Occitania

Linguistic map of Occitania

Main Occitan cities, in Occitan

Occitania (Occitan: Occitània, IPA: [uksiˈtanjɔ], [ukʃiˈtanjɔ], [usiˈtanjɔ], [uksiˈtanja] or [utsiˈtanjɔ]),^[1][2] also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the historical region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as Monaco and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese) and Spain (Aran Valley). Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages, but has never been a legal nor a political entity under this name, although the territory was united in Roman times as the Seven Provinces (Latin: Septem Provinciæ^[3]) and in the early Middle Ages (Aquitanica or the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse^[4]) before the French conquest started in the early 13th century.

A version of the flag frequently used by Occitan activists

Currently about a half million people out of 16 million in the area have a proficient knowledge of Occitan,^[5] although the languages more usually spoken in the area are French, Italian, Catalan and Spanish. Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language of Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley where Occitan gained official status in 1990.

Under later Roman rule (after 355), most of Occitania was known as Aquitania,^[6] itself part of the Seven Provinces within a wider Provincia Romana (modern Provence), while the northern provinces of what is now France were called Gallia (Gaul). Gallia Aquitania (or Aquitanica) is thus also a name used since medieval times for Occitania (i.e. Limousin, Auvergne, Languedoc and Gascony), including Provence as well in the early 6th century. Thus the historic Duchy of Aquitaine must not be confused with the modern French region called Aquitaine: this is the main reason why the term Occitania was revived in the mid-19th century. The names "Occitania"^[7] and "Occitan language" (Occitana lingua) appeared in Latin texts from as early as 1242–1254^[8] to 1290^[9] and during the following years of the early 14th century; texts exist in which the area is referred to indirectly as "the country of the Occitan language" (Patria Linguae Occitanae). This derives from the name Lenga d'òc that was used in Italian (Lingua d'òc) by Dante in the late 13th century. The somewhat uncommon ending of the term Occitania is most probably a portmanteau French clerks coined from òc [ɔk] and Aquitània [ɑkiˈtanjɑ], thus blending the language and the land in just one concept.^[10] Occitan and Lenga d'òc both refer to the centuries-old set of Romance dialects that use òc for "yes".

Geography

Gordes, a typical Provençal village, named by CNN the most beautiful village of the world.^[11]

View from a part of the old town of Toulouse, former capital of Languedoc.

Port de la Lune, Bordeaux, nicknamed the Sleeping Beauty.

Occitania includes the following regions:

• The southern half of France: Provence, Drôme-Vivarais, Auvergne, Limousin, Guyenne, Gascony, southern Dauphiné and Languedoc. French is now the dominant language in this area, where Occitan is not recognized as an official language.
• The Occitan Valleys in the Italian Аlps, where the Occitan language received legal status in 1999. These are fourteen Piedmontese valleys in the provinces of Cuneo and Torino, as well as in scattered mountain communities of the Liguria region (province of Imperia), and, unexpectedly, in one community (Guardia Piemontese) in the region of Calabria (province of Cosenza).
• The Aran valley, in the Pyrenees, in Catalonia (Spain) where Occitan has been an official language since 1990 (status granted by the partial autonomy of Aran Valley, then confirmed by the Catalan Statute)
• The Principality of Monaco (where Occitan is traditionally spoken besides Monégasque).

Occitan or langue d'oc (lenga d'òc) is a Latin-based Romance language in the same way as Spanish, Italian or French. There are six main regional varieties, with easy intercomprehension among them: Provençal (including Niçard spoken in the vicinity of Nice), Vivaroalpenc, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon (including Bearnés spoken in Béarn) and Lengadocian. All these varieties of the Occitan language are written and valid. Standard Occitan is a synthesis which respects soft regional adaptations. See also Northern Occitan and Southern Occitan.

Catalan is a language very similar to Occitan and there are quite strong historical and cultural links between Occitania and Catalonia.

History

Written texts in Occitan appeared in the 10th century: it was used at once in legal then literary, scientific or religious texts. The spoken dialects of Occitan are centuries older and appeared as soon as the 8th century, at least, revealed in toponyms or in Occitanized words left in Latin manuscripts, for instance.

"Speak French Be Clean" written across the wall of a Southern French school

Occitania was often politically united during the Early Middle Ages, under the Visigothic Kingdom and several Merovingian and Carolingian sovereigns. In Thionville, nine years before he died (805), Charlemagne vowed that his empire be partitioned into three autonomous territories according to nationalities and mother tongues: along with the Franco-German and Italian ones, was roughly what is now modern Occitania from the reunion of a broader Provence and Aquitaine.^[12] But things did not go according to plan and at the division of the Frankish Empire (9th century), Occitania was split into different counties, duchies and kingdoms, bishops and abbots, self-governing communes of its walled cities. Since then the country was never politically united again, though Occitania was united by a common culture which used to cross easily the political, constantly moving boundaries. Occitania suffered a tangle of varying loyalties to nominal sovereigns: from the 9th to the 13th centuries, the dukes of Aquitaine, the counts of Foix, the counts of Toulouse and the Counts of Barcelona rivalled in their attempts at controlling the various pays of Occitania.

Occitan literature was glorious and flourishing at that time: in the 12th and 13th centuries, the troubadours invented courtly love (fin'amor) and the Lenga d'Òc spread throughout all European cultivated circles. Actually, the terms Lenga d'Òc, Occitan, and Occitania appeared at the end of the 13th century.

