚 PM me to reserve yours now!

📷©️ Penelope Dickinson, Toulouse Walking Tours Penny Dickinson

01/11/2024

🌼 It's November + a national holiday here in France for 'La Toussaint' or All Saints Day!

🌼I t's a day where folk take time to honour their now departed loved ones, traditionally by visiting cemetries and gracing their graves with chrysanthemums. Usually associated with funerals and considered to represent immortality, these flowers can survive hardy frosts. So that's why you see these bright blooms everywhere you look at this time of year! N.b. because of this it is NOT etiquette to give these flowers for social occasions.

🌼 I like to think my tours honour the dead too. It's a privilege to share the history of Toulouse's long-dead heroes + heroines and something I take great care in doing. My tours are carefully researched with every one an opportunity to remember the unique contributions of others to make the city of Toulouse the special place it is. From the Roman, to the Medieval, Renaissance, Modern + Contemporary periods. I feel a duty to share their history so clients can really get under the skin of Toulouse. To truly appreciate where they are. Not just as a quick tick the list visitor who wants to 'do' Toulouse in the quickest + cheapest way, rather someone who truly wants to connect with the city + understand it on another level.

🌼 If this resonates with you, then there are 5 opportunities in November to join me on one of my public tours, all at 9.30 am - 12 noon.
Sat 2nd, 9th, 16th + 30th - Key Sights, Highlights + Hidden Gems tour
Sat 23rd - Beyond the Postcard tour. Link in bio to book.

🌼 A few remaining spots for private tours weeks commencing 18th + 25th November.

🌼 So this November, I hope to help you appreciate Toulouse's history-makers, while the quiet streets spill their secrets in what is a calm but focussed + usually sunny month here in SW France. Couple of recent pics from October public tours.

🌼 Bon weekend!

📷©️ Leekris (1) + Penny Dickinson (2,3)

20/10/2024

Book-signing evening Toulouse style!

Muriel Martin + Lou Gibbons discussing the publication of Lou's first book, 'The World Happiness Organisation'. Congratulations Lou!

As the book is set in Toulouse, it's only fitting that the event took place in the beautiful, historic cellar Librairie Privat. Locals, grab your copy there + support + both the author + an independent book store

Happy Sunday - hope it's book-filled.
Penny Dickinson

13/10/2024

In love with the rainbow of autumn colours on Capitole this weekend. Swoon swoon.

08/10/2024

💚 Clients are often surprised by the urinals dotted around Toulouse.

💚 Way preferable to the alternative in my view 😉

21/09/2024

💚 Scrummy post-tour lunch today with our eldest at Café Minnaya on rue Colombette. Sunny eggs, avocado + hazelnut pancakes / avocado + salmon toast.

💚 It''s one of our faves.

17/09/2024

Post-tour shot from yesterday afternoon. 4.30pm.

We blue-sky-bathed all afternoon.

Fringe benefits of a tour with me 😉

Penny Dickinson

22/08/2024

🗝 Searching for those aha moments that will transform your trip to Toulouse into a magical experience?

💚 Wanting those insider tips and tricks that elevate a city break into the start of a special love affair with SW France? Then you have so much in common with the happy folk in these photos!

AND are you also:
✅️ Flexible with tour dates
✅️ Keen to meet others
✅️ Happy to be in a group
✅️ Travelling to a budget

🗝 Then my public tours have you covered! Whilst these are not private tours you will leave armed with everything you need to have the time of your life in 'la ville rose'. Which are my preferred courtyards in town to avoid the crowds? My pick of the temporary exhibitions in town? Where can you buy award-winning-melt-in-your-mouth fudge à la Toulouse? Best rainy day activities? My 18 year-old daughter's favourite café to hang with her friends?... and the list goes on. All questions are welcome on tour and it's always a pleasure to share my tips with you.

💚 These have been carefully curated from over 20 years of living here, having 2 kids-now-teens (so I know what youngsters at all ages like) + 14 years of guiding. These have been, hands-down the best years of my life!

🗝 I'm on a mission to ensure my clients leave Toulouse having had the BEST stay ever AND are already planning their next trip back.

💚 2 remaining public tours in August with spaces:
Saturday 24th
Saturday 31st
Both at 9.30 a.m. - 12 noon.
No remaining slots for private tours in August.

💚 Link in bio to book. Look forward to hearing from you 😘 Penny Dickinson

22/07/2024

💚 Jumping up and down with joy to announce that my walking tours have been recognised in Trip Advisors Traveler’s choice awards for 2024. The award honours businesses that consistently earn great reviews placing them among the top 10% of Trip Advisor’s listings around the world.

💚 Currently ranked ‘number 2 of 96 activities in Toulouse’ by Trip Advisor I am honoured to be among Toulouse’s visitors’ favourite things to do.

💚 A huge heartfelt thank you to all of my clients who took the time to leave a review – I do appreciate the time it takes & that online reviews are not everyone’s cup of tea. So much of my work enjoyment comes from the wonderful folk that I meet who have chosen to explore Toulouse with me. Your support means the world.

💚 Thank you to Mr D & the kids who are my biggest supporters and never complain that they share their life with a small business owner & all that means…

💚 Congratulations to all my fellow Toulouse tour guides who have been recognised with an award too – yay to us for our contribution to making Toulouse the unique destination it is!

💚 This achievement is even more special to me as I don’t sell my tours through the Trip Advisor platform. This year’s award compliments prior Trip Advisor accolades going all the way back to 2013 (excluding the covid-challenging year of 2021).

💚 Thank you for being part of my business journey & here’s to many more exciting adventures together! Penny Dickinson