The Counts of Toulouse and the Cross of Toulouse:  Occitan:  the Language Today.

Many villages still bear an Occitan name (eg Fa, Cascastel, Cucugnan, Villemoustsaussou).  

The Occitan language is undergoing something of a revival.  Today one in five can understand the language and it is taught in schools and universities, including Toulouse University.  

Almost a thousand years after their appearance on the literary scene, troubadours still exist.  They sing the songs and recite the poems of the first troubadours, and still toutch the hearts of their audiences.   Scholars, researchers and artists are involved in the analysis of ancient manuscripts, the reconstruction of original melodies, and even in the reproduction of medieval musical instruments.

If you want to hear them, their principal meeting point is in Pennautier, near Carcassonne, at the CREMM Trobar, European Musical Research and Creation Centre.

There are still Occitan speaking communities in the Val d'Aran in Spain and the 12 southernmost alpine valleys in Italian Piedmont.

There are also an increasing number of Occitanists in France. Occitanists campaign for the recognition and the use of the Occitan language in the administration and the media. The word refers to a cultural activity, not a political one. Many Occitanists are anti-nationalist and anti-regionalist.