What is the Toulouse outdoor escape game?
The Toulouse outdoor escape game takes the logic of an escape room into the city. Your phone guides you from place to place, and at each of the ten stops you solve a puzzle by reading the surroundings and reasoning step by step. Allow about 2 hours in total, of which 45 minutes is walking over 3.6 km between the stops.
Each puzzle is tied to a monument, from the Romanesque basilica of Saint-Sernin to the brick Capitole, and stands on its own: no storyline links the stops. A legend says Saint Saturnin was first buried on the spot where Notre-Dame du Taur stands today. If you get stuck, three levels of hints are available, and no clock runs while you think.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 45 min · 3.6 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do during the game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at each place from what is in front of you. Prior knowledge of Toulouse is not needed.
Read the details
The answers sit in the surroundings: inscriptions, shapes, the lines of a facade, the layout of a square.
Walk
Google Maps leads you from one place to the next, about 45 minutes on foot over 3.6 km.
Set your pace
There is no countdown. Ask for a hint when you need one, stop for lunch, and carry on later in the day or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it is for
Friends
Each stop gives the group a shared problem to argue over, and nobody has to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A joint challenge that keeps you talking as you walk from one monument to the next, with no clock running.
Team building
Colleagues each play on their own phone, so the game works well as a workplace outing.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Saint-Sernin to Saint-Exupère Church
10 stops · about 45 min walking · start: Basilica of Saint-Sernin · finish: Saint-Exupère Church
Your first puzzle waits at the Basilica of Saint-Sernin and your last at Saint-Exupère Church, with eight stops between them: Notre-Dame du Taur, the Capitole, the Couvent des Jacobins, the Pont Neuf, the Musée des Augustins, St Stephen's Cathedral, the Grand Rond Garden and the University of Toulouse. Start in daylight if you can, since you read the puzzles outdoors and rain or wind will slow you down. Google Maps handles navigation between stops, the app lets you change their order, and the puzzles need no entry tickets.
Open the route map ↗
1Basilica of Saint-SerninStart
Begun around 1080 over the tomb of Saint Saturnin, the first bishop of Toulouse, Saint-Sernin is one of the largest Romanesque churches in Europe. Pope Urban II consecrated its altar in 1096, and the basilica is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a stage on the pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela.
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2Notre-Dame du Taur
According to tradition, this church stands where Saint Saturnin was first buried after being dragged to his death by a bull, which gave the street and church their name: taur means bull in Occitan. Its tall brick facade is a wall-belfry, a flat bell wall typical of southern French Gothic, built in the 14th century.
3Capitole
Toulouse City Hall is called the Capitole, after the capitouls, the consuls who governed the city from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Its long facade of pink brick and stone was built in the 1750s to plans by Guillaume Cammas, and the building also houses the Théâtre du Capitole. A large Occitan cross is set into the paving of the square.
4Couvent des Jacobins
The Dominican order was founded in Toulouse in 1215, and its friars began this brick church in 1230. Inside, a single slender column spreads its vaulting ribs like a palm tree, a feature known as the Palm Tree of the Jacobins. The relics of Thomas Aquinas have rested here since the 14th century.
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5Pont Neuf
Despite its name, the Pont Neuf, or New Bridge, is the oldest bridge across the Garonne in Toulouse: it was begun in 1544 and completed in 1632, partly under the Parisian architect Jacques Lemercier. Look at the round openings in its piers, which let floodwater through, and it was the only bridge in the city to survive the great flood of 1875.
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6Musée des Augustins
The fine arts museum occupies a former convent of Augustinian friars built from the 14th century, with a Gothic cloister and a church tower visible from the street. It opened as a museum in 1795, making it one of the oldest in France, and is known for its Romanesque sculpture from the churches of Toulouse.
7St Stephen's Cathedral
Toulouse Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was built over several centuries and is known for its unusual shape: the early 13th-century nave and the larger Gothic choir begun in the late 13th century are not on the same axis. Look at the west front, where the rose window is not centred above the portal.
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8Grand Rond Garden
The Grand Rond, also called the Boulingrin after the English bowling green, is an oval garden laid out in the 18th century where several tree-lined avenues meet. A large fountain stands at its centre, and the garden is linked to the Jardin Royal and the Jardin des Plantes.
9University of Toulouse
The University of Toulouse was founded in 1229, at the end of the Albigensian Crusade, which makes it one of the oldest universities in Europe. Today Toulouse is one of the largest student cities in France, and university buildings are spread across the centre and the suburbs.
10Saint-Exupère ChurchFinish
This parish church is dedicated to Saint Exuperius, bishop of Toulouse around the year 400. He is remembered for completing the basilica over the tomb of Saint Saturnin and moving the saint's relics there, the forerunner of today's Saint-Sernin. In 405 Pope Innocent I sent him a letter listing the books of the Bible, an important early text on the biblical canon.
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