Where in the South of France?
Perhaps you have never heard of the Cévennes Mountains. First let’s clarify
The “South of France” –
In French it is called the Midi (pronounced mee-dee), reflecting the association with the sun, mi = middle, noon, south and di = latin dies, day.
It is a geographical place, roughly below the 45th parallel.
It is a historical place, where people spoke the group of languages that disappeared from modern French, called languages “d’oc”. The word for “yes” in this area was “oc”, roughly “o” in pronunciation; whereas the other dominant group of languages said “o-il”, roughly “oui” in pronunciation. The broader and fascinating history of the people is not in the scope of this geographical demonstration page.
It is a cultural place where (stereotypically, forgive me) people sit outside at cafés a lot; they are quicker to tutoyer – to ditch the formal language with a new acquaintance; and they generally have a more mediterranean temperament, like d’Artagnan, the famous Gascon in Dumas’ Three Musketeers trilogy.
The Midi has various regions and departments, some of which ring a bell to American ears.
“Provence”
A region is a political unit, a group of departments, which are akin to counties in the US. But regions can refer to more general cultural zones, such as the well-known Provence. The footprint of the cultural zone called “Provence” lies across the official region “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur”, which is composed of 4 departments. One hears in the hospitality industry of “the other Provence”, which refers, it seems, to places in the Midi that have all the mediterranean charm and half the tourists, such as Uzés.
The Cévennes are just to the west and north of “the other Provence” in the department of Gard, in the region of Occitanie.
The Buckeye is in the southeastern foothills of the Cévennes. It is a little over an hour from either Nîmes or Montpellier, triangulating to the north between these beautiful, historic cities. From Paris it takes 3 ½ hours on the high-speed train (the TGV) to arrive at the Nimes station, and another 15 minutes to Montpellier.
