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Midi-Pyrenees Province of France

Facts on Midi-Pyrenees

Land area: 45,348 kmē
Population: estimated at 2,755,000
Area: 61/kmē
Capital City: Toulouse

The Midi-Pyrenees is one of the regions of France and was created artificially in the late 20th century to serve as a hinterland and zone of influence for its capital city of Toulouse, and is the largest region of metropolitan France and is actually larger than the Netherlands.

The departments of the Midi-Pyrenees consist of Gers, Haute-Garonne, Tarn, Ariege, Lot, Aveyron, Haute-Pyrenees and Tarn-et-Garonne.

The name chosen for the new region was decided by the French central government purely on geography Midi (i.e. "southern regions" and Pyrenees (for the Pyrenees Mountains that are at the southern most limit of the region).

Historically, the Midi-Pyrenees is made up of several former French provinces

The historical flag of Languedoc (the Occitan Cross) was adopted as the official flag of the Midi-Pyrenees region.  This historical flag of Languedoc is itself derived from the coat of arms of the old county of Toulouse.

The Midi-Pyrenees was divided in two by its traditional languages, Occitan and Gascon, however, French is now dominant in the region, but as recently as the 1970's it was still possible to hear Gascon or Occitan in the farmers markets.

While the metropolitan area of the capital city Toulouse is a highly densely populated area, the rest of the region is sparsely populated, and is among the lowest of densities in Western Europe.

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