France ruled from Bordeaux

What if France, from its first emergence as a Kingdom, through the Ancien Régime and after the French Revolution had been ruled not from Paris, but from Bordeaux?

For Example, I can imagine the Bordelais dialect of Gascon Occitan having the role that French has today. What else would be different?
 
An interesting premise, I'd like to see where it goes.

France would probably be more sea oriented
 
What if France, from its first emergence as a Kingdom, through the Ancien Régime and after the French Revolution had been ruled not from Paris, but from Bordeaux?

For Example, I can imagine the Bordelais dialect of Gascon Occitan having the role that French has today. What else would be different?

That would be tricky. Bordeaux was litterally in another kingdom: the kingdom of Aquitaine. You need to come up with a POD where there is no separation between it and Austrasia and Neustria. Because by the time Bordeaux ceased to be semi-independent from the French crown, it had been inherited by the Plantagenêts and remained focused on trade with England.
 
That would be tricky. Bordeaux was litterally in another kingdom: the kingdom of Aquitaine. You need to come up with a POD where there is no separation between it and Austrasia and Neustria. Because by the time Bordeaux ceased to be semi-independent from the French crown, it had been inherited by the Plantagenêts and remained focused on trade with England.
Well, the obvious thing would be to have the formation of the 'Kingdom of France' base out of Aquitaine, rather than out of Paris. I can't imagine what PoDs would lead to that, but it should be possible. (Pretty unlikely, but possible.)

In this case, 'French' would be wildly different, being an Occitan language, not a Langue d'Oïl as OTL.

The butterflies/knock=ons would be huge, such that 'ancien régime' would be a meaningless phrase.
 
Ah. No.
Gascon Occitan is not Catalan, although there are some similarities.
I would say something regarding the language. Sure, Bordeaux is smack dab in the middle of Gascon's region. However, one of the richest regions nearby is the Anjou region where it was traditionally said that they spoke the purest French.

It was a big wine region, had Nantes, Angers... Depending on the PoD, the language difference might not be as big as it is thought. Say, after the 100YW, you'd probably get more "pure" French in it.
 
But wouldn't Paris still be the premier city in any France? What's to keep them from relocating the seat from Bordeaux to Paris once the Kingdom of France is founded?
 
Maybe some merovingian based in or near Bordeaux unite all the Frankish kingdom after the deat of his relative he refuse to move the capital to Paris and produce one son who himself produce one son who produce one son ect ect until Bordeau his wiewed as the only logical choice for a capital?
 
Bordeaux isn't very centrally located compared to Paris, though I suppose it isn't much worse than Paris was before the expansion of France in the early modern era. Although Paris is centrally located in Neustria, and if you include Middle and East Francia, much more centrally located than Bordeaux.

I would say something regarding the language. Sure, Bordeaux is smack dab in the middle of Gascon's region. However, one of the richest regions nearby is the Anjou region where it was traditionally said that they spoke the purest French.

It was a big wine region, had Nantes, Angers... Depending on the PoD, the language difference might not be as big as it is thought. Say, after the 100YW, you'd probably get more "pure" French in it.

I don't know. Occitan language had a very vibrant culture into the early modern period. Doesn't stop French from having plenty of differences.
 
Occitans can be both called as Provençal, Gascon or Catalan

The links between Occitan and Catalan are very interesting. I met a guy from Barcelona, showed him an Occitan folk song, asked him if he could understand, he agreed. Seems at least as much as he could Valencian or Balearic Catalan, which he would say sounded very odd to him.

I don't know if the whole language would be called Catalan, though. "Occitan" doesn't seem suitable either. It doesn't really have a name, does it? Aquitanian? Also Provençal, derived from the Roman region of the "Seven Provinces".
 
The links between Occitan and Catalan are very interesting. I met a guy from Barcelona, showed him an Occitan folk song, asked him if he could understand, he agreed. Seems at least as much as he could Valencian or Balearic Catalan, which he would say sounded very odd to him.

I don't know if the whole language would be called Catalan, though. "Occitan" doesn't seem suitable either. It doesn't really have a name, does it? Aquitanian? Also Provençal, derived from the Roman region of the "Seven Provinces".
The people of Gothia and Provence prefer the word Catalan, Provençal and Occitan the People of Gascony, prefer the word Gascon, while the people of Guyenne proper prefer Lemosin...
 
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