Ten years ago we bought our house in the Languedoc- now there is a beautiful place name Langue d’Oc- doesn’t it slip liquidly off the tongue ?

Langue d’Oc; the Land where they spoke the Language of Oc, the southern half of France where,when they said yes, instead of the shrill “Oiee” of the north they said the softer “Oc” of the south.

Now sadly the powers-that-be have decided, with a stroke of the pen, to do away with this beautiful name, now we live in Occitanie, a clumsy compound word which, even though it contains the word Oc does so in a word that seems to derive from a brand of toileteries.

Ah well, Sic transit Gloria Mundi.