Today I was asked one of those questions that
1. is so good I’d thought it should be shared.
2. I only know part of the answer so maybe you can tell me more?
My good friends of many years Sue and Edwin Morton who live in Canada asked, or at least, Edwin asked “isn’t Occitainie an administrative region in France? May have the ranking wrong”.
I responded with :
The region would be an excellent place to base historical novels.
So far the only one I’ve found is a trilogy by Bernard Cornwell. Pre France, post Gaul, maybe with roots deeper than Gaul, #l’Occitane was the name of the region at the heart of which are the Gaillacois Tarn.
The language, still spoken as their first language by some of the old folk when I was living, painting in Castelnau de Montmiral, is used in various forms from the Alps Maritime to Barcelona.
That area was at one time approximately the size of the Roman province of Narbonne.
The origins of the language and culture I’m yet to discover.
I do know that a l’Occitainane from Montmiral can just about understand the language of another from Barcelona or Alps Maritime.
Rather as the Celts from Scotland can speak with their Basque cousins.
To impose French, the Paris government did for long years discourage l’Occitane language however today it is being revived.
About 5 years ago the administrative region situated between ‘Pyrenees Atlantic and Pyrenees Oriental was named Midi Pyrenees.
In a referendum by majority vote the region was renamed l’Occitane.
If you discover more do tell me !