But from the 13th to the 17th centuries, the French kings gradually conquered Occitania, sometimes by war and slaughtering the population, sometimes by annexation with subtle political intrigue. From the end of the 15th century, the nobility and bourgeoisie started learning French while the people stuck to Occitan (this process began from the 13th century in two northernmost regions, northern Limousin and Bourbonnais). In 1539, Francis I issued the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts that imposed the use of French in administration. But despite measures such as this, a strong feeling of national identity against the French occupiers remained and Jean Racine wrote on a trip to Uzès in 1662: "What they call France here is the land beyond the Loire, which to them is a foreign country."^[13]

In 1789, the revolutionary committees tried to re-establish the autonomy of the "Midi" regions: they used the Occitan language, but the Jacobin power neutralized them.

The 19th century witnessed a strong revival of the Occitan literature and the writer Frédéric Mistral was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904.

But from 1881 onwards, children who spoke Occitan at school were punished in accordance with minister Jules Ferry's recommendations. That led to a deprecation of the language known as la vergonha (the shaming): the whole fourteen million inhabitants of the area spoke Occitan in 1914,^[14] but French gained the upper hand during the 20th century. The situation got worse with the media excluding the use of the langue d'oc. In spite of that decline, the Occitan language is still alive and gaining fresh impetus.

Outer settlements

One of the many cathar castles, symbol of the Albigensian Crusade.

Although not really a colony in a modern sense, there was an enclave in the County of Tripoli. Raymond IV of Toulouse founded it in 1102 during the Crusades north of Jerusalem. Most people of this county came from Occitania and Italy and so the Occitan language was spoken.

Today

A bilingual street sign in Toulouse.

There are 14 to 16 million inhabitants in Occitania today. According to the 1999 census, there are 610,000 native speakers and another million persons with some exposure to the language. Native speakers of Occitan are to be found mostly in the older generations. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (IEO) has been modernizing the Occitan language since 1945, and the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (CLO) since 1996. Nowadays Occitan is used in the most modern musical and literary styles such as rock 'n roll, folk rock (Lou Dalfin), rap (Fabulous Trobadors), reggae (Massilia Sound System) and heavy metal, detective stories or science-fiction. It is represented on the internet. Association schools (Calandretas) teach children in Occitan.

The Occitan political movement for self-government has existed since the beginning of the 20th century and particularly since post-war years (Partit Occitan, Partit de la Nacion Occitana, Anaram Au Patac, Iniciativa Per Occitània, Paratge, etc.). The movement remains negligible in electoral and political terms. Nevertheless, Regional Elections in 2010 allowed the Partit Occitan to enter the Regional councils of Aquitaine, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

Major demonstrations in Carcassonne (2005 and 2009) and Béziers (2007) and the week-long Estivada festivals in Rodez (2006–2010) suggest that there is a revival of Occitan language and culture. However, in France, Occitan is still not recognized as an official language, as the status of French has been constitutionally protected since 1992, and Occitan activists want the French government to adopt Occitan as the second official language for seven regions representing the South of France.

Culture

A Santon, a traditional wooden Christmas figurine from Provence.

Foie Gras, traditionally made in Gascony (today Gers and Landes departments).

Literature

• Troubadourisme was the first notable element of a proper Occitan culture. Those poets from the High Middle Ages were highly appreciated for their refined lyricism and eventually gained popularity throughout Europe. Troubadourisme remained a tradition during centuries and its members were mainly from the aristocracy. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and Bertran de Born epitomized that movemement.
• Occitan literature faced a rebirth during the Baroque period mainly in Gascony through the Béarnese dialect. Indeed, Henri IV of France whose mother-tongue was Bearnese, was designed King of France. That nomination provoked a relative enthusiasm for Bearnese literature with the publication of works by Pey de Garros and Arnaud de Salette. Toulouse was also an important place for that rebirth, especially through the poems of Pèire Godolin. Nonetheless, Occitan literature following the death of Henri IV had an important phase of decline, symbolised by the fact that local poets, as Clément Marot, begun to write in French language.
• Frédéric Mistral and his Félibrige school marked the renewal of Occitan language in literature in the middle of the 19th century. Mistral won the 1904 Nobel Prize in literature, illustrating the curiosity about the Provençal dialect, - nearly considered as an exotic language -, in France and in Europe.
• The Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals (Academy of the Floral games) held every year in Toulouse is considered one of the oldest literary institution of the Western World (founded in 1323). Its main purpose is to encourage Occitan poetry.

Music

• The Romantic music composer Déodat de Séverac was born in the region, and, following his schooling in Paris, he returned to the region to compose. He sought to incorporate the music indigenous to the area in his compositions.

Gastronomy

The Occitanian gastronomy or occitan cuisine is considered as Mediterranean but has some specific features that separate it from the Catalan cuisine or Italian cuisine. Indeed, because of the size of Occitania and the great diversity of landscapes- from the mountaineering of the Pyrenees and the Alps, rivers and lakes, and finally the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast – it can be considered as a highly varied cuisine. Compared to other Mediterranean cuisines, we could note the using of basic elements and flavors, among them meat, fish and vegetables, moreover the frequent using of the olive oil; although also compound of elements from the Atlantic coast cuisine, with cheeses, pastes, creams, butters and more calorically food. Among well-renowned meals common on the Mediterranean coast includes ratatolha (the equivalent of Catalan samfaina), alhòli, bolhabaissa (similar to Italian Brodetto alla Vastese), pan golçat (bread with olive oil) likewise salads with mainly olives, rice, corn and wine. Another significant aspect that changes compared to its Mediterranean neighbors is the abundant amount of aromatic herbs; some of them are typically Mediterranean, like parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano or again basil.

