Hélene Vié’s unique boutique and fascinating mini-museum, La Maison de la Violette, is housed in a vintage barge moored on the Canal du Midi. Her charming establishment is all about celebrating the city’s emblem, the Toulouse violet, which gives the city’s football team its nickname – Les Violets. It is said that Napoleon’s
soldiers first brought the flower to the city, and it now lends its delicate scent, flavour and colour to sweets, cordials, liqueurs, cakes and teas, all of which you can sample and buy here. A box of crystallised violets is an easy-to-carry memento of your visit to Toulouse, and a bottle of violet liqueur makes an original gift.
