Catalan colour

Salvador Dali said that the railway station at Perpinyà (Perpignan in French) was the centre of the world and an inspiration to him. His words decorate a new bridge underneath the station and appropriately they are in Catalan, the language of Perpinyà and Catalunya - although everyone speaks French too.

I've spent the past two days asking myself how it is that I've been living just an hour's train journey away for most of the past 10 years, and visiting the area for more than 40 years, and yet this was my first proper exploration of the town.....and it's wonderful! It's colourful, it's lively (well, it is in the summer season), full of friendly people, good food and music....and yesterday evening its (probably) first blipmeet too. I'm so glad Tickytocky suggested meeting there because we had a lovely evening, meeting him, Veronica, S and Bundle at a café with tables out in a small square outside one of the historic buildings of the town, having a drink while live jazz music from a stage at the end of the place reached us above the hubbub of holiday makers and local people. Then we wandered through the narrow streets to the marketplace where we encountered the musicians - une fanfare théâtralisée - whom both Veronica and I blipped in yesterday's journals and on past more music and crowds to a tightrope performance near a restaurant which luckily enough had a table for six. We ate and talked and drank some more until those who had to drive home felt they had to go, leaving me and LoJ to sit drinking coffee and listening to some lively Brazilian batucada that followed us back towards our hotel too as the band's next performance was in another place just around the corner from where we were staying.

This morning, quite tired after all the excitements, we had a quick look in the cathedral and I took a lot of photos of the beautiful buildings (I'll make a Flickr set of these over the next day or so), dawdled in cafés drinking coffee and later having another excellent lunch, bought some nice pieces of Catalan pottery, sat by the canal and then eventually made our way back to el centre del mon to catch our train. It's always nice to get home, but I think I've fallen in love with Perpinyà! I think I may be back in September for the festival of photojournalism.