Occitania

Today’s episode is a special, sponsored by Explore Worldwide, all about a unique region of France, known as Occitania. There are many ways that France has been divided up throughout its history. As one of the largest countries in Europe, France is a remarkably diverse nation, one which has, throughout its history, incorporated numerous peoples, cultures and languages. Today, one might even say that France offers a slice of every country and culture in Western Europe. In the east is Alsace-Lorraine, where many people speak a German dialect, eat, dress and construct houses in the southwestern German fashion, and live in cities with names like Strasbourg, Wolfisheim, Mittelhausbergen, and other not-very-French-sounding words. In the north there is the influence of the Flemings from Belgium. The northwestern peninsula of Brittany is perhaps France’s most famous distinctive region, whose Celtic people remain fiercely independent. In the southwest there are Basques and Catalan-speakers, while in the southeast there are wanna-be Italians. Yet, of all the unique cultures in France, none of these were so large or as influential as Occitania.

Occitania is best understand as a cultural region, rather than a measure of land. As such, it has expanded and contracted throughout its long history. Generally, if you draw a line from Bordeaux on the west coast to Grenoble on the eastern frontier with Switzerland, almost everything below that was culturally Occitanian. So what is Occitania? Occitania was the medieval term used for the place where people spoke the Langue d’oc, ‘the language of yes.’ Langue d’oc was contrasted with Langue d'oïl, which also means, ‘the language of yes.’ Why were there two ‘yes’ languages? Because in the northern half of France people spoke Old French. In Old French ‘yes’ was ‘oïl,’ which transformed into ‘oui.’ The people of southern France spoke Occitan, a language where the word ‘yes’ was ‘oc.’ For most of France’s history the country was divided between the north where people said ‘oïl’ or ‘oui’ and the south where people said ‘oc.’ This relatively minor division betokened a far greater divide between the language and culture of north and south. In fact, the famous Italian poet Dante Aleghieri divided the Latin-based cultures of Western Europe into three categories: those who said, ‘si,’ being Iberia and Italy, those who said, ‘oc’ and those who said ‘oïl.’ As it turns out, ‘yes’ is an important word and one which served as a major linguistic marker.

The linguistic difference also betokened a cultural divide between north and south. The peoples of Occitania were intimately connected to each other, and their fellow Latin cultures in Spain and Italy. These connections meant that they experienced similar flourishings of culture. One great cultural product of Occitania were the troubadours. Troubadours were Occitan-speaking bards, who composed poems and songs, primarily about knights in shining armor fighting the enemies of God. Another major genre were love stories. The troubadours became popular across Europe. When Eleanor of Aquitaine became queen of England she introduced the tradition to the English courts, which at the time, were dominated by French-speaking nobles. Troubadour music was so influential, even in the north, that French-speakers adopted the Occitan word for love, ‘amour,’ which replaced their own word ‘ameur,’ both of which derive from the Latin, ‘amore.’ Northerners adopted other Occitan words, such as fleur, douleur, and chaleur, respectively meaning: ‘flower,’ ‘pain,’ and ‘heat.’

In at least a few cases the blossoming of literature in a native language leads to that language’s dominance. The primary example of this is Tuscan Italian. When Dante Aleghieri, Petrarch and Boccaccio chose to write their works in the popular language, rather than in Latin, this led to the widespread use of Tuscan Italian. Eventually, Tuscan Italian became the basis for the modern-day Italian language. The thousands of songs and poems produced by the troubadours gave Occitan a huge boost, particularly over its northern counterpart. Yet, Occitan did not overcome the langue d’oïl in France for two major reasons. First, the king and his court spoke Old French and wrote documents in the language. This gave Old French a measure of power, prestige and continual usage. The second major reason was the end of the troubadour age with the coming of the Albigensian Crusade.

In the south a major religious movement took hold known as Catharism. The Cathars believed that there were two gods: one was the god of the Old Testament, who was kind of a psychopath, always killing people, ordering genocide and excusing rape and torture. The other was the god of the New Testament, who was all about love and forgiveness. As you can probably guess, the Catholic Church was none-too-pleased that a major Christian region was radically reinterpreting the Bible and so they condemned the Cathars as heretical.

