Perpignan 2035 Vision
Perpignan has everything: a Mediterranean heartbeat, close to Spain, mountains at its doorstep and Catalan culture and hospitality.
Yet, it’s a city that feels like it’s waiting — waiting for a revival, a touch of imagination and leadership that sees how extraordinary it could be…
Here are some ideas to make Perpignan even greater – some are very ambitious, possibly naïve, and other very much achievable, but I hope they inspire someone to take action.
1. Make Sundays in Perpignan Come Alive
Sundays are dead in Perpignan with most restaurants and shops closed. Compare this with Girona just an hour away? These towns have similar population sizes, but very different outlooks.
Imagine: cafés and restaurants open for Sunday brunch, street musicians in Place de la République, and an artisan market winding through Rue Paratilla. A day of local food, crafts and culture — a reason for locals and visitors alike to come into town rather than drive to Spain.
The idea: Encourage restaurants, cafés, and shops to open on Sundays and turn Perpignan into a destination weekend break city and a place for everyone in the Department to come on Sundays for community, gastronomy and culture. The city becomes lively one day that’s currently lost to silence with residents rediscovering their own centre and visitors staying over for the weekend.
How to make it happen:
“Perpignan Sundays” Pilot Program: Start with one Sunday a month where parking is free, streets are decorated and live street musicians, small markets, shops and restaurants are open in the afternoon and children’s activities fill Place de la République and Rue Paratilla.
Free parking on Sundays: To bring life back to Perpignan on Sundays, the first step is to make coming into the city easy and friction-free. By working with private parking operators and municipal car parks, the city could launch a simple “Free Parking Sundays” program.
The Mairie could partner with companies like Vinci or Indigo to fund the initiative and promote it citywide. Clear signage — “Stationnement Gratuit le Dimanche – Bienvenue à Perpignan!” — and app notifications would make it effortless for residents and visitors alike.
Removing parking costs would be a small change with a big impact: more people would come into town to eat, shop and explore, boosting local businesses and creating the relaxed, welcoming Sunday atmosphere Perpignan deserves.
Shops and Restaurant Incentives: The Mairie could offer a temporary tax reduction or shared promotional campaign (“Ouvert le Dimanche!”) for participating businesses. A small municipal grant could cover extra staff costs to test viability.
Cultural Sundays: Align openings with special events — museum free days, concerts at the Cathedral or music and theatre-in-the-street performances.
Local Produce & Artisan Market: A Sunday “Marché du Dimanche” around Place Cassanyes showcasing local wines, cheeses, and crafts could pull visitors from nearby towns and across the border.
2. Bring the Palace of the Kings of Majorca and the Fortress de Salses Back to Life
They are some of our most iconic landmarks and needs to breathe again.
In the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, imagine walking through its halls hearing medieval chants, music and sounds that evoke life in a 13th-century court.
Add period furnishings — a grand table set for a feast, a knight’s armour glinting in the light, monks’ voices echoing softly in the chapel – and make it so much more interesting to visit!
The same goes for and the Fortress de Salses. Make it an exciting and interesting to visit full of weaponry and sights and smells – not an empty fortress!
Create “Living History Weekends” during the summer with actors performing, Candlelit Tours and a Kids’ Explorer Trail with clues and rewards.
It’s about turning the Palace from a static monument into an immersive, sensory experience — one that pulls people back into the city and makes them compelling places to visit.
3. A Café with a View – Launch The Kings of Majorca Courtyard Terrace
Right outside the Palace walls, imagine a small, elegant café bar terrace with sweeping views over Perpignan and the Canigou. There’s plenty of space and fantastic views. It’s really a missed opportunity.
Add wood decking, Catalan tiles, parasols and local wines.
Call it Café du Roi — serving tapas, pastries and live acoustic music at sunset.
It could host readings, art pop-ups, and evening concerts. Run sustainably, it would create jobs and add life to the Palace — giving visitors a reason to linger, not just visit and leave.
4. Outdoor Cinema on the Walls of the Kings of Majorca Palace
Summer evening film screenings projected onto the Palace walls with local food vendors. Bring the castle to life as a gathering space.
5. Make Perpignan a Cycling Hub for the Pyrenees
This is one of the most exciting opportunities.
Just across the mountains, Girona has built a thriving year-round cycling economy — professional teams, cafés for riders, repair shops and guided tours. Perpignan could do the same, but with its own French Catalan identity.
Market the city as “The Northern Gateway to the Pyrenees” — the perfect base for cyclists exploring Canigou, the Albères or the Mediterranean coast.
Create dedicated cycle routes linking Perpignan across the Department, as well as a dedicated cycle superhighway to Canet and Saint-Cyprien. Safe, shaded and scenic.
Twin Girona with Perpignan for cycling tour operators and international pros to host events and training camps here and in Girona.
With more flights and better publicity, cycling could bring thousands of visitors who stay longer, spend locally and give the city an all-year energy.
