1888 Vincent van Gogh left a dull grey Paris and headed south by train for the unique almost heavenly light of Provence.
“May artists come together in Provence” was Van Gogh’s wish, and last night at the Orange Velodrome the artists of Toulon and Toulon showed us their true colours.

This Top 14 encounter is in fact a Toulon home game, annually transferred 47 miles up the coast. It encompasses a rugby festival where the whole of the city is in rugby party mood along with the sold out 67,000 capacity crowd at the stadium for a post 9pm kick off.

With the Bodega at Parc Chanot open from 11 a.m. it was a challenging day for those with a penchant for pre match beverage consumption, fortunately the Velodrome is only a five-minute walk, or a fifteen-minute stagger, away.

The strains of “Pilou Pilou” were still hanging in the air when Romain Ntamack crashed over for a try after just four minutes.

Toulon responded magnificently with tries from Albornoz and Drean and the metronomic Jaminet’s 23rd minute penalty gave them a 17-7 lead.

Toulouse went up another gear and Dupont’s try right on half-time lit the blue touch-paper for a second half they dominated and displayed their artistry, with halfbacks Dupont and Ntamack back to their very best.

Toulouse scored three second half tries, the best of which occurred in the 44th minute, when Dupont displayed his football skills at the home of OM. This set up a wonderful try for Chocobares, dribbling through before providing a glorious offload that sent the Argentinian for a sliding touchdown to make the score 34-20 to the visitors.

Replacement scrum-half Ben White scored a consolation try for Toulon in the 65th minute, but by then Toulouse were home and hosed.

Toulouse victory guarantees them a semi-final place in the Top 14 knock out stages, and in the process they continue to set new records.

The 912 points scored far this season is a new record, as is the try tally of 123.

As the crowds headed to the midnight metro Marseille was greeting a Sunday morning where the most important challenge will be where to go for lunch, Toulouse certainly gave everyone food for thought last night at the Vélodrome.