Travel at a slow pace in the border town of Perpignan

Have you ever heard of the French town of Perpignan?  Well, I haven’t.  When the lady I took French conversation from mentioned it in one of our Friday afternoon sessions I was intrigued.  She even suggested that I go there if I’m in the area.  So that I did.  En route from Barcelona to Provence, I spent a day and two nights in Perpignan.

My French tutor is a wonderful Swiss lady that backpacked her way through Europe many, many years ago before marrying and moving to South Africa.  I did some reading on Perpignan and found it to be a border town (France/Spain border) with its roots still Catalan.  After four packed days in Barcelona and getting on the wrong train due to a ticket agent at a Barcelona train station blatantly refusing to speak English and selling me the wrong ticket, I arrived in the dark at this Catalonian town, not sure what to expect.

Come morning, I was pleasantly surprised.  Perpignan was pink.  The streets were cleaned early morning and the surrounding red brick buildings gave off a pink color, to my delight.

I explored on foot and without a map to see what I can discover.  First the local market where bread, jambon and cheese was the order of the day on a bench along the Promenade des Platanes.

I dwindled further along the River Têt and spotted some more pink buildings and Perpignan’s famous landmark, the Castillet.

A pretty pink dress was tempting me while window shopping but I decided to follow the flags to the cathedral instead.

Then on to an early dinner that consisted of one of the best mussel pots I’ve had in France.  I have an extreme obsession with the French bistro style moules et frites and I absolutely have to try it in every French city I visit.  Maybe the wine and relaxing atmosphere of the restaurant made the mussels taste better.  Or maybe it was just me finding myself living in the moment again and appreciating the small things in life in the town of Perpignan.

This post is part of the #AllAboutFrance linkup 🙂