In 1209 northern lords first invaded the south as part of an attempt to suppress the Cathars. What followed was an utterly brutal war. At one point, Catholic forces besieged the city of Béziers. Thousands of citizens fled into the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene for sanctuary. When the Catholic knights arrived, abbot Almaric ordered the men to set the church on fire with the townsfolk inside, allegedly claiming, “Kill them all! God will know his own.” Northern lords massacred hundreds of thousands of Occitanians, before ultimately stamping out the breakaway religion. The sheer brutality was such that Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who coined the term ‘genocide,’ referred to the Albigensian Crusade as, “one of the most conclusive cases of genocide in religious history.” This violence brought an end to the golden age of the troubadours and signaled the power of the north over the south.

The Paris-based government of France gave preeminence to the langue d’oïl dialects. In 1539 François I decreed in the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts that French was the official language of government, extending to all political offices across the country, even those in areas where everyone spoke Occitan as their mother tongue. Despite this, Occitan held on. In fact, at the time of the French Revolution in 1789 the majority of French people did not speak French. French and Occitan were the two largest languages by far, but in addition to these there was Breton, German, Flemish dialects, Basque, Catalan, Italian and other minor languages. Funnily enough, there were probably more French speakers than Occitan across the world, just not in France itself. France’s position as the most powerful country in Europe, combined with a flourishing of the language following the Renaissance, meant that educated people across Europe spoke French. But within France, French was just one of two major languages, in a multilingual country.

Things changed rapidly due to the French Revolution. The Enlightenment-minded leaders of the Revolution believed that their country needed to be unified under one universal law, government, culture and language. This was especially important in the construction of a modern army, as troops could more easily follow commands if everyone spoke the same language. The French Revolution was not wholly successful…in any way, though it did impress the importance of French on its people, to the point that, by the year 1860 52% of French people spoke French. That same year, 39% of French people spoke Occitan.

The true death-knell of Occitan came during the Second Empire and the Third Republic. Emperor Louis-Napoleon III pushed for French to become the universal language of his people, at the expense of regional languages. While he was removed from power within two decades, his work continued into the Third Republic under Jules Ferry. During his tenure as the Minister of Education, Ferry ensured that education became universal and conducted in French. There are stories of schoolchildren being punished or even sent home for speaking their native languages. Throughout the south slogans spread valorizing French while criticizing regional tongues, slogans such as, “Be proper, speak French,” and “It is forbidden to spit or speak Catalan.”

The administrators of the Third Republic believed that they needed to create a unified French people, proud of their democratic country, to prevent factionalism, regionalism and the potential return of the monarchy. Occitan became one of their primary victims. Occitan declined in usage by up to a third by the First World War. Today less than 1% of French people speak it as their mother tongue, and just under 3% understand it.

Occitania is a special part of France, more so than most, because it makes up almost half of France. For a millenia, the south of France spoke dialects of Occitan. Legendary figures such as Raymond of Toulouse and his Provencal army spread their language across the region and even into West Asia during the First Crusade. For a century Occitan, not French, was the Western European language of love and poetry. The decline of Occitan and the diminishment of Occitania as a region is itself the story of how France came into being. If we think of France as beginning with Clovis I and the Franks, then for most of France’s history the country was a conglomeration of different peoples, who were ruled by lords based around Paris. It is only in the past two centuries that France has become French, and it has done so by reducing or even removing local cultures, languages and identities.

Yet, if you keep your eyes open the next time you visit southern France you might just catch a glimpse of Occitania. Across the south are numerous road signs written in French but also Occitan or even Catalan. After completing my undergraduate degree I was lucky enough to live and work in Béziers for a year, teaching primary schoolchildren English. I lived just down the street from the still-standing Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, a historic site which is largely overlooked by tourists and locals alike. Across town is the Institute of Occitan Cultural Studies, a library and media center specializing in preserving and disseminating the Occitan language. The spirit of Occitania still lives on, and is a secret layer of culture that makes the region so special.

Many thanks to ExploreWorldwide for making this episode possible. If I did inspire you to explore the south of France then head over to their website exploreworldwide.com. They have three fantastic packages for anyone looking to enjoy the beauty, history and heritage of Occitania. They have a cycling package which includes visits to Cathar Castles, the famous Canal Midi in Béziers and the cities of Toulouse, Narbonne and Carcassonne. Another cycling package goes through Avignon and the countryside that inspired some of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings. If you’re not into cycling they also have a program for food tourism in Occitania. Next time you plan a holiday in southern France, or anywhere else be sure to check them out at exploreworldwide.com.