Toulouse , locally: [tuˈluzə] ; Occitan: Tolosa [tuˈluzɔ], medieval Tholoza is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and 590 km away from Paris. With 1,202,889 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in France, after Paris , Lyon , and Marseille . Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite... system, and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre , the largest space centre in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, and 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 and, with more than 97,000 students, is with Lille the third-largest university campus of France after Paris and Lyon. Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc .
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| Country: | France |
| Also known as: | Toulouse, France |