This gallery depicts some elements of a journey through a part of the Occitanie region, Languedoc and Roussillon. This is the center of the distinctive civilization of the south of France. The journey also ventured into Arles and Avignon in Provence.
"Occitanie" is a historical reference to the part of France where until the nineteenth century most people spoke varieties of Occitanian French, not the standard French of northern France. You may still hear some people speaking Occitan, the ancient language of the region, a cousin of Catalan from nearby Spain.
The "Langue d'oc" was the version of French spoken in the south of the country, and Languedoc referred to the part of France in which the "language of Oc" was spoken. "Oc" (from the Latin ac ) was the word for "yes" in this part of France, at a time when people in the north of France said "oeuil", an old French word that has become modern French "oui". This language is an echo from the Middle Ages, spoken by a band of wandering Languedoc poets and musicians (troubadours) who literally sang for their suppers with verses of courtly, unrequited love aimed at the wives of noblemen.
Roussillon refers to a county formerly a part of the Principality of Catalonia. As the French and Spanish crowns grew in power in the 13th C, the region of Roussillon, forming part of the border between them, was frequently a site of military conflict. Finally, the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) secured Roussillon as part of France, although there remains a very strong Catalan presence.
This region has been a strategic border since Roman times and has historical remnants ranging, from Roman aqueducts, Gothic cathedrals and monasteries, to hilltop Cathar castles.
Today it’s best known for its agriculture and the beaches sprawling along its Mediterranean shore. The fertile coastal plain is given over to agriculture, vineyards and other fruits as well as vegetables. Inland Languedoc is characterised not only by vineyards but also "garrigue", arid rocky Mediteranean hills with their vegetation of scrub, aromatic bushes and occasional fields. North and northeast of Montpellier, the valleys, more wooded and rural, give way to the Cevennes hills, the southeastern peaks of the Massif Central.
Historical note: the Cathars
The history of this region cannot be told without the religious context of the Cathari. They professed a neo-Manichaean dualism—that there are two principles, one good and the other evil, and that the material world is evil. Cathar priests lived simply, had no possessions, imposed no taxes or penalties, and regarded men and women as equals. From the mid-12th century, they won wide support from the people and the nobles of Languedoc, at a time when Catholic clergy were seen as corrupt and immoral.
They were branded as heretics by the Roman Catholic church. The pope sent Cistercian monks to found monasteries in Languedoc and preach against the heresy; they were soon succeeded by St. Dominic in the early 1200s, who with his order of preachers set out with his fellow friars to work in the wider world “by word and example.” Their preaching proved a spectacular and embarrassing failure. The murder of papal legate Peter of Castelnau in 1208 precipitated Pope Innocent III to preach the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229). The Pope promised the nobles of the north heavenly salvation and that they could keep all the rich lands and booty of their southern neighbors. These barons attacked towns in Béziers and in Toulouse with singular fury. The Albigensian Crusade brought the south under northern subjection, as massacres and the establishment of a papal Inquisition by the Dominicans (1233) eventually drove the Cathars into exile in Italy or back to Catholicism.