Languedoc-Roussillon (French pronunciation: [lɑ̃ɡ(ə)dɔk ʁusijɔ̃] ⓘ; Occitan: Lengadòc-Rosselhon [ˌleŋɡɔˈðɔk ruseˈʎu]; Catalan: Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France.

[2] It comprised five departments, and bordered the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées towards the north, and Spain, Andorra and the Mediterranean Sea towards the south.

The first part of the name of the province of Languedoc-Roussillon comes from the French langue d'oc ("language of oc"), and is also a historical region.

Prior to the 16th century, the central area of France was referred to as Languedoil, there the word for yes was oil in Old French, later becoming oui.

Towards the end of the 3rd century BC, a Celtic people, the Volcae, took up residence in the region between the Rhône and the Garonne, from the Cévennes to the Pyrenees.

[11] The region was conquered by Pépin the Short (fall of Narbonne in 759),[12] who made it the marquisate of Gothia, included in the kingdom of Aquitaine[13] created in 778.

This vast territory encompassed all of the south of the Rhône to the Atlantic and was bequeathed by Charlemagne to his son Louis the Pious in 781.

[15] Raymond IV (1042–1115) achieved through marriage the objective of reunification by enlarging his state to the county of Rouergue, Nîmes, Narbonne, Gévaudan, Agde, Béziers and Uzès.

The region has 16 cathedrals (Agde, Alès, Alet, Béziers, Carcassonne, Elne, Lodève, Maguelone, Mende, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nîmes, Perpignan, Saint-Papoul, Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, Uzès).

The Cévennes-Languedoc-Roussillon region of the United Protestant Church includes Gard, Lozère, Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales as well as the eastern part of Aveyron.

At the regional elections in March 2004, the socialist mayor of Montpellier Georges Frêche, defeated its center-right president.

Georges Frêche also wanted to change the name of the region, wishing to erase its duality (Languedoc vs. Roussillon) and strengthen its unity.

In 2004, research conducted by the Government of Catalonia showed that 65% of adults over the age of 15 in Roussillon could understand Catalan whereas 37% stated they were able to speak it.

It originated in the poetry of the eleventh- and twelfth-century troubadours, and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval Europe.

Despite this enormous quantity, the area's significance was often overlooked by scholarly publications and commercial journals, largely because very little of the wine being produced was classified under an appellation contrôlée until the 1980s (Joseph 2005:190).

Several entrepreneurs such as Robert Skalli and James Herrick drastically changed the face of the region, planting more commercially viable grape varieties and pushing for new AOC classifications.

The region is also home to the rugby union teams AS Béziers Hérault, RC Narbonne and USA Perpignan.