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. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Gironde (Gironda is a common name for the Gironde Estuary - sound where merge the mouths of the Garonne river and of the Dordogne river - and for Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation The Jura Mountains are a small Mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of The region includes:
- Aquitaine
- Midi-Pyrénées
- Languedoc-Roussillon
- Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Corsica
- Rhone-Alpes
- Auvergne
- Limousin
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. Aquitaine (Aquitània Akitania archaic Guyenne / Guienne (Occitan Guiana) is one of the 26 Regions of France, in the south-western part of Midi-Pyrénées ( Occitan: Miègjorn-Pirenèus or Mieidia-Pirenèus) is the largest region of Metropolitan France by area larger Languedoc-Roussillon ( Occitan: Lengadòc-Rosselhon; Catalan: Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is one of the 26 regions of France. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA ( Provençal Occitan: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur in classical norm or Prouvènço-Aup-Costo d'Azur in Mistralian Corsica (Corse Corsican and Italian: Corsica) is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily Rhône-Alpes ( Franco-Provençal: Rôno-Arpes; Occitan: Ròse Aups) is one of the 26 regions of France, located on the Auvergne ( Occitan: Auvèrnhe / Auvèrnha) is one of the 26 administrative regions of France. Limousin ( Occitan: Lemosin) is one of the 26 regions of France. Occitania ( Occitan: Occitània) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use though more recently viewed as a minority language Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul,
The name le Midi derives from mi (middle) and di (day) in Old French. Old French was the Romance Dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium Midday was synonymous with the direction of south because in France the Sun is in the south at noon, like all of the Northern Hemisphere. Northern Hemisphere is the half of a Planet that is North of the Equator —the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' The synonymy existed in Middle French as well, where meridien means both "midday" and "south. Middle French (le moyen français is a historical division of the French language which covers the period from (roughly 1340 to 1611. "
See also
- France
- Northern Basque Country
- Northern Catalonia
- Occitania
- Vichy France
- Southern Europe
- Mezzogiorno (name for Southern Italy with the same etymology)
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