Some of the world-renowned traditional meals are Provençal ratatolha (ratatouille), alhòli (aioli) and daube (Provençal stew), Niçard salada nissarda (Salad Niçoise) and pan banhat (Pan-bagnat), Limousin clafotís (clafoutis), Auvergnat aligòt (aligot), Languedocien caçolet (cassoulet), or again Gascon fetge gras (foie gras).

Occitania is also home of a great variety of cheeses (like Roquefort, Bleu d'Auvergne, Cabécou, Cantal, Fourme d'Ambert, Laguiole, Pélardon, Saint-Nectaire, Salers) and a great diversity of wines such as Bordeaux, Rhône wine, Gaillac wine, Saint-Émilion wine, Blanquette de Limoux, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Provence wine, Cahors wine, Jurançon. Alcohols such as Pastis and Marie Brizard or brandies such as, Armagnac, and Cognac are produced in the area.

Image gallery

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  Saint-Sernin's Basilica's chevet, Toulouse. The largest Romanesque church in Europe.

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  Global view of the village of Conques.

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  View of the episcopal city of Albi.

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  View of the Old Town of the colorful city of Menton, on the French Riviera.

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  View of Marseilles, the largest city in Southern France.

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  The Cistercian abbey of Sénanque.

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  Palais des Papes of Avignon.

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  Gorges du Verdon Canyon.

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  Typical Cévennes and Larzac landscape.

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  One of the many lakes of the Mercantour National Park, in the French Alps.

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  The fortified town of Carcassonne, Aude.

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  The Roman Pont du Gard.

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  The headquarters of Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand.

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  View of Airbus facilities in Blagnac.

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  A traditional Cognac distillery, Charente.

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  A surfer at Soorts-Hossegor, considered as one of the best surfing spots in the world.^[1]

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  Cannes during the festival period.

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  University of Montpellier's Faculty of Medecine, the oldest and still-active medical school in the world^[2]

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  Pau Golf Club, the oldest golf club in Continental Europe.^[3]

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]

Notable people associated with Occitania

This is a non-exhaustive list of people who were born in the Occitania historical territory (although it is difficult to know the exact boundaries), or notable people from other regions of France or Europe with Occitan roots. One may note that this article "Notable people from Occitania", is compound for a large-part of personalities from the historical region of Occitania and/or who own an Occitan patronym but belong for the majority of them to the French historical heritage, mainly due to their mother-tongue French.

Dominique Ingres, Self-portrait.

Frédéric Mistral, Symbol of the Occitan revival.

Montaigne, prominent thinker of the Renaissance.

Audrey Tautou, famous actress and model.

Albert Fert, 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Paul Cézanne, Bay of Marseilles. Cézanne loved to paint his native Provence.

Montesquieu, a major figure of the Enlightenment.

Pierre de Fermat, considered as one of the greatest French mathematician of the Renaissance, who is given the Fermat's Last Theorem.

Writers, playwrights and poets

• Petronius, courtier during the reign of Nero from Massalia, he is believed to have written the Satyricon.
• Ausonius, 4th-century Roman poet from Burdigalia
• Bertran de Born, 12th-century troubadour
• Arnaut Daniel, late 12th-century troubadour, famous for his appearance on the Divine Comedy of Italian poet Dante
• Bernard de Ventadour, 12th-century troubadour
• Clément Marot, 16th-century Renaissance poet
• Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, early 17th-century Baroque poet.
• Honoré d'Urfé, 17th-century Pastoral writer.
• Théophile de Viau, 17th-century Baroque poet and dramatist.
• Cyrano de Bergerac, 17th-century novelist and playwright. He was from a Dordognaise aristocratic family from Bergerac, although he never lived there in his entire life.
• Fénelon, 17th-century Renaissance writer.
• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, an important writer and philosopher of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
• Fleury Mesplet, founder of the Montreal Gazette (1778).
• Honoré de Balzac, 19th-century realist writer. Born in Tours, he was the son of Bernard François Balssa, an administrator from the Tarn department in South West France, who was despatched to Tours to coordinate supplies for the Army during the Directory. François changed his name to the more noble sounding Balzac, and his son Honoré later added—without official recognition—the nobiliary particle: "de".^[15] According to André Maurois and Philibert Auberrand, the original family name Balssa would came from the radical bals which in Occitan means "steep rock".^[16] · ^[17] Another commonly admitted theory is that Balssa came from the Occitan balsan, derived from Late Latin balteanus, describing a horse with white patches on its paws.
• Théophile Gautier, 19th-century poet and writer
• Jules Vallès, 19th-century writer
• Alphonse Daudet, 19th-century writer
• Pierre Loti, 19th-century novelist and naval officer
• Charles Maurras, late 19th-century and 20th-century poet, author and critic.
• Paul Valéry, 20th-century poet
• Jean Paulhan, 20th-century writer and intellectual
• Frédéric Mistral, 20th-century Occitan-language writer and 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner
• Edmond Rostand, 20th-century playwright and writer
• Pierre Reverdy, 20th-century poet.
• André Gide, 20th-century writer and 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Paris, his family was from Uzès, in the Gard department. He was from an old Protestant family from Southern France. His father Paul Gide and his uncle Charles Gide, were both born in Uzès. Gide is a popular last name in the Gard and Bouches du Rhône departments.^[18]
• Francis Jammes, 20th-century lyrical poet
• Jules Romains, 20th-century poet and writer, founder of the Unanimism literary movement.
• Francis Ponge, 20th-century poet and essayist
• Léon Bloy, 20th-century writer
• Jean Anouilh, 20th-century playwright
• François Mauriac, 20th-century writer and 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature winner
• Marcel Pagnol, 20th-century writer
• Marguerite Duras, 20th-century writer. Born Marguerite Donnadieu in French Indochina, she chose her pen name after Duras, the commune her parents originated from, in the Lot-et-Garonne department.
• Jean Giono, 20th-century writer.
• Antonin Artaud, 20th-century dramatist, poet, essayist, actor, and theatre director
• Pierre Boulle, 20th-century writer
• Françoise Sagan, 20th-century novelist, screenwriter and playwright.
• Marcela Delpastre, 20th-century Occitan-language writer
• Joan Bodon, 20th-century Occitan-language writer. His mother, Albanie Boudou (née Balssa), was said to be connected by blood with 19th-century novelist Honoré de Balzac.^[19]
• J. M. G. Le Clézio, 20th-century writer and poet, 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature winner

