13th Annual Computer Security Incident Handling Conference
Congress Center Pierre Baudis, Toulouse, France June 17—22, 2001 This conference is sponsored by First Org., Inc.

Pierre Baudis Congress Center video broadband | 56kbit/s (9:25 min) - video player

Toulouse, the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées region, is located on the Garonne river, in a plain midway between the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic ocean.

The city is southern in atmosphere and climate - winters are mild and summers hot - but tends to be compared more often with either Florence or Barcelona than the French Riviera. Its lively, cosmopolitan atmosphere is also due in part to the presence of some 100,000 students, Toulouse boasts the second largest university population after Paris. After the First World War, the town came back to life : in less than a century Toulouse has grown from a small provincial town to one of the most active business and high-tech centers in France.

It is now the fourth largest city in France. Its international airport places it an hour from Madrid, an hour and twenty minutes from London and an hour from Paris.

Arts and entertainment

Toulouse has combined its traditional and contemporary taste for art and entertainment.

The Capitole Theatre has a high reputation for music and opera. The many café-théatres, cinemas, jazz bars, and concerts in the beautifully restored Halle aux Grains offer a wide range of performances and entertainment

Dining and cuisine

The gastronomy of Toulouse has much in common with that of neighboring Gascony to the west and Dordogne and Perigord to the north and places emphasis on a wide range of duck and goose products.

Whether your interest is in sampling the local specialities, finding a good ethnic restaurant from all over the world or simply buying a sandwich, you will find the right place to go.

Economy
Aviation industry is an essential part of the Toulouse economy (Toulouse is the home city of Airbus Industrie) but is by no means the only high tech industry located there.
The city has become Europe's leading space centre with CNES (French Space Agency), Matra Marconi Space, Alcatel Space Industry and Spot Image among others, all with their head offices around Toulouse.

Museums and churches

Up until the mid-16th century, Toulouse built its richest and finest buildings by cultivating a plant called Isatis Tinctoria from which a rich blue dye was produced: pastel (or woad). As the Medieval Europe's leading supplier, the wealthy city and surrounding areas had an international reputation for good living, art and culture.

The Pastel Merchants constructed Renaissance style mansions in the city and fine "châteaux", some of which can still be visited today in the surrounding countryside.

Albi, 45 minutes from Toulouse, is the birthplace of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 - 1901) and home to the Toulouse-Lautrec museum housing the largest collection of his work world-wide.

Montauban, 30 minutes from Toulouse, was an important Protestant town during the Wars of Religion which devastated the country - and the south-west in particular - during the late 16C. The city is the birthplace of the painter Jean-Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867) and now home to the Musée Ingres which houses a large number of his works.

Other attractions in the vicinity of Midi-Pyrénées

Carcassonne : the old city is the largest medieval fortress in Europe with 3km of walls and 52 towers. Its origins date back to Gallo-Roman times, although its present construction dates from the 12C and 13C. The visit of the Count's Castle and ramparts is highly recommended. The fortress was heavily restored during the 19C by Viollet-le-Duc. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

Cirque de Gavarnie : dominated by 3,000 meter high peaks, this rocky amphitheater is 14km in circumference and 800 meters deep. Many waterfalls flow from the glaciers which crown the spectacle.

Weather

The climate of South West France is in general very pleasant.

The winters are mild, the summers are long and hot, the autumns are calm, sunny and fruitful. The average temperature in June is 24°C.