Yes they did and up until a century ago it was still the everyday language for rural communities in southwest France. One can still speak to some old farmers and bakers in modern Occitan.

A bit of history. 'Occitan' is actually a family of dialects - there is no single, formal Occitan language. Dialects can be called Provençal, Limousin, Gascon, inter alia, generally based on their geographic origin. Included in the Occitan family are Catalan and some north-west Italian languages.

Old Occitan (the medieval form) is evidenced in writing as a unique language as far back at the 10th century and distinguishes itself from French in a few ways: it is more closely Latin in grammar (it is an inflected language), it has more Latin vocabulary than French, it is less Frankish-Germanic in sound influence and vocabulary.

Old Occitan was the native language of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Kings Richard I and John of England. The language base ran from Aquitaine, through Gascony across the south (Toulosan) to the mediterranean shore, and up the east coast through Provençe over to Italy (map). It was famously the language of the troubadours.

Speaking of troubadours, this is a link to a recording of me speaking some medieval Occitan, the first few lines of a troubadour vida by Jaufre Rudel composed in the 12th century:

| Jaufres Rudels de Blaia si fo mout gentils hom, princes de Blaia. Et enamoret se de la comtessa de Tripol, ses vezer, per lo ben qu'el n'auzi dirc als pelerins que venguen d'Antiocha. E fez de leis mains vers ab bons sons, ab paubres motz.

| Jaufre Rudel of Blaye was a very noble man, prince of Blaye. He became enamoured of the countess of Tripoli without seeing her because of the good he heard the pilgrims who came from Antioch telling about her. And he made many poems about her with good melodies but poor words.

(Note the inflected spelling of Jaufre Rudel with 's', an inheritance of Latin case not expressed in many other Romance languages.)

The modern geographic region 'Languedoc' (also modern departement of France) bears the history of how outsiders named the whole Occitan world: the land of lenga d'oc. The northern French were the lenga d'oeil. 'Oc' = yes, 'Oeil' has transformed over centuries to the French 'oui'.

The end of the 30-year Albigensian Crusade, ostensibly an invasion and war of the Northern French against the heretics and territories of the count of Toulouse, was ratified by the Treaty of Paris-Meaux in 1229 which ensured over the next 50 years that all lands from Toulouse to Nice became the demesne of the French monarchs. Gascony and Aquitaine (the lands between Toulouse and the Atlantic) were in the possession of the English Plantagenet Kings until the 100 years war of the 14th century. By the end of the war, what we know as 'Occitan' were integrated into France.

By the 16th century, the French Kings declared that all administration would be in French, further reinforced by the 18-19th c French Revolutionaries who sought to impose uniformity on France. This lead to progressive extinguishing of literacy in Occitan (and many other regional languages such as that of Brittany). Rural folk persisted in speaking Occitan and some still do, although if you meet these old farmers and bakers in the Pyrenees French markets today they will tell you that they faced a whipping at school if they spoke Occitan aloud.

Don't hesitate to ask more about Occitan language and culture.