Philosophers

• Pierre Bayle, philosopher and writer, forerunner of the Encyclopedists and an advocate of the principle of the toleration of divergent beliefs, his works subsequently influenced the development of the Enlightenment.
• Étienne de La Boétie, judge, writer and philosopher known for his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude.
• Michel de Montaigne, one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His works influenced writers all over the world such as René Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau or again Ralph Waldo Emerson and Friedrich Nietzsche.
• Pierre Gassendi, philosopher and mathematician. His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicureanism atomism with Christianity.
• Blaise Pascal, mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He started some pioneering work on calculating machines as a teenager. After three years of effort and fifty prototypes, he was one of the first two inventors of the mechanical calculator. Later, he developed a method to solve the Problem of points, giving birth during the 18th Century to the probabilities calculation, his works still strongly influence modern economic theories and social science.
• Maine de Biran, 18th-century Spiritualist philosopher.
• Auguste Comte, philosopher, he was a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. He is sometimes regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.
• Jean Hyppolite, philosopher, known for championing the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, philosopher and Jesuit priest, who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. He conceived the idea of the Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving) and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of noosphere.
• Louis Lavelle, 20th-century philosopher, influenced by Continental philosophy and Spiritualism.
• Jean Cavaillès, 20th-century philosopher and mathematician who took part in the French Resistance within the Libération movement. He came from a long line of Huguenot officers from the South West of France. His last name, Cavaillès, derivates from cavalh, the Occitan word for horse.
• Henri Lefebvre, 20th-century Marxist philosopher and sociologist.
• Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century philosopher, playwright, novelist and political activist. Born in Paris, his family originated from Thiviers, in Dordogne where young Sartre spent his holidays.^[20] His last name Sartre, came from "satre", the occitan word for "tailor".
• Paul Ricœur, 20th Century philosopher, tbest known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 20th-century phenomenological philosopher.
• Georges Canguilhem, philosopher and physician, specialized in the philosophy of science.
• Georges Bataille, 20th-century influential intellectual and literary figure.
• Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher, his sociological work is dominated by the analysis of the reproduction mechanisms of the social hierarchies.
• Michel Serres, 20th Century philosopher, his works are generally focused on the scientific progress and its effect on our society.
• René Girard, 20th Century anthropological philosopher, historian and literary critic.
• Jacques Ellul, 20th Century philosopher, law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist.
• Alain Badiou, 20th Century marxist philosopher. Born in French Morocco, his father Raymond Badiou was mayor of Toulouse from 1944 to 1958. His last name, Badiou, comes from the Occitan badiu for simpleton.^[21]
• Jean-Luc Nancy, contemporary philosopher.

