Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and bordered the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées towards the north, and Spain, Andorra and the Mediterranean Sea towards the south. It was the southernmost region of mainland France. Toponymy The first part of the name of the province of Languedoc-Roussillon comes from the French ("language of "), and is also a historical region. In southern France, the word for yes was the Occitan language word . Prior to the 16th century, the central area of France was referred to as , there the word for yes was in Old French, later becoming . These old place names referred to the areas where Occitan and Old French were spoken. The Edict of Villers-Cotterets made French the official national language in 1539. Roussillon was the name of the medieval County of Roussillon. History Towards the end of the 3rd century BC, a Celtic people, the , took up residence in the region between the Rhône and the Garonne, from the Cévennes to the Pyrenees. Their capitals were Toulouse and Nîmes.