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Toulon (French pronunciation: [tu.lɔ̃]; Provençal Occitan: Tolon in classical norm or Touloun in Mistralian norm), italian language: Tolone, is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence.

Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment.

The military port of Toulon is the major naval centre on France's Mediterranean coast, home of the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle and her battle group. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in Toulon.

The Toulon Opera (L'opéra de Toulon), inaugurated in 1862, is the second-largest opera house in France, after the Palais Garnier in Paris, and it is one of the country's national historic monuments. It is currently the home of the Opéra Toulon Provence Méditerranée, under the direction of Claude-Henri Bonnet. The opera company performs about eight operas a season in the opera houses of Toulon, Avignon, Nice and Marseille.

The house seats 1,797 people on five levels. The theatre sits on 2,000 square meters of foundation and has a stage width of 22 meters 80 centimeters and a depth of 12 metres (39 ft). The permanent opera staff consists of over 200 people.

The Toulon Opera House (Fr: Le Grand Theâtre de Toulon) was one of a wave of lyric opera houses built in France and Europe in the middle of the 19th century, and it represented the exuberant style of the Second Empire. Its construction began on 5 March 1860, two years before the start of construction of the Palais Garnier in Paris. Léon Feuchéres, who had renovated the Marseille Opera House and built the opera house in Avignon designed it. He died in 1860, and the work was finished by Paris architects Charpentier, pére et fils.

The 15-meter canvas on the ceiling was painted and its plaster ornament designed by Jean Noël Duveau, who also created the ceiling of the Grand Salon of the Imperial Apartments in the Napoleon Wing of the Louvre.