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| Sunset over the rooftops in Perpignan |
It was still relatively early in the afternoon so after check-in at the Windsor we couldn’t believe our luck and found one of the local Tourist Information Offices just across the road. We already knew our plans for seeing the region we hit the staff with a set of questions i.e. the walking tours, highlights of the region and the biggest highlight and probably one of the best kept secrets of the Pyrenees-Orientales region – the Petit Jaune Tren (the Little Yellow Train) and we were pretty excited about that.
Perpignan is relatively small, population much the same as Cairns ie around 150,000, and it also seemed pretty laid back too. So for us it was refreshing to come away from the hustle of Marrakech and Barcelona. With maps in hand, our time for the rest of the afternoon was to orientate ourselves with the Old City with it’s still standing Castillet, Roman walls and to get familiar with the many surrounding boulevards and to find out some of the history of this charming city. And we also found that the city is still very much Catalan, only French speaking, and because the city is well laid out it is fairly easy to navigate around the city without any problems - or getting lost.
This place has so much history from the times of the King of Majorca reign, Louis XI, the fortress designed by Vauban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban) who was instrumental in designing military defences back in the 1600s and other privately built buildings which are either eccentric or extreme to say the least.
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| Castillet |
The La Tet River runs through Perpignan but it is not the feature waterway instead the picturesque La Basse, pictured here, with its manicured floral gardens is a 'must see and do' to walk around safely, day or night.
Night is the key word, because the whole Centre Ville was something to be seen in the early evening and into the night, – particularly every Thursday night where the whole area around the waterway is transformed into a live music, eating, drinking venue for the locals and visitors.
Add to that are live open air theatres and plays which are held in and around the Castillet and in various venues such as Place de la Replublique which was once upon a time a car park, now that eyesore is underground. And in fact, the entrance into the car park is one of the only areas we saw in the Old City is a vehicle thorough-fare (only because we were nearly run over looking for a ‘cool drink’). The rest is pedestrian traffic only.
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| Old City streets transformed |
So that evening we walked the cobble-stoned streets and discovered the Perpignan city centre to be a mix of old and new trendy shops and department stores tucked away in old buildings with busy restaurants/bistros serving a variety of foods from all over the world and the people too who have stylist and chic dress sense.
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| Place de la Republic |
We also found how much the locals love their Rugby Union (Perpignan) and Rugby League, which is the home of the "Catalan Dragons" who play in the English Super League comp, and where the Dragons store is more like a museum (and temple) than a footy souvenir shop with photos of all the heros, championships and cups adorning the walls. TJ tells me that Karmichael Hunt played for Perpignan for a short time before joining the Gold Coast Suns, and Kevvy Walters coached the Catalan Dragons for a while too. (I won't challenge him on these details because I know he will be right !!! again !!! )
Here in Perpignan we also found that the people like to party much like in Barcelona, Madrid and the rest of Spain, and because of this culture of being late the stores are also open until 10 to 10.30pm.
I discovered Desigual here, and not knowing it was a chain of stores in Europe I thought it may have been a unique boutique embracing the colours of Salvador Dali and the style at that time was appropiately called "The Rainbow Collection". The colours, much like those at the Gare de Perpignan. The store sells the most beautifull bold coloured clothes and accessories. I was prepared to buy something here until I found out the clothes were made in India. I was thinking of those poor little children, hand embroidering these blouses for about .20c per day, when a scarf for example sells for 30 Euros each. It was not something that I could or would support.
There were other hightlight we visited and found out about on our walking tour included:
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| Cathedrale Saint Jean-Bapiste |
* Cathedrale Saint Jean-Bapiste
* Campo Santo
* Palais des rois de Marjorque
* Carre de la Universitat
.... and my favourite -
The Casa Xanxo ...where the outside facade and friezes are covered in ghouls, wild dogs and other crazy carvings that represent the 7 Deadly sins and hell. The Gothic house was privately built in the 16th century and is maintained by volunteers and history students. Admission is free and to raise money to keep the building in its original state the internal courtyard is hired out for use for seminars, small meetings and other functions. We wondered what sort of a mind this guy had. If the Brad Pitt movie "Seven" is anything to go by then Xanxo must have been a psychopath.
