Road Trip – Cadenet to Perpignan
We left La Mourrade on Wednesday 01 July 2020 after months in isolation from Covid-19.
Mixed feelings, It was sad to leave but excited to be back on the road again.
OK, who remembers that song “on the road again” by Willie Nelson? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBN86y30Ufc Listen here. 🕺
Not a long day except that we had to cross into Spain, call into our Caravan storage place, and take it to another storage place to get other maintenance completed.
What turned out to be a couple of extra hours drive turned to a long day. Why? Afternoon siesta time! Waited two hot hours outside the second Service Centre to open. We then crossed back over the border and back to Perpignan.
During our tourist walk the following day we received a call from a dear friend in Portugal. She needed our help urgently so our travel plans shot out the window and the next day we were on our way back to Portugal via Valencia (another post).
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A Coastal Drive
The following morning after our Perpignan arrival our old friend (V) of the area advised we should visit some of the coastal areas. And yes we did what we were told. 😁 First port of call was Canet-en-Roussillon, V’s home town.
Canet-en-Roussillon water front 
Canet-en-Roussillon Beach 
A French Breakfast 
New Friendship 
Le Cafe for le Breakfast (petit dejeuner)
The weather wasn’t great that morning so we found a nice little cafe and enjoyed a coffee and croissants and bread ☕️ with some friends. Just around the corner from the cafe was the local markets. French markets always so interesting with the different types of foods on offer. 🍎 🍇 🍑
La Paella 
La Boucherie 
La Olives Galore 
Wiggly Fishy Things
Next Stop the Beautiful Town of Collioure
https://www.tourism-mediterraneanpyrenees.com/collioure
As soon as we drove into Collioure we loved it and instantly wanted to come back and stay awhile. So we checked out the local van parks for our return? The following video gives a lovely sweep of the Medieval Chateau Royal de Collioure. The castle was built in the 13th century, WOW COOL 😎
Well, we did it again, this video killed the battery on the iPhone so we were unable to get any pictures of the old town hiding behind the castle wall. Just a short walk along the side of the castle, we were delighted to find lots of little stores and plenty of restaurants. Started feeling a bit sad we ate so much breakfast. So we gotta come back eh!! 😂 We do have a backup battery but left it back at the hotel, yes I know not very smart. 😜 Sorry, only splashes of sunshine today. 😭
Collioure Beach 
Collioure Beach Walk
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The Tourist Walk In the Afternoon
https://www.francetoday.com/travel/reasons-love-perpignan/
Did you know that Perpignan has over 300 days of sunshine on average each year? Well, it wasn’t sunny the day we did our tourist walk 😂 😂. So you will have to accept that our photos aren’t up to our usual standard, however in saying that overcast look wasn’t that bad 🤔.
La Basse runs through the city 
The Old City Gates 
Old Streets are so Narrow 
The Naked Lady Statue 
Old Town Walk 
Taken from our Hotel Room
Did you know that Perpignan is the capital of french Catalan? I was wondering why the yellow and red striped flags were hanging around. Perpignan was also the seat for the kings of Majorca. Amazing what you can learn traveling and exploring eh? makes me feel smart 😎 no cool.
https://www.perpignantourisme.com/
The Garnet of Perpignan is the sacred stone of the Catalans mounted in gold. It represents the Catalan colours. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, French Catalan was famous for its jewellery. Here are some examples that we found on display at the palace of the kings of Majorca.
The Palace of the Kings of Majorca
In 1276, King James II of Majorca made Perpignan the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca. But, did you know that the province of Roussillon of which Perpignan is the capital was once part of Catalonia the northern province of Spain?
France gained Roussillon during the Franco-Spanish wars in 1659.
And in 1958 the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales bought the Palace and the gardens. Today it’s open to the public and well worth a visit. Like many European monuments, the entry price is very reasonable.
Catching up with VB
The main reason for travelling through Perpignan was to catch up with our old, sorry, not so old, friend VB. V worked with me while she was traveling through Australia in 2012. At that time Fabian and I were living in Fremantle close to Perth, Western Australia.
Fabian and V 
appetiser 
V, Me and Fabian 
Morning View from our Hotel Room
A Moment to Reflect
Have you ever felt a little resentment after some petty exchange with friend or family member? Some little negative itch that you can’t really pinpoint (probably because it’s there UNCONSCIOUSLY). I’m sure we all have these experiences. I know it happened to me at times. I was unconsciously holding resentment until I realised that I was only hurting myself. Self-inflicted pain. All that negativity was causing MY body to be under stress and limiting my life, my joy my peace. To forgive is to forgive yourself for unconscious negative beliefs. To love yourself first and foremost is to open up the doors to Joyous peace. How? By seeing that no-one really did anything to me now and that my hurt was being remade in my mind over and over. I was doing it. Using ‘them’ to attack me. So asking the Holy Spirit-Higher Self to help me forgive myself for this is my path back to the right mind… my True Self.👍🙏🙏 😍😍. Here are some of the books that helped me overcome these false beliefs.
