A320 Captain's windshield shattered passing FL200; the crew leveled off at FL210. First Officer reports that after consultation with the Company the crew elected to return to departure airport for an overweight landing.

Narrative

Passing FL200; we noticed the Captain front windshield had shattered. We immediately leveled off at FL210 and Captain ran the Cockpit Windshield Cracked checklist in the abnormal procedures section of the QRH while First Officer slowed to 250 KTS to lessen impact on windshield. Captain addressed the associated ECAM action. I believe it was 'Captain windshield heat inoperative.' Pressurization and all other cockpit indications were normal. Captain determined that we were to descend immediately to 10;000 return to departure airport due to the fact that FL230 was the maximum altitude and we didn't have the fuel to make it to our destination; First Officer agreed. First Officer was pilot flying and arranged to return to our departure airport with ATC with the possibility of needing to burn off fuel to land below max landing weight limit based on Captain's and Dispatcher's determination. Captain contacted Dispatch and Maintenance Control and determined that landing overweight was the best course of action. First Officer agreed. Captain ran the overweight landing checklist while ATC informed us they would be rolling CFR. We agreed with ATC and gave them souls and fuel on board. Captain contacted the Flight Attendants and made a PA to the passengers. Airport Operations sent an in-range ACARS with return gate information. Captain then became the pilot flying. First Officer re-ran the cracked windshield; overweight landing checklist; ECAM action/status; and all normal checklists. Captain landed with at approximately 158;000 LBS less than 100 FT per/min. After landing; we stopped the aircraft so that CFR could inspect brakes. All cockpit indications were normal. We proceeded to the gate with one CFR escort.