8 Best Sights in Toulouse and the Languedoc, France

One of the tallest and best of Toulouse's 49 towers can be seen at this privately owned 16th-century mansion.

This 16th-century mansion is notable for its lovely Romanesque wooden stairways and galleries and for its top-floor mirande, or wooden balcony.

Now part of a school, this mansion, around the corner from the Ensemble Conventuel des Jacobins, was built for Jean de Bernuy in the 16th century, the period when Toulouse was at its most prosperous. De Bernuy made his fortune exporting woad, the dark-blue dye that brought unprecedented wealth to the city; his success is reflected in the use of stone (a costly material in this region of brick) and by the octagonal stair tower. You can visit this mansion on one of the many themed city tours (€10); the Grands Monuments de Toulouse program includes a stop here.

One of the finest mansions on rue de la Dalbade is also known as the Hôtel de Pierre because of its unusually solid pierre (stone) construction, which was considered a sign of great wealth at the time. The ornately sculpted facade was designed by Nicolas Bachelier in the 16th century.

Look for the 17th-century biblical inscriptions carved in Latin in the stone under the windows.

Officially the Hôtel Beringuier Maynier, this building was dubbed the Vieux Raisin (Old Grape) after the early name of the street and even earlier inn. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, the mansion has an octagonal tower, male and female figures on the facade, and allegorical sculptures of the three stages of life—infancy, maturity, and old age—over the windows to the left.

Take a look at Albi's finest restored traditional house, the Maison du Vieil Albi.

Real fans of painter Toulouse-Lautrec may want to snap a photo of his birthplace, the Maison Natale de Toulouse-Lautrec, which remains a private residence.