Perpignan is the last major town in Languedoc before the Spanish border. It’s easy to see why the flavour of Perpignan is essentially Catalan. There’s a realmix of cultures in this corner of the region: Catalan, Romany and North African all co-exist in this sunny city of palm-lined squares. For the visitor, it’s useful to know that this is not only one of the best places in the region to sample local food and wine but also a city with a relatively busyairport that has several handy airconnections overseas. However, it does lack buzz – Barcelona is too close and too big a rival for little Perpignan to hit the big time. It’s also worth noting that over recent years Perpignan has become a stronghold for Jean-Marie Le Pen’s rightwing FrontNational Party who claim the city’s original white inhabitants have been overrun by foreigners.
Perpignan Description
Perpignan is a commune and the préfecture (administrative capital city) of the Pyrénées-Orientales département in southernFRANCE. Perpignan was the capital of the former province and county of Roussillon (French Catalonia or Northern Catalonia). It is also capital of the historical Catalonian comarca of Rosselló.
Population (1999): 105,115 in the city proper; 249,016 total in the metropolitan area.
Though settlement in the areagoes back to Roman times, the medieval town of Perpignanseems to have been founded around the beginning of the 10th century (first mentioned in a document as villa Perpiniarum in 927). Soon Perpignan became the capital of the counts of Roussillon. In 1172 Count Girard II bequeathed his lands to the Counts of Barcelona. Perpignan acquired the institutions of a partly self-governing commune in 1197. French feudal rights over Rousillon were given up by Louis IX in the Treaty of Corbeil (1258).
; "Perpignan")
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