87 articles
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (Ais de Provença), historic capital of Provence in southern France, founded as Roman Aquae Sextiae in 122 BC; 149,695 inhabitants (2026), university and judicial city at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire, part of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis.
Ajaccio
Ajaccio (Corsican Aiacciu), capital of Corse region and Corse-du-Sud on Corsica's west coast; founded by Genoa in 1492, birthplace of Napoleon (1769), first French city liberated in 1943; 76,320 inhabitants in 2023 and France's second cruise port.
Allègre
Allègre, today Allègre-les-Fumades, is a commune in the Gard, Occitanie, France, with 779 inhabitants in seven hamlets, a ruined 12th-century castrum, ancient nymph-cult thermal springs, and the modern Thermes des Fumades spa.
Allenc
Allenc is a commune in Lozere, Occitanie, France, about 20 km east of Mende in historic Gevaudan. Known for its dolmen de la Prade, Roman cippe de Gemina, medieval church of St Pierre (first recorded 1123), and former lead and barite mines.
Antibes
Antibes (Antipolis in antiquity) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes, France, on the Côte d'Azur between Nice and Cannes; 77,637 inhabitants in 2023, Greek and Roman port origins, Vauban fortifications, Port Vauban, and the closed Marineland park.
Arles
Arles, a Rhône-side commune in Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence, France; largest commune of metropolitan France at about 759 km², with Roman and Romanesque monuments inscribed by UNESCO in 1981 and 51,811 inhabitants in 2023.
Arrigas
Arrigas, a commune in the Gard department, Occitanie, France, in the Cévennes near Le Vigan; 219 inhabitants (2023). Known for the former copper-zinc mine at le Teulas, worked from Gallo-Roman times and industrially from 1896 to 1907.
Aspiran
Aspiran, a village of about 1,680 inhabitants in the Hérault, Occitanie, France, is a commune with the listed Église Saint-Julien (PA00103359) and major Roman wine archaeology: the Saint-Bézard villa, earliest known wine estate in Gaul, and the Estagnola amphora workshop.
Aubagne
Aubagne (Aubanha) is a commune of 47,529 inhabitants (2023) in Bouches-du-Rhône, France, in the Huveaune valley near Marseille. Birthplace of Marcel Pagnol and capital of Provençal santon-making and ceramics, first recorded as Albanea in 1005.
Aurignac
Aurignac (Occitan Aurinhac) is a commune in Haute-Garonne, France, whose 1852-discovered rock shelter, excavated by Édouard Lartet in 1860, gave its name in 1913 to the Aurignacian, the earliest Upper Palaeolithic culture of modern humans.
Avignon
Avignon, southern French city on the Rhône, was the papal seat in the 14th century: nine popes, the 15,000 m² Palais des Papes (1335–1352), medieval walls completed 1377, Saint Bénézet Bridge, UNESCO World Heritage since 1995.
Barjac
Barjac: name of two Occitanie communes, Barjac (Gard), a Renaissance town with Neolithic dolmens and the Grotte de Barjac, and Barjac (Lozère), seat of the baronnie de Cénaret with baryte mines; also an ancient Pleiades place and an Aveyron dolmen.
Barles
Barles, a commune in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France, in the Bès valley; site of ancient lead-silver and copper mines (Pleiades 167666, Barrington Atlas 17 G5) worked from the 16th century, within the Réserve Géologique de Haute-Provence.
Bayonne
Bayonne (Baiona) is a French commune in Pyrénées-Atlantiques at the Adour-Nive confluence, historic fortress and port city of the Basque Country, with 54,306 inhabitants, Vauban fortifications, and the Bonnat-Helleu Museum.
Beaumont-du-Ventoux
Beaumont-du-Ventoux, Vaucluse commune of nine hamlets on Mont Ventoux's northwest flank, known for Roman molasse quarries at Combe du Maupas that supplied Vaison-la-Romaine, and the Saint-Sépulcre chapel with a rare Arabic shahada inscription.
Bédarieux
Bédarieux, commune in Hérault (Occitanie), France, at the Orb–Vèbre confluence; historic textile, tanning, and bauxite-mining town with a 710 m, 37-arch railway viaduct built 1854–1856.
Bessèges
Bessèges, a commune in Gard, Occitanie, France, a 19th-century coal-mining "mushroom town" on the Cèze; also a Barrington Atlas ancient mine site (Pleiades 167678). Peak population 11,404 in 1881; mines closed 1946.
Béziers
Béziers, second city of France's Hérault department, is a hill town above the Orb and Canal du Midi, known for wine, the August Feria, the 1209 massacre, Fonseranes locks, and Saint-Nazaire cathedral.
Biarritz
Biarritz, Basque Biarritz, is an Atlantic resort city in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. A former whaling village transformed by Empress Eugénie and Napoleon III's 1854 Villa Eugénie, now the Hôtel du Palais, it is famed for surfing, Belle Époque villas, and coastal erosion.
Bordeaux
Bordeaux (Burdigala), capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine on the Garonne, is a French port city and wine capital, UNESCO-listed in 2007 as Port of the Moon for its 18th-century classical urban ensemble; 270,000 inhabitants, 1,810-hectare World Heritage area.
Campan
Campan, a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées, France, in the upper Adour valley; source of Campan marble (griotte, vert, grand mélange) quarried at Espiadet since Roman times, a Louis XIV royal quarry in 1684, closed in 1992.
Cap d'Agde
Cap d'Agde, a Mission Racine seaside resort in Agde, Hérault, Occitanie, France, built from 1963 around Jean Le Couteur's marina plan; known for its naturist village, 288,000 beds, and 12.6 million overnight stays in 2025.
Carcassonne
Carcassonne (Occitan: Carcassona) is a city in southern France, prefecture of the Aude department, best known for its medieval fortified Cité, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Castelnau-Montratier
Castelnau-Montratier, also Castelnau-des-Vaux, a hilltop bastide commune in the Lot, Occitanie, France (INSEE 46063). Founded by Ratier de Castelnau after destruction by Simon de Montfort; charter of 1291; 1,840 inhabitants (2023); arcaded place, château, domed Saint-Martin church, windmills.
Castres
Castres (Tarn, Occitanie), INSEE 81065, chef-lieu of its arrondissement on the Agout river; 42,505 inhabitants in 2023, seat of the Castres-Mazamet agglomeration, historic abbey town with Jean Jaurès and Goya museums.
Chabestan
Chabestan is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes, France, on the Buëch near Veynes, known for the Pont-de-Chabestan and Champ-Crose tumulus necropolis, spanning Urnfield cremations to a Hallstatt warrior-chief burial.
Champniers
Champniers (Charente, INSEE 16078) is a commune of 5,310 inhabitants (2025) north of Angoulême, in Grand Angoulême; ancient Catemerio/Catumarius, with the Romanesque Église Sainte-Eulalie. Distinct from Champniers in the Vienne (86054).
Chanac
Chanac is a commune in the Lozère department in Occitanie, southern France, known for the ruins of the Château de Chanac and its medieval church.
Chancelade
Chancelade, Dordogne commune near Périgueux: Magdalenian Raymonden site of the 1888 Chancelade skeleton, a medieval Augustinian abbey, and historic white Turonian building-stone quarries.
Collobrières
Collobrières is a commune in the Var department of southeastern France, set in the heart of the Massif des Maures and known as a center of chestnut production.