Occitania (langue d'oc)

Occitania — the langue d'oc Mediterranean south, once effectively a separate Romance civilisation. Its 12th-century troubadour courts at Toulouse made Occitan the first great literary vernacular of Europe, until the Albigensian Crusade (1209–29) annexed it to the northern crown by force and the Republic later all but extinguished the language. More a subdued country than a French region, it stretches across Provence and Languedoc with a slower Mediterranean rhythm — rugby, the warmth of the Midi — quite unlike the north. Today it pairs wine, sun and the aerospace of Toulouse with a lingering regionalist and federalist streak and a steady linguistic revival.

• Existed: 1100 CE – present
• Type: Entity