Foix (; ; ) is a
commune, the former capital of the
County of Foix. Today it is the
Préfecture of the
Ariège department in southwestern France in the
Midi-Pyrénées region. It is the least populous administrative centre of a department in all of France, although it is only very slightly smaller than
Privas. It lies south of
Toulouse, close to the border with Spain and
Andorra. At the 2009 census, the city had a population of 9,861 people. It is only the second city of the department after
Pamiers which is one of the two sub-prefectures.