Scientists

• Tacitus, Roman historian, author of the Annals and the Histories, probably born in Gallia Narbonensis.
• Pope Sylvester II, Pope, prolific scholar and teacher who endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere, which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era.
• Gregory of Tours, Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours from Urbs Arverna. He is the main contemporary source for Merovingian history. His most notable work was his Decem Libri Historiarum or Ten Books of Histories, better known as the Historia Francorum ("History of the Franks").
• Joseph Justus Scaliger, religious leader and scholar, considered as the father of Chronology.
• Nostradamus, apothecary who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He was also a physician.
• Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, astronomer, antiquary and savant.
• Pierre de Fermat, amtateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality.
• Jean-Antoine Chaptal, chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator and philanthropist, discoverer of the chaptalizatio procedure.
• Montgolfier brothers, inventors of the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon.
• Jean-Charles de Borda, mathematician and physicist, he developed the Borda count voting system and contributed to the construction of the standard metre, basis of the metric system.
• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, chemist and physicist, famous for his two gas laws.
• Marc Seguin, engineer, inventor of the wire-cable suspension bridge and the multi-tubular steam-engine Firetube boiler.
• Jean-Baptiste Dumas, chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights (relative atomic masses) and molecular weights by measuring vapor densities.
• Philippe Pinel, physician who was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients and pioneer of the moral therapy.
• Jean-Baptiste Say, economist, famous for his law of markets. Born in Lyon, he was from a Protestant family who originated from Florac, in Lozère. The Say family moved to Nîmes after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to finally reach Geneva, where his father was born. Say was a particularly popular last name in the Tarn-et-Garonne department at that time and its origins are quite murky.^[22]
• Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, physician and pedagogue, notably credited with describing the first case of Tourette syndrome. He was also educator of the deaf, and experienced his theories in the celebrated case of Victor of Aveyron.
• Frédéric Bastiat, economist, classical liberalist, he developed the economic concept of opportunity cost, and introduced the Parable of the broken window.
• Jean-François Champollion, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
• Pierre André Latreille, famous zoologist, specialising in arthropods.
• Charles Cros, poet and inventor, best known for being the first person to conceive a method for reproducing recorded sound, an invention he named the Paleophone.
• Gabriel Tarde, sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals
• Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, chemist, discoverer of gallium, samarium and dysprosium.
• Jean Gaston Darboux, mathematician, he made several important contributions to geometry and mathematical analysis.
• Émile Borel, mathematician, known for being along with Henri Lebesgue and René-Louis Baire one of the pioneers of the measure theory and its application to probability theory. He was also a politician and member of the French Resistance, and is regarded as one of the precursors of the European idea.
• Alfred Binet, psychologist who invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet-Simon scale.
• Albert Calmette ForMemRS, physician, bacteriologist and immunologist, who discovered the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin used in the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. and conceived the first antivenom for snake venom known as the Calmette's serum.
• Clément Ader, aviation precursor.
• Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician, best known for his works in logic, born in Coni, in Piedmontese Occitania.
• Paul Vidal de La Blache, one of the most prominent figure of modern French geography.
• Eugène Freyssinet, structural and civil engineer, precursor of prestressed concrete.
• Paul Sabatier, chemist, awarded of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Victor Grignard.
• Paul Dirac, English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. His paternal family originated from Dirac,^[23] in South West France, and moved to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to finally join Bristol where Paul was born.
• Jacques Cousteau, naval officer and explorer who co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and helped to popularize Oceanography throughout the world.
• Célestin Freinet, prominent pedagogue and educational reformer.
• Jean Dausset, immunologist, awarded of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Baruj Benacerraf and George Davis Snell
• Jean-Marie Souriau, mathematician, known for works in symplectic geometry, in which he was one of the pioneers.
• Jean-Pierre Serre, mathematician, who made fundamental contributions to algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and algebraic number theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954, the Wolf Prize in 2000 and the Abel Prize in 2003, making him one of four mathematicians to achieve this (along with Pierre Deligne, John Milnor, and John G. Thompson).
• Jacques Le Goff, historian and eminent specialist of the Middle Ages, most specifically the 12th and 13th centuries.
• Jacques-Louis Lions, mathematician, awarded of the 1991 Japan Prize and Harvey Prize. He is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher. He was elected president of the International Mathematical Union in 1991.
• Robert Lafont, linguist.
• Albert Fert, physicist, one of the discoverers of giant magnetoresistance which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks, awarded of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, together with Peter Grünberg.
• Alain Connes, mathematician, who revolutionned the Von Neumann algebra, resolving major problems on this field, notably the classification of the Type III factors. He was awarded of the 1982 Fields Medal.
• Pierre-Louis Lions, mathematician, who received the 1994 Fields Medal for his works on nonlinear partial differential equations
• Cédric Villani, mathematician, awarded of the 2010 Fields Medal for his works on partial differential equations and mathematical physics
• Jean-Jacques Laffont, economist, specializing in public economics and information economics, he was awarded of the 1993 Yrjö Jahnsson prize along with his colleague and collaborator Jean Tirole.
• Alain Aspect, physicist, known for his works on Bell test experiments.
• Bernard Maris, economist, murdered on 7 January 2015, during the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Artists

• Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 18th-century rococo painter and printmaker.
• Claude Joseph Vernet, 18th-century painter.
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 19th-century neoclassical painter.
• Auguste Renoir, 19th-century artist, one of the leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style.
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 19th-century post-impressionist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator.
• Rosa Bonheur, 19th-century realist painter.
• Frédéric Bazille, 19th-century impressionist painter.
• Odilon Redon, 19th-century symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.
• Alexandre Cabanel, 19th-century academic painter.
• Jean-Paul Laurens, 19th-century academic painter and sculptor.
• Honoré Daumier, printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century.
• Paul Cézanne, 19th-century post-impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.
• Albert Marquet, 20th-century Fauvist painter.
• Aristide Maillol, 20th-century sculptor, painter and printmaker.
• Antoine Bourdelle, 20th-century sculptor, painter, and teacher.
• Yves Klein, 20th-century artist, considered an important figure in post-war European art.
• César, 20th-century sculptor and member of the Nouveau Réalisme.
• Arman, 20th-century painter, sculptor and printmaker, member of the Nouveau Réalisme.
• Pierre Soulages, 20th-century painter, engraver and sculptor.
• Daniel Goossens, cartoonist.

