Toulouse (pronounced /tu'lus/ in English, [tuˈluz] in standard French, and [tuˈluzə] in the local French accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced [tuˈluzɔ]) is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 730 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan. 1, 2006, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fifth-largest in France.
Toulouse is the home base of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space center in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, Europe's largest satellite manufacturer, and EADS Astrium Satellites, EADS's satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. Its world renowned university is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 120,000 students, is the second-largest university campus of France after Paris (and ahead of Lyon).
Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution). It is now the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées region, the largest region in metropolitan France. It is also the capital of the Haute-Garonne department.
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