Cerdanya in the context of "Segre (river)"

Metropolitan France (French: France métropolitaine or la Métropole), also known as European France (French: le territoire européen de la France), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" (French: France hexagonale or l'Hexagone), and Corsica. This collective name for the European regions of France is used in everyday life in France but has no administrative meaning, with the exception that only Metropolitan France is part of the Schengen Area. Indeed, the overseas regions have exactly the same administrative status as the metropolitan regions. Metropolitan France comprises mainland France and Corsica, as well as nearby French islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea waters. Its borders have undergone significant changes over the centuries, particularly in the east, but have remained substantially unaltered since 1962.

In contrast, overseas France (France d'outre-mer) is the collective name for all the French departments and territories outside Europe. Metropolitan and overseas France together form the French Republic. Metropolitan France accounts for 82.0% of the land territory, 3.3% of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and 95.9% of the population of the French Republic. Some small parts of France (e.g. Cerdanya) are a part of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Esteve Pharmacy (Catalan: Farmàcia Esteve, IPA: [fəɾˈmasiə əsˈteβə]) is a medieval pharmacy and museum located in the town of Llívia, in the comarca of Cerdanya, Catalonia, Spain. Llívia is a Spanish exclave within the French region of Pyrénées-Orientales. The Esteve Pharmacy, founded at the beginning of the 15th century, is one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe and keeps a collection of albarellos from the 16th and 17th centuries, glass from the 19th century, Renaissance boxes with portraits of saints and personages, a library, laboratory instruments, antique drugs and preparations, old prescription books, and a Baroque "cordialer" cupboard made by Josep Sunyer during the period when the Esteve family managed the pharmacy for up to seven generations. It is one of the most important collections of its kind in Europe.

In 1942, Lleó Antoni Esteve closed the pharmacy and moved to Puigcerdà. In 1958 the pharmacy was transferred to the town of Llívia, and the Province of Girona Diputació purchased it in 1965.

Northern Catalonia, North Catalonia or French Catalonia is the Catalan-speaking and cultural territory ceded to France by Spain through the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 in exchange for France's effective renunciation to the protection over Catalonia in the context of the Reapers' War (1640–1659). The area corresponds roughly to the modern French département of the Pyrénées-Orientales which was historically part of the Principality of Catalonia since the old County of Barcelona, and remained part of it during the times of the Crown of Aragon and the Habsburg-ruled Monarchy of Spain, until they were separated and given to the Kingdom of France by the Crown of Spain.

The equivalent term in French, Catalogne du Nord, is used nowadays, although less often than the more politically neutral Roussillon (Catalan: Rosselló); Roussillon, though, historically did not include Vallespir, Conflent and Cerdagne (Cerdanya). The term Pays Catalan (País Català), "Catalan Country", is sometimes used.

The County of Urgell (Catalan: Comtat d'Urgell, IPA: [komˈtad duɾˈdʒeʎ]; Latin: Comitatus Urgellensis) is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya.

42°30′N 1°58′E / 42.500°N 1.967°E / 42.500; 1.967French Cerdagne (Catalan: Alta Cerdanya, IPA: [ˈaltə səɾˈðaɲə]) is the northern half of Cerdanya, which came under French control as a result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, while the southern half remained in Spain (as a part of Catalonia). Catalans often refer to French Cerdagne as Upper Cerdanya (Catalan: Alta Cerdanya; Occitan: Alta Cerdanha). It is the only French territory on the Iberian Peninsula, as it is located on the south side of the Pyrenees Range between France and Spain. For example, the Segre river, which goes west and then south to meet the Ebro, has its source in the French Cerdagne. An inadvertent result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees is the Spanish exclave of Llívia (the small uncolored area in the map) which is sovereign Spanish territory surrounded by French Cerdagne.

French Cerdagne has no special status inside France, simply forming a physiographic region within the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, unlike the Spanish part of Cerdanya, which is officially a Catalan comarca called simply Cerdanya. In France, the French area is referred to as either Cerdagne française (i.e. "French Cerdagne"), Haute-Cerdagne (i.e. "Upper Cerdagne") or just Cerdagne.

The Bellonids (Catalan: Bel·lònides, Spanish: Bellónidas, French: Bellonides), sometimes called the Bellonid Dynasty, were the counts descended from the Goth Belló who ruled in Carcassonne, Urgell, Cerdanya, County of Conflent, Barcelona, and numerous other Hispanic and Gothic march counties in the 9th and 10th centuries. His most famous grandson was Wilfred the Hairy, who founded the House of Barcelona, rulers of the County of Barcelona from 878, and since 1164 the Crown of Aragon, until the end of the reign of Martin the Humane in 1410.

Since the early years of the 10th century all of the eastern counties of the Hispanic March and the counties of Conflent, Carcassonne, Foix, and Razès of the Gothic March were ruled by Belló's descendants. This would have favored the co-ruling of some territories, and a clan-like network of mutual support, although they would have also been exposed to the risk of endogamy.