Architects

• Guillaume Cammas, 18th-century painter and architect, author of the Capitole de Toulouse's façade.
• Jean Nouvel, 20th- and early 21st-century architect, he obtained the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008. Among his most acclaimed works, we can quote the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Torre Agbar in Barcelona or again the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Musicians

• Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, 18th-century composer and violonist.
• Gabriel Fauré, 19th- and early 20th-century Post-romantic composer and organist.
• Déodat de Séverac, 19th- and early 20th-century Impressionist composer, influenced in his works by his native Languedoc.
• Georges Auric, 20th-century composer. Member of Les Six.
• Darius Milhaud, 20th-century composer and teacher. Member of Les Six.
• Georges Brassens, 20th-century songwriter, known for its poetic lyrics and using of black humor.
• Olivier Messiaen, 20th-century composer and organist.
• Charles Trenet, 20th-century singer and songwriter.
• Claude Nougaro, 20th-century singer and songwriter.
• Michel Petrucciani, 20th-century jazz pianist.
• Mans de Breish, 20th-century Occitan-language songwriter.
• Noir Désir, 20th-century rock band
• IAM, late 20th-century hip hop band.
• Jean-Roch, influential DJ.
• Chinese Man, trip hop band.
• Gojira, heavy metal band
• M83, electro band.

Statesmen and activists

• Richard I, 12th-century King of England, spent most of his life in Aquitaine and spoke Occitan language.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, 12th-century Duchess of Aquitaine, Queen consort of France and later Queen consort of England, often regarded as one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
• Beatrice de Planissoles, Cathar minor noble.
• Richard II of England, 14th- century King of England who inspired Shakespeare's play.
• Henry IV of France, 16th-century King of France, known as Le Bon Roi Henri (Good King Henry), he remains one of the most emblematic King of France, notably for having been raised in the Protestant faith.
• Jean Nicot, diplomat and scholar who introduced snuff tobacco to the French royal court. The tobacco plant, Nicotiana,a flowering garden plant, was named after him by Carl Linnaeus, as was nicotine.
• Olympe de Gouges, 18th-century activist, known as one of the pioneer of Feminism.
• Louis de Bonald, 18th-century politician, a counter-revolutionary and conservator, known for his social theories that would later inspire Sociology.
• Charles XIV John of Sweden (Jean Bernadotte), 19th-century Jacobines leader, Marshal of France, later King Charles XIV of Sweden and founder of the House of Bernadotte, the current royal family of Sweden.
• Louis Auguste Blanqui, socialist and political activist, notable for his revolutionary theory of Blanquism.
• François Guizot, historian, orator and statesman, key figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848.
• Léon Gambetta, 19th-century Prime minister of France, a prominent political figure during and after the difficult period of the Franco-Prussian War, viewed as an humiliation by the French. He was also the proclaimer of the Third Republic.
• Bernadette Soubirous, Christian mystic and Saint. After her visions, Lourdes went on to become a major pilgrimage site.
• Charles Dupuy, 19th-century statesman, three times Prime Minister of France.
• Marie François Sadi Carnot, 19th-century statesman and fifth president of the Third Republic.
• Charles de Freycinet, early 20th-century statesman, four times Prime Minister of France.
• Armand Fallières, 20th-century statesman and president of the French republic from 1906 to 1913.
• Jean Jaurès, 20th-century statesman and one of the most important figure of the French Left.
• Gaston Doumergue, 20th-century statesman. He was the 13th President of France.
• Vincent Auriol, 20th-century French president. He was the first president of the Fourth Republic.
• Édouard Daladier, French Radical politician and Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.
• François Darlan, 20th-century Prime minister of France during the pro-German Vichy regime.
• Jean Moulin, hero of the French resistance.
• Jean Monnet, 20th-century political economist and diplomat. He is regarded by many as the chief architect of European unity and the founding father of the European Union.
• René Cassin, 1968 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948.
• Georges Pompidou, 20th-century French president.
• Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 20th-century French president.
• Simone Veil, 20th-century lawyer and politician, survivor from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, she is primary known as the mother of the law legalizing abortion in France on 17 January 1975.
• Jean-Luc Lagardère, founder and former CEO of the Lagardère Group.
• Claude Bébéar, founder and former CEO of AXA.
• Lucien Barrière, heir and founder of the Lucien Barrière group.
• François Bayrou, leader of the centrist political party MoDem.
• Ives Roqueta, Occitan-language author and activist.
• Max Roqueta, Occitan-language activist, former president of the Institut d'études occitanes (Occitan research Institute).

