France, Languedoc Roussillon, Pyrénées-Orientales

Elne to Perpignan. 17.5 km. Wednesday 27^th May 2009

INDEX      23^rd      24^th      25^th      26^th      27^th      28^th      29^th      30^th    

Gallery | Walks | Site Root

Elne-to-Perpignan.kml   
Elne-to-Perpignan.gpx   
Elne-to-Perpignan.gdb   
Entire Route (KML)

Google Earth	Garmin Altitude Plot	Garmin Mapsource	Teoz Corail SNCF train
Teoz Corail SNCF train	Teoz Corail SNCF train	Teoz Corail SNCF train	Cerbere Station at Sunrise
Chateau near Elne	Snowy Peaks	Snowy Peaks	Snowy Peaks
Snowy Peaks	Snowy Peaks	Our Route	Tragopogon yellow
Tragopogon yellow	Tragopogon yellow	Snowy Peaks	Snowy Peaks
Snowy Peaks	Peaks	Unknown Yellow	Convolvulus large white
Snowy Peaks	Rose	Gite Rural	Gite Rural
Gite Rural	Gite Rural	Rural View	Snowy Peaks
River Agouille de la Mar	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Squirting Cucumber	Squirting Cucumber	Squirting Cucumber	Squirting Cucumber
Our Route	View towards Cerbere	Snowy Peaks	Colourful Meadow
Colourful Meadow	Dam and Sluice	Road Signs	Resevoir
Resevoir	Resevoir	Resevoir	Resevoir
Resevoir	Resevoir	Our Route and Cycle Path	Our Route and Cycle Path
Perpinya Sign	Colourful Meadow	Colourful Meadow	Prickly Daisy
Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy
Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy	Prickly Daisy
Prickly Daisy	Chicory Northern Europe Variety	Chicory Northern Europe Variety	Chicory Northern Europe Variety
Chicory Northern Europe Variety	Perpignan	Perpignan Cemetery	Our Route
River in Perpignan	River in Perpignan	Cerbere sous terrain	Cerbere beach
Cerbere bus

Wednesday

SNCF, the French railways were due to restart work at 8 am after their strike. We were lucky because the 07:50 ran and we were able to start the walk reasonably early but later than hoped.

From Elne we headed west out of town, soon turning right off the main road onto a smaller and quieter route. The next left got us onto an almost unused lane serving farms and stables. This was very attractive and the walking was nice. The mistral was still blowing but there was some shelter. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.

As the morning progressed, there were fewer trees and the mistral became troublesome. It is harder work struggling into such a strong headwind. It was noisy too so conversation became tricky. This also applied to the animals. We saw a snake get run over by a car. I'm sure that under normal conditions, the snake would have heard/felt the car coming a mile away and would have hidden up.

We passed a large reservoir where quite large waves had built up. The tops were blowing off the waves. Soon after the reservoir, we joined the CR1. This is a French national cycle route which roughly follows the mediterranean coast. Instead of walking on the road, we used the parallel cycle path. We saw only one hardy cyclist battling into the wind. This route may prove useful later in our walk but we prefer mountain tracks and empty lanes if they can be found.

Perpignan was our destination. It is a well maintained and attractive town and our route was as nice as an urban walk can be. The only downside was an almost complete lack of courtesy by car drivers at pedestrian crossings. In Spain, we were constantly surprised by the majority of car drivers who would stop to let you cross. France needs to develop a militant pedestrian organisation. The nation seems to be good at organising strikes and protests so the attitudes of car drivers could soon be changed.

We took the train back to Cerbère and caught the 16:55 bus back towards Perpignan. This saved us an additional 40 minute walk and we were able to get some food shopping done too.

INDEX      23^rd      24^th      25^th      26^th      27^th      28^th      29^th      30^th    

Copyright, Credits, Contacts, Privacy and Disclaimers