Occitania (officially in French, Occitanie; 1 in Occitan and Catalan: Occitània) is one of the thirteen

regions that, together with the Overseas territories, make up the French Republic. Its largest city is
Toulouse, as well as its regional prefecture, while the second capital of the region, Montpellier, retains
several administrations.2

It is located in the south of the country, limiting to the north with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, to the
northeast with Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, to the east with the Gulf of León (Mediterranean Sea), to
the south with Andorra and the Pyrenees mountains that separate it. of Spain, and to the west with
Nueva Aquitania. With 72,724 km² it is the second largest region, behind New Aquitaine.

It was created by the territorial reform of 2014 merging Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrenees, and
entered into force on January 1, 2016.3

With a maritime façade on the Mediterranean Sea, it brings together territories of the Aquitaine basin
in the west - Gers, north of Hautes-Pyrenees and Ariège, center and north of Haute-Garonne, center
and west of Tarn and Garonne, west of Tarn, south of Lot—, from the Pyrenees to the south —south
of the Hautes-Pyrenees, Haute-Garonne and Ariège, west of Pyrénées-Orientales—, from the Massif
Central to the north —Aveyron and Lozère, center and north of Lot, east of Tarn and Garonne and
Tarn , north of Aude, Hérault and Gard - and the Mediterranean basin to the east - east of the Eastern
Pyrenees, south of Aude, Hérault and Gard.

This new region is part in 2015 of the three French regions that have two intercommunities that have
the status of metropolis created by the MAPTAM law, another component of the territorial reform:
Toulouse Métropole and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole. This law has reduced to 250,000
inhabitants the threshold required to obtain the status of an urban community, another
intercommunity of the region, and they will have access to it on January 1, 2016: that of Perpignan
Méditerranée.4 5 The The region also has another one of more than 200,000 inhabitants: the
communauté d'agglomération Nîmes Métropole.6

This new administrative region includes the cultural and historical regions of Languedoc (Upper and
Lower Languedoc), Roussillon (including the region of the same name, in addition to those of Upper
Cerdanya, Vallespir, Conflent and Capcir), the county of Foix as well as the western parts from ancient
Gascony (Armagnac, Comminges, Bigorra, Condomois, Nébouzan, Rivière-Verdun) and Guyenne
(Quercy, Rouergue). Culturally, this new region is entirely of Latin tradition (Occitan and Catalan),
which connects the vast majority in Occitania.