Toulouse: France

Toulouse Travel: France
Toulouse (pronounced /tuluz/ in standard French, /tuˈluzÉ™/ in local Toulouse accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced /tuˈluzÉ?/) is a city in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne River, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With a population of 1.05 million inhabitants in 2004, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the second largest in southern France and one of the fastest growing in Europe. It is the home base of the European aerospace industry, such as Alcatel Espace and EADS Space, and hosts the headquarters of Airbus S.A.S..
Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution).. It is the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées région, the largest région in France although it encompasses only half of the former Languedoc province. It is also the préfecture (capital) of the Haute-Garonne département. It is the seat of the Académie des Jeux Floraux, the equivalent of the French Academy for the Occitan-speaking regions of southern France, making Toulouse the unofficial capital of Occitan culture. The traditional Occitan cross was adopted as the symbol of both the City of Toulouse and the newly-founded Midi-Pyrénées région