Perpignan is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales, in the Occitanie region, in the far south of France. With about 119 300 inhabitants, it is the main city of Roussillon and the historic capital of French Catalonia. It spreads across the Roussillon plain, crossed by the Têt and its tributary the Basse, some thirteen kilometres from the Mediterranean and about thirty kilometres from the Spanish border. Its Mediterranean climate, among the sunniest in the country, and its position between sea, mountains and Spain shape its way of life.
The city built its identity on a prestigious past: once the mainland capital of the kingdom of Majorca, it still holds the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, a thirteenth-century fortress overlooking the plain. Le Castillet, a pink brick tower at the entrance to the old town, is its emblem, alongside the Saint-Jean-Baptiste cathedral, the Loge de Mer and the Saint-Jacques district. Catalan identity remains alive, in the language, the cooking, festivities such as the Sant Jordi and the castells, those human towers. Salvador Dali nicknamed Perpignan station the centre of the world.
Perpignan today relies on the Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, whose Moulin à Vent campus and city-centre site take in the students, on a station served by TGV trains towards Paris, Montpellier and Barcelona, on Perpignan-Rivesaltes airport and on the A9 motorway. The beaches of Canet and Saint-Cyprien are a few minutes away. This setting, combined with prices among the lowest of the large southern cities, makes for an affordable property market, sought after both for buying and for investing.
