You're welcome! (It's still not as good an explanation as curiouswombat, though!)

Synchronicity, m'dear :-)

It's lovely, isn't it? The whole culture of medieval Occitania (south-western France, including modern Provence and Languedoc) is fascinating - it had its own language (Occitan, the langue d'oc - taken from the Occitan word for 'yes', oc, whereas French, in the north, was known as the langue d'oil because medieval French 'yes' is oil), its own religion (Catharism) and a very distinct culture.

Sadly, the gradual building of the nation of France from the various duchies and principalities which had preceded it included the ruthless suppression of Occitania (on political grounds but with partly-religious justification, since Catharism was regarded as a heresy). From which the horrors of the Albigensian Crusade and the infamous remark of Simon de Montfort when he massacred the entire population of the city of Beziers: "Kill them all, God will recognise his own."

But their poetry is wonderful, and happily a little of it survives...

I'm glad you like the new look! I hadn't really thought about the username for years, so I'm glad the meme went around - I've been enjoying hearing about other people's too. I'm now wondering where my books of troubadour poetry are at home...