Connections

Better large.

A day in Perpignan, at Visa pour l'Image, the annual photojournalism show. It seems to get bigger and bigger; I only went round a couple of the venues, didn't see all of the second one, and was all photo-ed out by lunchtime. I'd met up with Tickytocky, Bundle, LesleyAlsford and Lesley's partner P. It was lovely to see TT and Bundle again, and to meet Lesley and P. I may go back to see the bits of the event I missed; I found the photos of Venezuela particularly interesting, and also an exhibition of photos taken by North Vietnamese photographers during the Vietnam war; a very different perspective on the events from the habitual Western view.

We had a blip lunch at a cheap and cheerful North African restaurant (tagine and couscous all round) and then had a wander around St Jacques, which may look very quaint, but is actually the most deprived neighbourhood in the region. Unemployment: 74% (90% among under-25s). Median annual revenue: 2,200 euros! The residents are exclusively North Africans and gitans (gypsies, but sedentary ones, here since the 15th century). Many of these buildings are barely fit for human habitation; occasionally one of them simply falls down, and as we were walking past one, a gush of (fortunately soapy!) water poured out of a downpipe that ended two metres above the pavement. More (in French) here. Unfortunately it still doesn't seem to be a priority for the city hall.

Walking back to the car, I stopped at a cafe by the canal for a refreshing lemon granita. Just a few hundred metres from the above scene, I watched shoppers strolling by laden with bags from Perpignan's designer shops. I still like Perpignan as a city, but inequality is particularly flagrant here.