Toulouse is a city located in Southern France, serving as the prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and the Occitania region. Situated on the banks of the River Garonne, it is positioned 150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea, 230 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, and 680 kilometres from Paris.
As one of France's major urban centers, Toulouse is the fourth-largest city in the country after Paris, Marseille, and Lyon. The municipal boundaries held a population of 514,819 inhabitants in 2023, while its metropolitan area reached a population of 1,513,396 in 2022. The city serves as the central hub for one of France's 22 metropolitan councils and was ranked as the third fastest-growing metropolitan area with over 500,000 inhabitants between the 2014 and 2020 censuses.