Sport

• Bernard Laporte, rugby union coach and former French Secretary of State for Sport. He was head coach of the French national team and is currently the head coach at Rugby Club Toulonnais
• Claude Onesta, handball coach and responsible of France’s Men’s handball team since 2001. He has one of the most beautiful Handball coaching records with titles in major competitions such as The Olympics, The World Championship, and The European Championship.
• Claude Puel, current head coach of the OGC Nice
• Jean-Pierre Rives, former rugby player. "A cult figure in France," according to the BBC, he came to epitomise the team's spirit and "ultra-committed, guts-and-glory style of play. He was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. He is one of the most emblematic rugby player of all time and described by Australian actor Hugh Jackman as "A small guy on the field, he finished every game with blood on face".
• Philippe Sella, former rugby player. An important figure of the French National team as well as the London Saracens. He later became a member of the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1999 and the IRB Hall of Fame in 2008.
• Several rugby players members of the IRB Hall of Fame such as Jean Prat, Jo Maso and André Boniface as well as contemporary players like Yannick Jauzion, Fabien Pelous, William Servat, Cédric Heymans, Maxime Médard, Dimitri Szarzewski, Yoann Huget and Hugo Bonneval.
• Several professional swimmers such as Camille Lacourt, Clément Lefert, Alain Bernard and Yannick Agnel.
• Renaud Lavillenie, pole vaulter, and current world record holder.
• Tony Estanguet, slalom canoeist, multiple times Olympic gold medalist.
• Colette Besson, athlete.
• Nicole Duclos, athlete.
• Joseph Guillemot, long-distance runner.
• Stéphane Diagana, athlete.
• Sébastien Ogier, rally driver and current holder of the World Rally Drivers' Championship.
• Nicolas Vouilloz, former rally driver.
• Guillaume Néry, free-diver.
• Alain Giresse, retired international footballer and member of the Euro 84 winning team.
• Eric Cantona, former International footballer and important player of Manchester United F.C. in the mid-1990s.
• Zinedine Zidane, former international footballer.
• Laurent Blanc, former international footballer.
• Didier Deschamps, former international footballer.
• Vincent Candela, former international footballer.
• Fabien Barthez, former international footballer.
• Johan Micoud, former international footballer and member of the Euro 2000 winning team.
• Gaël Clichy, international footballer, he currently plays for Manchester City F.C..
• Philippe Mexès, international footballer, he currently plays for Milan.
• Samir Nasri, international footballer, he currently plays for Manchester City F.C..
• Mathieu Flamini, international footballer, he currently plays for Arsenal F.C..
• Aymeric Laporte, professional footballer, he currently plays for Athletic Bilbao.
• Blaise Matuidi, international footballer, he currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain.
• Lucas Hernández, international footballer, he currently plays for Atlético Madrid.
• Hugo Lloris, international footballer, he currently plays for Tottenham Hotspur F.C..
• Laurent Koscielny, international footballer, he currently plays for Arsenal F.C..
• Several handball players such as Xavier Barachet, Michaël Guigou, Théo Derot and Jérôme Fernandez.
• Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon, tennis players.
• Thomas Heurtel, international basketball player from Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
• Céline Dumerc, Sandrine Gruda and Paoline Salagnac, female basketball players.
• Yoann Jaumel, Pierre Pujol and Kévin Tillie, international volleyball players.
• Martin Fourcade, biathlete.
• Marion Bartoli, former professional tennis player and winner of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title.
• Pierre Jonquères d'Oriola and Christian d'Oriola, olympic medalists in fencing.
• Dominique Sarron and Christian Sarron, Grand Prix motorcycle road racers.
• Gabriella Papadakis, ice dancer.
• Isabelle Delobel, ice dancer.
• Audrey Prieto, female freestyle wrestler.
• Gauthier de Tessières, alpine ski racer.

Cinema

• Fernandel, 20th-century actor and singer, who played in classic French, Italian and later American movies such as Paris Holiday or again Around the World in 80 Days.
• Charles Boyer, 20th-century actor who had a successful carrier at Holywood where he played in movies like The Garden of Allah along with actresses such as Marlene Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr.
• Éric Rohmer, 20th Century film director and one of the most important member of the French New Wave.
• Bernadette Lafont, actress, famous for her role in 1960s Nouvelle Vague movies.
• André Téchiné, film director who won the Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival.
• Gérard Philipe, actor.
• Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor, screenwriter and film director.
• Édouard Molinaro, film director and screenwriter.
• Jean-Claude Carrière, screenwriter, actor and Academy Award honoree.
• François Dupeyron, film director and screenwriter.
• Robert Guédiguian, film director, screenwriter, producer and actor.
• Bertrand Bonello, film director, member of the New French Extremity movement
• Emmanuelle Béart, actress and model.
• Ariane Ascaride, actress and screenwriter.
• Audrey Tautou, actress and model, she achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie (2001), and later played in movies such as Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code (2006).
• Lou de Laâge, television, film and stage actress.
• Rémi Gaillard, famous YouTube prankster.

Men of war and explorers

• Pytheas, Greek geographer from Massalia, who made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe in about 325 BC.
• Avitus, Western Roman Emperor from 8 or 9 July 455 to 17 October 456.
• Euric, King of the Visigoths from 466 until his death in 484.
• William II Sánchez of Gascony, Duke of Gascony from circa 961 at least until 996, he fought during the Reconquista. He is mainly known to have perpetrated a major defeat of the Vikings at Taller in 982.
• Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade.
• James I of Aragon, King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 1276.
• Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and revered by all Christendom as "the Shield of the Church". He was the leader of the 1480 Siege of Rhodes attack.
• Jean Parisot de la Valette, 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. Knight Hospitaller, he joined the order in the Langue de Provence, he fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes. He commanded the resistance against the Ottomans at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. Valletta, capital of Malta was named after him.
• d'Artagnan, legendary captain of the Musketeers of the Guard.
• Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, explorer and adventurer in New France, In 1701, he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the beginnings of modern Detroit, which he commanded until 1710. William H. Murphy and Henry M. Leland, founders of the Cadillac auto company in Detroit, paid homage to him by using his name for their company and his armorial bearings as its logo in 1902.
• Claude-Jean Allouez, Jesuit missionary and French explorer of North America, mainly Michigan and Wisconsin.
• Marguerite Delaye, heroine of the Siege of Montelimar, during the French Wars of Religion.
• Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, commander of the forces in North America during the Seven Years' War, whose North American theatre is known as the French and Indian War in the United States.
• François Joseph Paul de Grasse, admiral, known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, which led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown.
• Jean-François de La Pérouse, officer of the Royal French Navy. He was chosen by the Marquis de Castries and Louis XVI to lead an expedition around the world to complete James Cook discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. This maritime expedition mysteriously vanished, body and soul, at Vanikoro (Santa Cruz Islands) in 1788, three years after his departure from Brest. Numerous places were named after him, including the La Pérouse Strait between Russia and Japan.
• Nicolas-Louis d'Assas, captain of the Régiment d'Auvergne and hero of the Battle of Kloster Kampen.
• Lafayette, general and key figure of the American Revolutionary War. He was a close friend of George Washington. He is sometimes known as the Hero of the Two Worlds.
• John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, British soldier who became Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 1757.
• Louis de Freycinet, navigator who published in 1811 the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
• Several Marshals of France of the Napoleonic Era, such as Joachim Murat, Jean Lannes, Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan or again André Masséna and Jean-de-Dieu Soult.
• François Certain Canrobert, Marshal of France, one of the leader of the allied forces during the Crimean War, notably in the Battle of Inkerman and the Siege of Sevastopol.
• Pierre Bosquet, Marshal of France, who particularly served during the Crimean War and the conquest of Algeria.
• Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and Governor-General of Algeria primary remembered for his key role during the conquest of Algeria and the Battle of Isly.
• Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul, cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars.
• Abel Douay, general, killed in combat during the Battle of Wissembourg where the French defenders, although greatly outnumbered, fought heroically.
• Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, of Poland and of United Kingdom. Hero of the First World War, Addington says, "to a large extent the final Allied strategy which won the war on land in Western Europe in 1918 was Foch's alone."
• Joseph Joffre, general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916, best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in September 1914.
• Lionel de Marmier, World War I and II flying ace.

