German term (edited): kontinentalfranz�sisch

Car rental in mainland france offers the perfect opportunity to I would say ....

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Note added at 6 mins (2006-01-21 14:37:47 GMT)
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I would go for "mainland"

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Note added at 7 mins (2006-01-21 14:38:50 GMT)
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medieval or no :)

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Note added at 10 mins (2006-01-21 14:42:22 GMT)
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although "continental" is maybe a wee bit "catchier" :)

German term (edited): kontinentalfranz�sisch

gets some interesting googles

German term (edited): kontinentalfranz�sisch

With the squiggle under c and two dots over the "i" in oil

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Note added at 27 mins (2006-01-21 14:59:31 GMT)
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Care should be taken to differentiate these two uses of the term:

Langue d'oïl is an Old French term meaning language of oïl -- i.e. language in which the word for "yes" is oïl. Modern-day languages of this family are also referred to in English as Oïl languages. Since the latter half of the 20th century the tendency in French has been to refer to the languages in the plural as langues d'oïl to clearly distinguish one language taken in isolation or the linguistic grouping as a whole.
The term langue d'oïl is also used in a historical sense to refer to Old French, which was distinguished from another Gallo-Romance variety, the langue d'oc, by the word meaning "yes" in those languages. Vulgar Latin developed different methods of signifying assent: hoc ille ("that is it") and "hoc" ("that"), which became the langues d'oil and langue d'oc (or occitan language), respectively. The subsequent development of "oïl" into "oui" can be seen in modern French. (Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, "thus", such as the Spanish sí, Italian sì, or Portuguese sim.)

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Note added at 1 day21 hrs (2006-01-23 12:06:17 GMT)
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Here you go Hillary, this should give you some more options, even "middle French". I would recommend reading through the wikipedia entry below (where this passage came from):

Up to roughly 1340, the Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages in the Northern half of what is today's France are collectively known as "ancien français" ("Old French") or "langues d'oïl" (languages where one says "oïl" to mean "yes"): following the Germanic invasions of France in the fifth century, these Northern dialects had developed distinctly different phonetic and syntactical structures from the languages spoken in Southern France (collectively known as "langues d'oc" or the Occitan language family, of which the largest group is the Provençal language). The Western peninsula of Brittany spoke Breton, a Celtic language. Catalan was spoken in the South, and Germanic languages and Francoprovençal were spoken in the East.

The various "Langues d'oïl" and "Langue d'oc" dialects developed into what are recognised as regional languages today. Languages which developed from dialects of Old French include: Bourguignon, Champenois, Franc-Comtois, Francien (theoretical), Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Anglo-Norman (spoken in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066), Picard, Poitevin-Saintongeais, and Walloon. Languages which developed from dialects of the Occitan family include: Auvergnat, Gascon, Languedocien, Limousin, Provençal.

Because of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, medieval French was also spoken in the Anglo-Norman realm, including England, from (1066-1204).

From 1340 to the beginning of the seventeenth century, a generalized French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing Oïl languages. This is refered to as Middle French ("moyen français") and would be the basis of Modern French. Although French gradually became an important cultural and diplomatic language, it made few inroads into Occitan and other linguistic regions other than in areas where the French monarchy had established significant control.

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:O46AC_8rftUJ:en.wikipedi...