During the XIXth century, the Catalan language had been in decline for three centuries. On both sides of the French and Spanish borders, the cultural elites preferred to use the official languages. And, even though Catalan was still an everyday language for the majority of people, there was no grammar to command its use, and it was increasingly interspersed with French or Castillan words. In Roussillon, just like in Catalonia, some intellectuals worried for the future of this language, as they feared it was going to disappear. Their idea was that it would survive only if national elites and the Catalonian people itself changed their minds about it. For that, they would try to recall its prestigious past, to show its ongoing capacities for literary creation, to make Catalan appear as a treasure the Catalan people of France had a duty to protect.