L’Hôtel du Midi

The 19th century saw the heyday of merchants, innkeepers and millers, who bought national property and benefited from the speculation of the Revolution and the traffic of the wars of empire. The urban professional population doubled between 1806 and 1837, proof of the town’s economic awakening.

Many houses were built with terracotta decorations, in keeping with fashion. The masterpiece of the genre was the Hôtel du Midi, built in 1862 by the innkeeper Monsieur Layrisse. The increase in the number of inns was further proof of the commercial development of the city, which had to accommodate more and more visitors.

For the markets and fairs in Rieumes, which were held on Thursdays, sellers and buyers, particularly the horse-breeders, arrived the day before and did not leave until Friday. In 1885, the schoolteacher Monsieur Polié wrote that on market day, “hotels, inns, cafés and sheds abound, so that there is nothing lacking to satisfy the needs of foreigners”.