Leisurely start to the day as I had to clean the gite before exit (or else pay Euro50) which was fine and set off around 11.30am headed for Perpignan with the rest of the day to get there so I took the scenic route.

I wanted to go through Durban Corbiers as that was on the way. As many of you know Durban in South Africa is my hometown. I found Durban no problem but somehow took a wrong turn after that and found myself on top of a mountain (signposts indicated it was for the Tour de France) and then had to navigate myself back to where I was supposed to be headed. Lucky I had packed my lunch - leftovers of german dark bread with cream cheese and smoked salmon which served me well with my water and some fruit.

The scenery everywhere was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive even though I was frustrated with myself for missing a turn. Very mountainous in parts as it was close to the Pyrranees mountains and then also plenty of vineyards with vendenges in full swing - little tractors everywhere picking up the grapes and transporting them to the crushing centre in the villages and people in the fields picking grapes - really lovely.

Arrived into Perpignan around 3.30 and dropped off the car at Hertz which was just a couple of doors away from the hotel I had booked for overnight so it worked well as this is just across the road from the station where I will get the train tomorrow midday. Great value for the car - only Euro 322 for the entire time from 7 to 26 September and I only needed Euro 60 diesel to do all the travelling I did. Perpignan is the last large French town before Spain so it is in many ways more Spanish than French - everything is in both languages so I am getting used to Spanish now.

This is a very modest hotel but nice and clean - I will be spoilt tomorrow in Barcelona. I took a walk up to the town and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the "Petit Trein" which does a sight seeing loop of the old town with commentary so I jumped on that and got a good rundown. Then I stopped off at a bar along the canal and had a red wine and walked home.