September 6th, 2009 
Sheila Simkin Perpignan has a Museum of Modern Art with works by Chagall, Braque, Matisse, and Miro, but even though we’d scheduled three days to spend in the Perpignan area, it didn’t give us enough time to see and do everything.
Instead, trusty map, and we’re actually beginning to find our way around the medieval core of Perpignan. We walked by Le Castillets’ twin towers quite a few times before realizing what it was. These towers are the emblem of Perpignan, and survived the demolition of the ramparts in 1642. Le Castillets was built in the late 14th century and stands at the point where the new and old towns meet. (No wonder it was always on our walking route.) There is the Catalan Museum of Roussillon Folk Art Traditions located inside. No time to visit and, by the way, it’s another Tramontana day even off the mountains.
The “Loge” of the City Councils…View image… aka The Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) has three bronze arm or hands on the facade. It was thought that they symbolized the three layers of social strata allowed to vote. Farmers, were the lowest strata, and if you fell below that, you were not allowed to vote.
Perpignan (pop: 120,000) is close to both the Catalonia, Spain coastline to the south, and Pyrenees Mountains to the north. …View image… A pretty, friendly city with much to see, ample hotels and restaurants, and convenient by train from Paris. Within close proximity to Montpellier, Toulouse, Aix en Provence, Narbonne, Albi (talk about a drop-dead, stunning town) and too many others to mention, it would be easy to schedule Perpignan into a France visit and take time to literally smell the flowers…
I’ll leave you with one last Perpignan thought. If you like escargots (snails) as much as we do and have a car, there is a place called La Farme aux Escargot not too far from with here that raises these slimy, little critters and also has a tasting degustation. Love those little devils.
Posted in 
Tags: 
