Catalan flags

Our department, although French, is part of northern Catalonia and all the villages proudly display their sign Pays Catalan. Historically, before the treaty of the Pyrenees in 1635, this department belonged to Spain. On some of our walks we come across the old frontier posts. North of those boundaries is the Pays Occitan which includes most of the south of France. The north and the south of France were distinguished in the Middle Ages by the way they said the word yes, oc or oil (later oui), so there was the langue d'oil north of the Loire  and the langue d'oc south of the Loire. The modern region of Languedoc has been incorporated into the newly named region of Occitanie which not everyone was happy with.
It has been a dull and misty day today but at least it did not rain so the tennis lesson went ahead. I went on to french conversation and they were just four of us.