Fashion

• André Courrèges, fashion designer, primary remembered for its futuristic creations and his works at Balenciaga.
• Christian Lacroix, fashion designer. His creations are often inspired by his native Camargue.
• Marithé + François Girbaud, fashion designers, known for their denim jeans.
• Emanuel Ungaro, fashion designer and founder of the House of Ungaro.
• Inès de la Fressange, model and arisocrat. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1998.
• Christian Audigier, fashion designer.

See also

• Baìo
• Occitan conjugation
• Occitan cross
• Occitan cuisine
• Vergonha

References

1. Regional pronunciations: Occitània = [u(k)siˈtanjɔ, ukʃiˈtanjɔ, u(k)siˈtanja]. Note that the variant Occitania* = [utsitanˈi(j)ɔ] is considered incorrect, since it is influenced by French, according to Alibert's prescriptive grammar (p. viii) and to the prescriptions of the Occitan Language Council (p. 101).
2. When speaking Occitan, Occitania can be easily referred to as lo país , i.e. 'the country'.
3. Map of the Roman Empire, ca400 AD
4. Map of the Visigothic Kingdom
5. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous People
6. Jean-Pierre Juge (2001) Petit précis – Chronologie occitane – Histoire & civilisation, p. 14
7. Joseph Anglade, Grammaire de l'ancien provençal ou ancienne langue d'oc, 1921, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 9: Le mot Langue d'Oc a d'abord désigné le pays où se parlait cette langue; c'était une expression géographique. Le pays de langue d'oc s'appelait en Latin Occitania (formé sans doute sur Aquitania) ("The words Langue d'Oc first designated the country where the language was spoken: it was a geographical expression. The land of the langue d'oc was called Occitania in Latin (probably coined from Aquitania").
8. Frederic Mistral, Lo Tresor dóu Felibrige (1878–1886), vol. II, p. 1171: "Les textes abondent qui montrent l'origine française ou ecclésiastique des expressions lingua occitana et Occitania. Le pape Innocent IV (1242–1254), un des premiers parle de Occitania dans ses lettres; les commissaires de Philippe le Bel qui rédigèrent l'arrêt sanè des coûtumes de Toulouse se déclarent Ad partes linguae occitanae pro reformatione patriae designati et stipulent que leur règlement est valable in tota lingua occitaniae."
9. Robèrt LAFONT (1986) "La nominacion indirècta dels païses", Revue des langues romanes nº2, tome XC, pp. 161–171
10. "Occitan language - encyclopedia article - Citizendium". En.citizendium.org. 2013-11-01.
11. Gerrie, Anthea (2012-05-18). "World's most beautiful towns | CNN Travel". Travel.cnn.com.
12. Jean-Pierre JUGE (2001) Petit précis – Chronologie occitane – Histoire & civilisation, p. 19
13. Frederic Mistral, Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige ou Dictionnaire provençal-français embrassant les divers dialectes de la langue d'oc moderne (1878–1886), vol. I, p. 1182: "Le poète Racine écrivait d'Uzès en 1662: «Nous appelons ici «la France» tout le pays qui est au-delà de la Loire. Celui-ci passe comme une province étrangère.»"
14. Joseph Anglade, Grammaire de l'ancien provençal ou ancienne langue d'oc, 1921: La Langue d'Oc est parlée actuellement par douze ou quatorze millions de Français ("Occitan is now spoken by twelve or fourteen million French citizens").
15. Robb, 4, 167–68
16. Prométhée ou la vie de Balzac, 1965. p. 7.
17. Le père d'Honoré de Balzac dans : Mémoires d'un passant. Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1893. p. 71.
20. Thomas R. Flynn (2015), Sartre: A Philosophical Biography 1, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521826402

External links

• occitania.fr
• Radio Occitania

Coordinates: 44°18′00″N 2°52′41″E / 44.3000°N 2.8781°E