Southern France

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. 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.

The name "le Midi" derives from "mi" (middle) and "di" (day) in Old French. 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. The synonymy existed in Middle French as well, where "meridien" means both "midday" and "south."

ee also

* France
* Northern Basque Country
* Northern Catalonia
* Occitania
* Vichy France
* Southern Europe
* Mezzogiorno (name for Southern Italy with the same etymology)