November 4, 2010
Exploring Perpignan: a day off the bikes
WEATHER: SUNNY AND WARM
After breakfast at the hotel, we walked southeast through downtown and up towards the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, which turned out to be a huge, very imposing stone and brick structure on a high point of land, built in the 14th century and added to at different times. Only two or three actual kings of Majorca lived there before Majorca became part of Spain, and the border between France and Spain gradually changed into the current configuration. We spent about an hour touring the palace and climbing up to an outdoor tower with good views in all directions--lots of photos.
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The palace was across from a residential area that looked a bit like areas of San Francisco, and a few blocks down one of the major streets (rue Gilbert Brutus) was a well-equipped bike shop, where we found some chain lube. We walked back through the pedestrianized area by a slightly different route past an impressive trompe l'oeil mural and found a small restaurant where we had an okay lunch; surimi salad, lemon chicken and ice cream for 11 euros.
By lunchtime the sunshine had warmed things up nicely, and after wandering through other areas of town and a large park, we settled on a bench in the shade near the fountains and watched people walking by. It was one of the warmest days of the trip, and we began to really feel like we were near the Mediterranean.
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Dinner that night was at a Catalan restaurant less than 100 metres from our hotel, Casa Sansa. We had a salad Catalan with excellent bread and delicious aioli--we could have just eaten that--then roast duck with mushrooms (again) and ice cream (again).
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