6. Reinvigorate Perpignan’s Cultural Calendar
After the summer Visa pour l’Image and Viva Festival, let’s create a Perpignan Autumn Festival — jazz, food and local wine – and extend the tourist season further into Autumn – perhaps add on a literature festival with authors.
Expand the Christmas market into the heart of the city, with lights, music and traditional Catalan food stalls.
And perhaps, once a month, a “Night of Perpignan” — when museums, galleries, and cafés stay open late, with street performances and live music. The kind of night that reminds everyone how much life this city has to give.
7. Better Promote Perpignan’s Existing Events
One of Perpignan’s biggest issues is the visibility of existing events going on in Perpignan…
Let’s fix that with a proper city events website and app, in multiple languages, updated weekly and linked to social media.
Posters and word-of-mouth aren’t enough — we need to make it easy for locals, tourists and journalists to share what’s happening.
Perpignan has plenty going on — it just needs to be louder about it.
8. Parking, Transport & Accessibility
Reclaim unused garage-front spaces for public parking if not used for vehicles.
Add a “Park & Shuttle” service with small electric buses connecting car parks, the old town and train station.
Improve bus and train links to the beach resorts, making it easy to visit without a car.
9. Jobs, Housing & Real Opportunity
Attracting international companies with tax incentives for setting up offices in the region.
A “Perpignan Hub” brand could help position the city as a modern Mediterranean centre for creativity and sustainable enterprise.
Converting unused buildings into co-working hubs and craft workshops.
Giving the Vernet district — full of history and architectural gems — the investment and care it deserves.
University–City Partnerships – Encourage the university to host more summer schools and festivals in collaboration with the city — bringing international students and conferences into town during the quieter months.
Convert old industrial buildings near the Gare into co-working spaces, studios, and start-up incubators. Focus on green tech, food innovation and Catalan heritage industries.
Digital Nomad Village – Market Perpignan as an affordable base for remote workers with good Wi-Fi cafés, coworking hubs and English-speaking meetups. Lisbon did this and saw a boom in long-stay visitors.
Work with airlines to reopen off-season flights to and from the UK and northern Europe.
10. A Cleaner Perpignan
Perpignan should look as good in every quartier as it does in the centre.
Introduce regular cleaning in all districts and a “Beautiful Street” competition for residents who keep their façades flowered and tidy.
Free “City Clean-Up Days” + Rewards – Encourage schools and businesses to join community clean-up events with small rewards (like local shop vouchers). Public cleanliness becomes a shared civic mission, not just a municipal chore.
Launch monthly clean-up days with schools and associations — ending with coffee or ice cream rewards at local cafés.
11. A Cooler Perpignan
Perpignan’s summers are getting hotter — too hot to enjoy its beauty for much of the day.
And as temperatures rise, the city must adapt: more trees, misting systems in squares, shaded walkways, rooftop gardens and urban greenery. Cooling Perpignan will also create local employment in landscaping and maintenance.
As summers get hotter, plant dense tree canopies and install misting systems in public squares (like Place de la République and Place Rigaud). Add shaded pergolas and green “cool corridors” connecting the train station to the centre to make walking pleasant in July and August.
12. Expand the Casa Musicale Into a Market Hall & Cultural Hub
If there’s one thing Perpignan lacks, it’s a proper covered market hall.
Narbonne has Les Halles de Narbonne, Béziers has Les Halles de Béziers, both buzzing with life every morning — cafés, seafood counters, flower stalls, local producers and neighbours greeting each other over coffee.
Perpignan, by contrast, only has the open-air market in Place Cassanyes, which, while authentic, doesn’t have the charm or comfort that draws visitors from afar. The Les Halles Vauban food stalls are more aimed at eating and drinking and the Bio market in Place République serves only a small niche.
What’s missing is a vibrant, inclusive, central gathering space — something alive every day of the week and welcoming to everyone.
The Idea: A Market Hall and Music Venue Combined
Right in the heart of Perpignan sits La Casa Musicale, housed in the city’s former Arsenal — a historic military complex full of potential.
What if this extraordinary site were transformed into a shared space — part covered food market, part cultural and music centre?
By day, it could host a covered local market selling fresh produce, regional wines, honey, olives, cheeses, and baked goods — a space for local farmers and artisans to sell directly, shielded from the summer heat. The structure already offers the perfect mix of shade, character and accessibility.
By night, the market area could transform into a concert and event space, continuing Casa Musicale’s legacy as a hub for live music and creative culture. Stalls could close and roll away to reveal an open hall for performances, exhibitions or night markets.
This dual-purpose project would breathe new life into the historic Arsenal district, turning a relatively quiet area into one of Perpignan’s most visited destinations.
Furthermore, it would bring daily commerce back into the city centre, preserve the site’s cultural and music role, and draw residents and tourists together creating a civic space that celebrates both tradition and creativity.