Next day we were off the Mont-Louis and Ville-Franche high in the alps.
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| Facade of Casa Xanxo |
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Altitude : 1600 mrts above Sea Level
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| Petit Jaune Tren with Viewing Carriage |
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| Nearly there - Altitude 1050.52 mtrs above sea level |
Even though it was the northern summer we wanted to get up to the Pyrenees and knowing there would be NO snow, at least we could get a sense of what it would be like. We weren’t disappointed because the views were just spectacular and we were riding the “Petit Jaune Tren”.
We had to catch the 6.29am TER train (SCNF) from Perpignan to Ville-Franche, about 1 hour. Then we had to buy tickets for the Little Yellow Train to take us to Mont Louis in the Pyrenees - about another 1 ½ hours. And with our Eurail pass all up it would cost us 1 whole Euro each way. Normally it would be 22 return.
There weren’t too many people on that early train and it wasn’t until we arrived at Ville-Franche that the ticket queue was about three (3) deep and outside the door. We sort of jumped the queue otherwise we would have missed this train we would have to wait another hour of precious time (like everyone else).
We already had a 1 Euro fare from Perpignan it was only a matter of showing our Eurail pass at the ticket office then showing it again to the conductor on the station. It was a breeze!
The Little Yellow Train has a history all of its own. It is the first eco-friendly train in France, is usually 6 small carriages with two of those looking like an open-top cattle train – it’s the open air ‘viewing carriage’.
For us it was really hard to imagine what this area would be like in winter - snowed in. The train is really like a little beast, and during the winter months a big “RED BEAK” is placed on the front to act as a Snow Plough. Check out this photo taken from the web link. http://www.countrycousins.co.uk/yelltren.htm It looks almost like a yellow duck with a red beak. Kinda cute but very much needed!!
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| Petit Jaune Tren with its Red Beak |
For the full 1 ½ hours the views along the winding train track were just stunning i.e. across valleys, mountains, arched bridges, expressways and looking down to the fast flowing streams and the greenest of green forests you could imagine.
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| View towards village in the valley from train |
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| Riders practising for the Tour de France ?? |
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| That - a - way !! |
Finally arriving at Mont Louis we had a 15-20 minute walk uphill to the Vauban designed UNESCO listed citadel and fortification which in part is used as working military installation with CCTV surrounding the whole area.
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| Map of Mont-Louis fortification |
The rest of the site is a real surprise because behind the huge doors and walls is a fully serviced village with narrow laneways, running fresh water fountains, the Four Solaire (Solar Oven) (www.four-solaire.fr), fresh gourmet food markets, souvenir shops, Eglise Saint-Louis Cathedral, and the Military post Checkpoint where I happened to walk awfully close to until a guard called out for me to move along.
You could guess where we spent some time though. No! not the souvenir shops but instead tasting the free samples of cheeses, sausages and dried fruits and nuts of the region at the farmer’s market of course.
You might want to check out TJ’s Food and Drink Blog of this region to see the beautiful delights we tucked into.
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TJ admiring the views of the surrounding
mountains from Mont-Louis |
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| The Four-Solaire |
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Outside walls of the Vauban
fortification at Mont-Louis |
Making our way down to the station to walk off the local wares, TJ spotted about 4 to 5 clustered cherry trees on the roadside, on public land, which meant having to climb through some overgrowth to get to. It seemed like other passers-by had had the same idea because most of the fruit was within TJs reach while I was trying to pull branches down. Even while we are under the trees we could hear people saying “Are those cherry trees?” Obviously they didn’t spot us which was hard to believe with all the rustling going on in there. LOL.
