Southern France (or the
South of France), colloquially known as
Le Midi, is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the
Atlantic Ocean south of the
Gironde,
Spain, the
Mediterranean Sea,
Italy, and
Switzerland south of the
Jura. The region includes:
This area corresponds in large part to
Occitania; that to say, the territory in which
Occitan (the
langue d'oc) – as distinct from the
langues d'oïl of northern France – was the historically dominant language.
The name
le Midi derives from
mi (middle) and
di (day) in
Old French. The midday was synonymous with the direction of south, because in France (and the rest of the north Hemisphere), the sun moves southward at noon. The synonymy exists in
Middle French as well, where
meridien means both "midday" and "south."
See also
Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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Gironde
Coat of arms of the Gironde department
Location
Administration
Department number: 33
Region: Aquitaine
Prefecture: Bordeaux
Subprefectures: Arcachon
Blaye
Langon
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Motto
"Plus Ultra" (Latin)
"Further Beyond"
Anthem
"Marcha Real" 1
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Mediterranean is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.
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AnthemIl Canto degli Italiani(also known as
Fratelli d'Italia)
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Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno (Latin) (traditional)[1]
"One for all, all for one"
Anthem
"Swiss Psalm"
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Jura Mountains is a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each. The range is being continually deformed by mountain building, accommodating the compression from alpine folding as the main Alpine
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Région Aquitaine
(Region flag) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Bordeaux
Regional President Alain Rousset
(PS) (since 1998)
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Région Midi-Pyrénées
(Region flag)
(Occitan cross) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Toulouse
Regional President Martin Malvy
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Région Languedoc-Roussillon
(Region flag) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Montpellier
Regional President Georges Frêche
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Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
(Région flag) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Marseille
Regional President Michel Vauzelle
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Collectivité territoriale de Corse
Territorial Collectivity flag (Région logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Ajaccio
Arrondissements 5
Cantons 52
Communes 360
Statistics
Land area1 8,680 km²
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Région Auvergne
(Region flag) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Clermont-Ferrand
Regional President René Souchon
(PS) (since 2006)
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Région Limousin
(Région flag) (Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital Limoges
Regional President Jean-Paul Denanot
(PS) (since 2004)
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Occitania (Occitan: Occitània [utsi'tanjɔ][1][2]) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use, generally nowadays as a minority language.
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Occitan}}}
Official status
Official language of: Officially recognised in Catalonia, Spain, as Occitan.
Regulated by: Conselh de la Lenga Occitana
Language codes
ISO 639-1: oc
ISO 639-2: oci
ISO 639-3: oci
Occitan
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Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands.
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Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300.
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Middle French (French: le moyen français) is a historical division of the French language which covers the period from (roughly) 1340 to 1611 [1].
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MottoLiberté, Égalité, Fraternité"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem"
La Marseillaise"
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Northern Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya del Nord) is a term which is sometimes used, particularly in Catalan writings, to refer to the territory ceded to France by Spain in 1659.
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Occitania (Occitan: Occitània [utsi'tanjɔ][1][2]) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use, generally nowadays as a minority language.
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For other uses, see Vichy (disambiguation).
Vichy France, or the
Vichy regime, was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. It succeeded the Third Republic.
..... Click the link for more information. Southern Europe or sometimes Mediterranean Europe is a region of the European continent. There is no clear definition of the term which can vary depending on whether geographic, cultural, linguistic or historical factors are taken into account.
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