Where to Stay in Perpignan, Occitanie

What is Perpignan known for?

Perpignan is known as the Catalan capital on the French side of the Pyrenees. It was once the continental seat of the Kingdom of Majorca, and the Palace of the Kings of Majorca still crowns the old town within its ochre City walls of Perpignan. Red and yellow mark the streets.

The Catalan Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and the church of Saint-Jean le Vieux keep the Roussillon identity, while the Musée Hyacinthe-Rigaud honours the painter born here.

What are the main landmarks in Perpignan?

Perpignan keeps its landmarks within the old ramparts. The Palace of the Kings of Majorca rises behind the City walls of Perpignan, while the church of Saint-Jean le Vieux and the Gothic Saint-Jacques anchor the Catalan lanes below. Painting has its house too.

The Musée Hyacinthe-Rigaud holds the city's art, the merchant Casa Xanxo shows its Gothic front, and the Catalan Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and Notre-Dame la Réal round out the centre.

What is the history of Perpignan?

Perpignan grew on the plain of Roussillon as the chief town of a Catalan county before the crowns of the south reached for it. Its great age came with the Kingdom of Majorca. When the kings of that island realm held lands on the mainland, they made the city their continental capital and raised the Palace of the Kings of Majorca on the hill, ringing the town with the City walls of Perpignan.

Two rivers shaped the ground below. The Têt ran to the north and the little Basse threaded the centre, and along their banks rose the churches of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Jean le Vieux and the merchant houses like the Casa Xanxo. Aragon and then France took the town.

Roussillon passed to the French crown in the seventeenth century, and the ramparts were rebuilt for the new frontier while the Catalan tongue and the Sanch traditions held on. The old identity outlasted the borders. The Musée Hyacinthe-Rigaud gathered the city's painting, the Catalan Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions kept its customs, and Notre-Dame la Réal stood on through every change of flag.

Where is Perpignan?

Perpignan lies in southern France, on the plain of Roussillon at the foot of the Pyrenees a short way from the Mediterranean Sea. The city is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales in Occitanie, and two rivers cross it, the Têt to the north and the little Basse through the centre. The Corbières scrub rises inland.

Beyond the plain the peaks of the Pyrenees close the southern horizon, and the coast lies out to the east.

What is the climate of Perpignan?

Perpignan has a Mediterranean climate of hot dry summers and mild winters. The sun holds long over the plain of Roussillon, and the dry scrub of the Corbières browns under the summer heat between the Pyrenees and the sea. The tramontane blows hard.

That dry north wind sweeps down off the Pyrenees and clears the sky for days across the Roussillon plain.

How do you get to Perpignan?

Perpignan sits on the main rail line that runs south along the coast toward Spain. Trains reach the city from Montpellier and Barcelona, and the line crosses the Pyrenees frontier close by. Walking covers the old quarter.

A regional airport serves the Roussillon plain, and roads run east to the Mediterranean Sea and up into the Pyrenees.