Escales is a village and commune in the Aude département of southern France. The following is a list of the 438 communes of the Aude département in France. Aude ( Occitan: Aude) is a department in south-central France named after the Aude River. In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.