Ariège (department) in the context of "Foix"

The Andorra–France border extends for 57 km (35 mi) in southern France (Ariège and Pyrenees-Orientales départements) and northern and north-eastern Andorra.

The border is France's third-shortest, after its borders with Monaco and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the latter on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin).

Pyrénées-Orientales (French: [piʁene ɔʁjɑ̃tal] ; Catalan: Pirineus Orientals [piɾiˈnɛwz uɾiənˈtals]; Occitan: Pirenèus Orientals [piɾeˈnɛwz uɾjenˈtals]; lit. 'Eastern Pyrenees'), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It borders the departments of Ariège to the northwest and Aude to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east and the Spanish province of Girona in Catalonia to the south and the country of Andorra to the west. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish exclave of Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain. In 2019, it had a population of 479,979. Some parts of the Pyrénées-Orientales (like the Cerdagne) are part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is named after the Pyrenees mountain range.

Gascon (English: /ˈɡæskən/ GASK-ən, Gascon: [ɡasˈku(ŋ)], French: [ɡaskɔ̃] ) is the vernacular Romance variety spoken mainly in the region of Gascony, France. It is often considered a variety of larger Occitan macrolanguage, although other authors consider it a separate language due to hindered mutual intelligibility criteria and earlier separation from the other Occitano-Romance varieties.

Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn (Béarnese dialect) in southwestern France (in parts of the following French départements: Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Gers, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, and Ariège) and in the Val d'Aran of Catalonia.

The County of Foix (French: Comté de Foix, pronounced [fwa]; Occitan: Comtat de Fois, pronounced [fujs] locally [fujʃ]; Catalan: Comtat de Foix, pronounced [foʃ]) was a medieval fief in southern France, and later a province of France, whose territory corresponded roughly the eastern part of the modern département of Ariège (the western part of Ariège being Couserans).

During the Middle Ages, the county of Foix was ruled by the counts of Foix, whose castle overlooks the town of Foix. In 1290 the counts of Foix acquired the viscountcy Béarn, which became the center of their domain, and from that time on the counts of Foix rarely resided in the county of Foix, preferring the richer and more verdant Béarn.

Pamiers (French pronunciation: [pamje] ; Occitan: Pàmias Occitan pronunciation: [ˈpamjɔs]) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although it is not the capital which is the smaller town of Foix. The seat of the Bishop of Pamiers is at the Pamiers Cathedral. The current mayor of the town is Frédérique Thiennot, who succeeded André Trigano in 2020 after he had held the post for 25 years.

Types of dry stone hut include:

• Clochán, associated with the south-western Irish seaboard
• Mitato, found in Greece, especially on the mountains of Crete
• Orri, associated with Ariège, France
• Shielings in Scotland
• Trulli, in Apulia, Italy
• Bunja, kažun, trim in Croatia
• stone made roundavel in sotho culture

Uses of dry-stone huts include temporary shelter for shepherds and their animals, permanent habitations for monks or agricultural workers, storage and cheese making. Dry-stone huts may be thatched or roofed with sod, sometimes bound together with plant roots such as those of Madonna lily or sedum.