You are invited to submit a paper or a session proposal for the 29th annual meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society/Société d’Histoire Coloniale Française which will be held at the Université de Toulouse, France from May 14-18, 2003. 

     You are invited to submit a paper or a session proposal for the 29th annual meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society/Société d’Histoire Coloniale Française which will be held at the Université de Toulouse, France from May 14-18, 2003.  Presenters are encouraged to send proposals highlighting the ties between France’s southwestern region (Le Grand Sud-Ouest) and overseas expansion.  Proposals relating to other aspects or La France Outre-Mer will be considered.  Volunteers for chairmanship/commentators are solicited.  Further information concerning will be available on the Society’s Website: www.frenchcolonial.org.  Submissions should be e-mailed to boucherp@email.uah.edu before March 31, 2002.
     Known as la ville rose for its architectural beauty, Toulouse is a thriving artistic, educational, and economic center located half-way between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. L'Université de Toulouse, which will host the meeting, dates back to medieval times, yet is a thoroughly modern institution.  It has a large student body (over 25,000 students for the School of Arts), which regularly organizes academic and artistic events of international scope.
     Toulouse-Blagnac international airport is served by all major European airlines (Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Swissair).  With La Navette, Air France also has frequent connections between Paris and Toulouse (an average of one every half hour between 6 am and 10 pm).
     The organizers of FCHS 2003 are planning a visit to architectural sites in downtown Toulouse, a sampling of the best gastronomical specialties of Southwestern France, as well as an excursion to a coastal city of the Bay of Biscaye, from which much of France's colonial history started.