Allegory Coffee Bar, Toulouse, France

Allegory Coffee Bar
9 Rue Peyras, 31000 Toulouse, France

I have a complex relationship with French coffee. For a country renowned for its fine cuisine, it’s surprisingly hard to find decent coffee, but when it’s good it’s really good! A strange set of circumstances has led me to wandering around Toulouse at 10am with no sleep from the night before and a day of shopping on the horizon but I’m not prepared to swallow down the swill so readily available on every street corner just to perk me up. My trusty travel app has failed to find me anywhere worthwhile within a ten-mile radius, but I know the city is both big enough, and diverse enough, to hold at least a few speciality coffee places that I can walk to in my exhausted state.

Turning to Google, I start to whittle down potential options and uncover Allegory coffee bar just 10 mins from the main square, and set out on an amble that weaves through the narrow side streets. I wander into a small, contemporary space with vaulted brick ceilings and homely vibe and am directed to an empty table. Employing my schoolboy French, I manage to stutter out an order for an oat latte, that is miraculously understood, and then lean back on the comfortably cushioned bench whilst it’s being prepared, desperately not trying to drift off.

It would appear this place also serves brunch with vegan options also available, something else quite hard to find in this country, but I can’t bring myself to eat right now as my body doesn’t really know what it’s doing. The coffee comes and is smooth and rich, honey like tones tingle through the milk and I am somewhat revived, enjoying the quiet murmur of others around me. 

I don’t have too long to spend there but it’s a great start to my mini French adventure and opens up a new side of the city to me that I will undoubtedly visit again.