A City by any Other Name

I got a package from Paris in the mail today. That's always exciting, of course, but when I opened this one, I just saw another "congratulations" from the commision d'echanges franco-americains and a bunch of forms to fill out. Sure, I got to find out my pay for the year and transportation reimbursements, but nothing too interesting, right?

Wrong.

As I was looking over the papers one final time, I realized that I had overlooked one important line: "Institution of Affiliation in France: Lycée Aristide Maillol, Perpignan." Perpignan?! That's the city I was hoping for! It's the city in SOUTHERN FRANCE!!!!! No Paris for me! Yippeeeeeeee!!!

Let me tell you a bit about Perpignan (pronounced "Pair-peen-yon"...kind of): not only is it in southern France, it's along the Mediterranean, and close to Andorra and Spain. I'll actually be (much) closer to Barcelona than I will be to Paris. Because of that, Perpignan has retained much of its Catalan culture (and language), so there are Spanish and Catalan festivals throughout the year.

There are about 120,000 people living in Perpignan proper; about 300,000 in the metropolitan area (thanks to Wikipedia for that convenient information). And, because I'm sure you're wondering about the weather (like I was!), it stays sunny most of the year in Perpignan, with some light rain and moderate winds from the Pyrenees in the winter.

I am excited to go Google the Lycée Aristide Maillol (high school) after I finish this post!! Of course, I will tell more about the school and the city as I get more information. For now, this is really exciting! I know where I will be next year!


http://www.bnbfinder.com/innImages/myperpignan_com_Perpignan_France_18201.jpg

(Copy + Paste the link above for a pretty picture of Perpignan; if you want to see where Perpignan is on the map, it is on the farthest southern point on the map below. As you can see, it is no where close to Poitiers, where I lived three years ago.)