Day 8: Perpignan

We hadn't paid for breakfast in our hotel in Perpignan so we set out early this morning to find something to eat. We still didn't have a town plan, as the tourist information office had been closed by the time we got into the town centre last night, so we were pleased when we came across a map in the street. We consulted it for a few minutes to get our bearings... and guess which street we found we were standing just a few minutes away from?!

Of course, once we'd seen it on the map we had to try and find it in real life.

In this part of France the street signs are in French and in Catalan.

Eventually we found a nice cafe in one of the squares to have breakfast and then set about exploring Perpignan.

The first striking building which we caught a glimpse of was the Castillet, the old city gate.

It used to serve as a prison as well, but today houses a collection of Catalan art.

Not far away from the Castillet is the cathedral of Perpignan.

It has a clocktower with an unusual but pretty roof.

The main attraction in Perpignan is located a bit outside the town centre.

This is the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, which was built in Perpignan in the thirteenth century when the town was the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca.

It only cost €4 each to get in and there were some beautiful views from the walls.

There weren't many other tourists, so once we got inside we were able to wander around wherever we wanted.

The castle was quite bare inside, but interesting to see nevertheless. I didn't know before today that there had been a Kingdom of Majorca, much less that it had included Perpignan!

Back in the town centre, we found we had managed to see most of the sights.

We found a nice restaurant by the river to get some food.

Tim's burger came with a football-themed message

Perpignan hasn't been quite as exciting as Girona was yesterday, but it's been a good stopping off point on our journey between Spain and France. Tomorrow we are off to Toulouse, where we'll be spending most of the rest of our holiday.