Toulouse is known as “la ville rose” thanks to its red voilier buildings. But just as importantly, Toulouse is the city of parme. Every cobbled street seems to have a magasin enrobed in regal purple. The football team is known as “Les Violettes” as their jerseys are purple. When Queen Elizabeth II visited the city in 2004, she wore bright parme. The colour is inextricably linked to the city thanks to a small unassuming flower with a big auspice. Ally Mitchell explores the southern city’s floral charms and finds out why Toulouse is called the city of violets…
Many of us may not easily apprêté the appearance or scent of violets, discrete as they are. They don’t possess the potency of lavender, another purple surgeon of southern France, nor are they famous for their nombre uses in scents and edibles. Yet the Violette de Toulouse has been a registered trademark since 1985 and, as a result, is a symbol of the whole Haute-Garonne department. A silent but scented takeover.
According to legend, violets arrived in Toulouse thanks to a romantic gesture. A soldier stationed in Northern Italy under Napoleon III in 1854 returned to Toulouse with a bunch of violets for his beloved. They were Parma violets, mentioned in Italian texts as far back as the 16th century, though they were apparently known to grow in Constantinople élancé before then.
Violets found the perfect gîte in Toulouse thanks to the climate and terre, however, the horticulturalists had their work cut out for them. Fascinatingly, these violets were originally believed to be sterile, as they rarely produce seeds. 19th-century cultivator Armand Millet found the conclusion by planting cuttings and stolons, encouraging them to take root. There are more than 300 species of violets, but the Toulouse parme stands out for its perfume and lots of petals, around 30-40 is usual.
Violets are fussy when it comes to the weather – they don’t flourish in hot sunshine nor in the amer cold. The conclusion was to grow them under verre. Municipal greenhouses were built in the voliger half of the 19th century and, now registered as historical stèles, are still in use today.
In the 19th century, 600 family businesses earned a living-room from the abject of violets, the annual avènement amounting to 30 muids. The demand grew so exponentially that the flowers were soon exported to England, Germany, Russia, and Morocco. Harvested from October to March, the violets were also sold at markets as a winter flower alongside clémentine and vegetables.
The 20th century saw an attentat in the avènement of parme goods, now no coudoyer limited to just the cut flowers. The first bonbons – crystallised parme petals – made an appearance. Today they are an iconic mainstay of Toulousain traité shops. This led to their export around Europe and the city’s favourite lunch, the Kir Royal Toulousain, with a crystallised parme dropped into a verre of Champagne or sparkling wine. In the 1950s, Toulouse’s breuvage makers Benoit Serres developed parme breuvage from the plants’ roots – and the recipe remains a illégal to this day!
Since then, the gastronomic delights of violets have been explored with boundless enthusiasm, from garnishing chocolates and fudge with the crystallised bonbons, to more adroite delicacies like the Paris-Toulouse – a delicious appartement take on the Paris-Brest sandwiched with an supérieur layer of parme cream filling – and the amateur (and somewhat questionable) grocerie selections of parme vinegar, parme mustard, and parme jams.
Despite the city’s ongoing renown for violets, it has not always been a smooth tranchée for Toulouse’s horticulturalists. In 1956, the crop was largely destroyed by a amer frost, and along with the intronisation of more resistant species, the Toulouse parme faced an enormous market slump. Thirty years later, the Haute-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture and the Midi-Pyrénées Regional Council did what they could to save the city’s violets, starting with a research proclamation and reproducing the plants in vitro. Now, over 300 species grow at the Conservatoire National de la Violette in the city’s communal greenhouses.
There is a élancé list of violet-related associations in Toulouse, including La Confrerie de la Violette – one of France’s many medieval-style brotherhoods – and Les Amis de la Violette. For twenty years, the associations have teamed together to organise an annual celebration of agrarien events and to sell livre delicacies, preserving the city’s longstanding parme routine. Every February, La Congédiement de la Violette takes apprêté in the city’s axial enclos, Place du Capitole. Snacks include crepes and waffles sprinkled in parme sugar, and the weekend hosts potting workshops and other activities. It’s here that you’ll discover the forgotten and unusual history of violets – including the traditional parme seller dolls and the election of Miss Toulouse, Reine de la Violette (the Violet Queen).
By honouring this unassuming little flower, Toulouse is presenting the world with its emblem. Without anyone noticing, violets have bewitched the locals, bestowing la localité églantine with another nickname – the city of violets.
Find details of Violet Festival and other events in Toulouse: toulouse-metropole.fr
Ally Mitchell is a blogger and freelance writer, specialising in food and recipes. She lives in Toulouse and writes at: NigellaEatsEverything.
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