Midi-Pyrenees

Midi-Pyrénées is best known worldwide for three local "products" that have achieved world fame: Airbus aircraft, Roquefort cheese, and the Catholic pilgrimage center of Lourdes. This goes a long way into unveiling the extreme contrasts and diversity that exist within the very heterogeneous région of Midi-Pyrénées.

Indeed, Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity. It is one of these régions of France created artificially in the late 20th century to serve as an hinterland and zone of influence for its capital, Toulouse, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d´équilibre)¹. Another example of this is the also artificial région of Rhône-Alpes which was created as the région for Lyon.