Toulouse, home to the Université de Toulouse, is a city in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne River, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,117,000 inhabitants in 2007, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in France and the fastest growing in Europe.

Toulouse is one of the centers of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, and CNES's Toulouse Space Center (CST), the largest space center in Europe.

Toulouse, known as the Ville Rose ("Pink City") for its distinctive brick architecture[citation needed], is host to a rich and diverse culture. It has a thriving scene of unusually beautiful graffiti, with the painter Miss Van at its forefront. In sports, it boasts a highly respected rugby union team, Stade Toulousain, which has been a four-time finalist, three-time winner in Europe's top club competition in the sport, the Heineken Cup and 17 times French champions. The city also has a football (soccer) team in Toulouse FC and a rugby league team, Toulouse Olympique, who has won the French championship on four occasions.

Housing is available through CROUS. For more information, see the Université de Toulouse website.