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| The gates to Mont-Louis |
When we got the station the Petit Yellow Train hadn’t arrived so we just lurked around and showed the station master our tickets ready before the came in. Our plan was to hop off down the mountain, and have a look around Ville-Franche-de-Confluent, the Chateaux and fortifications, other attractions not to be missed.
Now this is where it is strange and funny because we had boarded the train with our Eurail passes earlier in the day, but this particular stationmaster informed us - in no uncertain terms - that we had to pay 10 Euro each to get back down. As far as we were concerned this was NOT ON !. For a start why did 2 other railway staff let us through to get here in the first place?
Not to be outdone, and this is where it gets a little cheeky – we did a “Runner”. Meaning that we kept an eye out for the stationmaster and when he got distracted by the train rolling in and the crowds of people, we ducked to the side of the station and behind the train where he couldn’t see us. Then we “jumped” the train! It was the funniest thing sneaking around and we both laughed all the way to Ville-Franche trying to think of the last time either of us had ‘jumped’ a train (hhmm! The old QR Red Rattlers spring to mind). LOL.
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Surprise....The village through
the arch way and gate |
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| Streets of Mont-Louis |
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VILLE-FRANCHE-de-CONFLUENT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villefranche-de-Conflent
The fortified village has belonged to both Spanish and French over the centuries, is another Vauban designed construction, is also UNESCO Heritage listed and the location of 3 joining rivers - Tet, Cady and Rotja.
With the crafty adventure behind us no sooner had we got off the station at Ville-Franche when we found wild Blackberry bushes along the side of the road - another fresh fruit stop, and some fig trees. We also managed to swipe alongside some Stinging Nettle to get to them, reward vs. risk!
And just when we thought that there wasn’t a better site than Mont-Louis, Ville-Franche is just as beautiful and is one of the only fortifications in France known to be “complete”.
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| Fortification and turrets of Ville-Franche |
Overlooking the village are the ruins of Fort Liberia but inside the rampart and walls are stone homes along narrow laneways, cafes, restaurants and open areas.
One of the things that stood out for us and sold in the souvenir shops were medieval artefacts, OK, but also witches on broomsticks and other occult items similar to what you would expect to see at Halloween, and it was nowhere near Halloween….and people were buying them! We found out there are legends about witches here dating back centuries. .....and that is as much as we found out and didn’t know the significance. But the hand-crafted witches were popular - and Ugly. Ugly enough that any kid would have nightmares from that point on. Another interesting thing we noticed about each of the artisan shops were plaques hanging above the doorways indicating what was sold in the shops ie. sweets, jewelery, pottery, bakery etc. If you look closely in the next photo you will notice a cut out witch. No prizes for guessing what was sold there.
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| Witch Plaque above doorway |
A visit to Ville-Franche is a must and we almost missed it if we hadn’t jumped on that Petite Jaune Tren at Mont-Louis. LOL!
It was back to Perpignan, through the psychedelic painted station and it was Thursday night. Meaning Outdoor ‘Live’ music, bars, bistros, narrow laneways with weird, eccentric houses – and the city was in party mode. So were we after a big day in the Pyrenees.
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Thursday night setting up the live
music outside the Castillet |
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| Backstreet lane in Perpignan |
We were having a great time here in Perpignan and surrounded by happiness, joviality and goodwill until we saw a poster on a tree that made us realise that no matter where in the world you are there are always those low life preditors who prey on children. The poster was that of missing Madeleine McCann who dissappeared without a trace in May 2007 from Praia du Luz, Portugal. Until this day there has been no sign of her and still not been found. Hope the authorities catch the creep/s responsible for this.
Our next destination Marseilles. Second largest city in France.
Till then…….
Liz and Tony
We've found out a couple of things about IT and communication in China -
ReplyDelete1. The Lonely planet Guide has been banned.
2. Facebook has been banned/blocked in China
3. Twitter has been banned/blocked in China and....
4. Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures Blog has also been BLOCKED in China and we were not able to upload any further updates.
We are now in HK and surprisingly we are now able to access Blog sites.