Roussillon was a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the region of Northern Catalonia or French Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales in the former region of Languedoc-Roussillon.
Roussillon coast
Grape pickers near Maury
A snow-capped Mount Canigó (Canigou) (2785 m) across the Roussillon plain
Catalan, known in the Valencian Community and Carche as Valencian, is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian. It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".
Homilies d'Organyà (12th century)
Fragment of the Greuges de Guitard Isarn (c. 1080–1095), one of the earliest texts written almost completely in Catalan, predating the famous Homilies d'Organyà by a century
Official decree prohibiting the Catalan language in France
"Speak French, be clean", school wall in Ayguatébia-Talau (Northern Catalonia), 2010
