Perpignano

Buy

thumb | 300px | Merchant at the market Marché de la Place de la République is a food and farmers market in the main plaza, Tu-Su 7:30-13:30. Marché de la Place Cassanyes has a bit of everything. It's 100 m south of Église Saint-Jacques, daily 07:30-13:00. Leclerc have a hypermarket south on Ave Victor Dalbiez and another north at the Poligon on Ave du Languedoc. Carrefour have five stores around town. The closest are north at 40 Ave Maréchal Joffre, and south at 16 Ave Pierre Cambres. Lidl have four supermarkets in town. One is 200 m north of the station (open M-Sa 09:00-20:00), the others are further out. Aldi have three branches, all edge of town.

Eat

thumb | 300px | Lobby of Hôtel Pams

The Roussillon cuisine is a variant of the Catalan cuisine, with ingredients from mar i muntanya - the sea and the mountains. Common ingredients include fish and seafood (the "fruits of the sea"), charcuteries, the "fruits of the land" like tomatoes, peppers, peaches, apricots, cherries and of course aioli (known as all i oli here).

Classics of the local cuisine include suquet (fish stew with saffron and tomatoes), esesxaida (red salad with peppers), llagosta i pollastre (dish based on lobster and chicken), bullinada (fish and seafood pot), llagostada (lobster simmered in olive oil with sofregit - sauce), or cargollada (barbecued snails).

Iconic products include botifarras (sausage) and fuet (dry sausages) but also anxoves (anchovies), a specialty of the city of Collioure, mongetes (white beans) and olives. For dessert there are bunyetes (beignets), coques or cocas (fruit pastries sometimes with ), crema catalana, le bras de gitan (Genoese cake filled with pastry cream), rousquille (cookies with anise) and mel i mato (goat or sheep's cheese with honey).

On the wine side, the region is famous for sweet wines including Banyuls, Rivesaltes, Muscat de Rivesaltes and Maury, and high quality table wines like Côte du Roussillon and Collioure.

Drink

thumb | 300px | Roussilon and Rivesaltes local wines

Wine: the lowlands around Perpignan produce Roussilon and Rivesaltes red, white and fortified (muscat) wines.

Connect

As of Jan 2024, Perpignan and its approach highways have 5G from all French carriers.

Stay safe

300px | thumb | Basse River in the autumn Perpignan is a reasonably safe city compared to larger and more populous ones. Being street smart and taking basic precautions should be enough to avoid problems.

However, some parts of the city, namely the district of Saint-Jacques, should be visited with caution, and ideally never on your own. No matter where you go in town, never wear jewellery or other signs of wealth. Also, don't leave valuables in parked cars.

Go next

thumb | 300px | Notre-Dame-des-Anges at Collioure

Salses-le-Château 15 km north has a stonking great 15th century fortress. Canet-en-Roussillon 9 km east is mostly suburbs, but has a seaside strip with fine sand beaches, a port, arboretum and aquarium. Elne 12 km south has an 11th century Romanesque cathedral and the poignant Maternité Suisse site in Château d’En Bardou. Collioure 25 km southeast on the Côte Vermeille is an attractive small port immortalized by Fauvist painters. Costa Brava starts just 58 km to the south across the Spanish border, one of the main tourist destinations in Spain Banyuls and Cerbère southeast are on the old route across the border to Spanish Catalonia. Eus 35 km west is a small fortified village clinging to the rocks in the middle of scrubland and orchards. Abbaye Saint-Martin du Canigou teeters on a crag 55 km west.