French language

Union Island is part of the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It has a surface of 9 square kilometres (3.5 sq mi) and lies about 200 km (120 miles) west-southwest of Barbados within view of the islands of Carriacou and the mainland of Grenada, which lies directly south.

Clifton and Ashton are the two principal towns. The island is home to just under 3,000 residents. The official language is English; however, French and German are spoken by some merchants in Clifton as well.

Occitan (English: /ˈɒksɪtən, -tæn, -tɑːn/; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta]), also known by its native speakers as lenga d'òc (Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French: langue d'oc), sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, as well as in the Catalonian Val d'Aran; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania. It is also spoken in the southern Italian province of Cosenza (mostly in Guardia Piemontese). There it is referred to as Gardiol, which is considered a separate Occitanic language. Some include Catalan as a dialect of Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as the Gascon language) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan has a particularly rich lexicon. Lo Panoccinari, considered the most comprehensive dictionary ever published in this language, records over 250,000 unique words (more than 310,000 including dialectal variations).

Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran.

Occitania (French: Occitanie [ɔksitani] ; Occitan: Occitània [utsiˈtanjɔ]; Catalan: Occitània [uksiˈtaniə]) is the southernmost administrative region of metropolitan France excluding Corsica, located on the south of the country, created on 1 January 2016 from the former regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées. The Council of State approved Occitania as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, coming into effect on 30 September 2016.

The modern administrative region is named after the larger cultural and historical region of Occitania, which corresponds with the southern third of France. The region of Occitania as it is today covers a territory similar to that ruled by the Counts of Toulouse in the 12th and 13th centuries. The banner of arms of the Counts of Toulouse, known colloquially as the Occitan cross, is used by the modern region and is also a popular cultural symbol. In 2022, Occitania had a population of 6,080,731.

The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, pronounced [ɛ̃stity nɑsjɔnal də la statistik e dez‿etyd(z‿)ekɔnɔmik]), abbreviated INSEE or Insee (/ɪnˈseɪ/ in-SAY, French: [inse]), is the national statistics bureau of France. It collects and publishes information about the French economy and people and carries out the periodic national census. Headquartered in Montrouge, a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, it is the French branch of Eurostat. The INSEE was created in 1946 as a successor to the Vichy regime's National Statistics Service (SNS). It works in close cooperation with the Institut national d'études démographiques (INED).

A territorial collectivity (French: collectivité territoriale, previously collectivité locale), or territorial authority, in many francophone countries, is an administrative division governed by public law that exercises within its territory certain powers devolved to it by the State as part of a decentralization process. In France, it also refers to a chartered administrative division of France with recognized governing authority. It is the generic name for any territory with an elective form of local government and local regulatory authority. The nature of a French territorial collectivity is set forth in Article 72 of the Constitution of France (1958), which provides for local autonomy within limits prescribed by law.

The overseas departments and regions of France (French: départements et régions d'outre-mer, pronounced [depaʁtəmɑ̃ e ʁeʒjɔ̃ dutʁəmɛʁ]; DROM) are the five departments and regions of the French Republic which are located outside European France (also known as "metropolitan France"). These overseas entities have exactly the same status as European France's departments and regions. The French Constitution provides that, in general, French laws and regulations (France's civil code, penal code, administrative law, social laws, and tax laws etc.) apply to French overseas departments and regions the same way as in metropolitan France, but can be adapted as needed to suit the region's particular needs. Hence, the local administrations of French overseas departments and regions cannot themselves pass new laws. On occasion, referendums are undertaken to re-assess the sentiment in local status.

Since March 2011, the five overseas departments and regions of France are:

The departmental councils (French: conseils départementaux [kɔ̃sɛj depaʁtəmɑ̃to]; singular, conseil départemental [kɔ̃sɛj depaʁtəmɑ̃tal]) of France are representative assemblies elected by universal suffrage in 98 of the country's 101 departments. Prior to the 2015 French departmental elections they were known as general councils (conseils généraux; singular, conseil général).

Meridional French (French: français méridional; Occitan: francés meridional), also referred to as Francitan (a portmanteau of français and occitan), is the regional variant of the French language spoken in the area of Marseille, Avignon and Toulouse. It is influenced by the Occitan language.

There are speakers of Meridional French in all generations, but the accent is most marked among the elderly, who often speak Occitan as their first language.

In France, an overseas collectivity (French: collectivité d'outre-mer, abbreviated as COM) is a first-order administrative division, on the same level as its regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colonies and other overseas entities with a particular status, all of which became COMs by constitutional reform on 28 March 2003. The COMs differ from overseas regions and overseas departments, which have the same status as metropolitan France but are located outside Europe.As integral parts of France, overseas collectivities are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council. Though some are outside the European Union, all can vote to elect members of the European Parliament (MEPs). (All of France became one multi-member EU constituency in 2019.) The Pacific COMs use the CFP franc, a currency pegged to the euro, whereas the Atlantic COMs use the euro itself. As of 31 March 2011, there were five COMs:

• French Polynesia became a COM in 2003. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the designation of overseas country inside the Republic (French: pays d'outre-mer au sein de la République, or POM), but without legal modification of its status. French Polynesia has a great degree of autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia (Le président de la Polynésie française) and its additional designation as a pays d'outre-mer. The legislature is the Assembly of French Polynesia since 2004.
• Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Lesser Antilles. St. Barthelemy was separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007. It has a territorial council and executive council, and in 2012 ceased to be part of the European Union.
• Saint Martin, the northern part of the island of Saint Martin in the Lesser Antilles. St. Martin was separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007. It has a territorial council and executive council, and with separation remained a part of the European Union.
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It has a territorial council. It is the last remaining part of New France to be under French rule.
• Wallis and Futuna, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean has a high administrator and territorial assembly.

The Avignon Papacy (Occitan: Papat d'Avinhon; French: Papauté d'Avignon) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by agents of Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip pressured a deadlocked conclave to elect the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy (cf. Italian cattività avignonese, i.e. "Avignonese captivity").

A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all French, and all under the influence of the French Crown. In 1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, arriving in January 1377. After Gregory's death in 1378, deteriorating relations between his successor Urban VI and a faction of cardinals gave rise to the Western Schism. This started a second line of Avignon popes, subsequently regarded as illegitimate. The last Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France. After five years besieged by the French, he fled to Perpignan in 1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance.