In Perpignan many street name signs are in both French and Catalan.

Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 ( most recently in 2009 ), while their rugby league side plays in the Stobart Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.

Also a French province before the Revolution ( and Spanish before the Thirty Years ' War ), Roussillon derived its name from Ruscino ( Rosceliona, Castel Rossello ), a small fortified place near modern-day Perpignan where Gaulish chieftains met to consider Hannibal's request for a conference.

One of the Pyreness guides was arrested in January 1944 in Perpignan and he had Dissard's name in his notebook.

The club was founded in 1902 as AS Perpignan, renamed US Perpignan in 1919 and adopted its present name in 1933.

Under the new club name, US Perpignan made it to the final of the French championship three seasons after the change.

On 18 April 2007, it was announced that Cusiter would sign for the French side Perpignan following the Border Reivers closure at the end of the 2006 – 07 season.

In June 2008, Carter made the decision to sign a six-month contract with French club side Perpignan, who then paid Carter the equivalent of £ 30, 000 per game, during his sabbatical season.

The last Avignon Pope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France ; following five years of siege by the French, he fled ( March 11, 1403 ) to Perpignan.

Again besieged and captured by the French during the Thirty Years ' War in September 1642, Perpignan was formally ceded by Spain 17 years later in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and from then on remained a French possession.

Outside the capital of Perpignan, Roussillon remained distinctly Catalan in outlook and culture until the late nineteenth century, when industrialization began to replace Catalan identity with French.

* Meshullam ben Machir, Don Bonet Crescas de Lunel, French scholar who settled at Perpignan, where he died in 1306

Several European cities, including the French cities of Lyon and Paris as well as London, Barcelona, Stockholm and Oslo, have signed contracts with private advertising agencies ( JCDecaux in Brussels, Lyon, Paris, Seville and Dublin ; Clear Channel in Stockholm, Oslo, Barcelona, Perpignan and Zaragoza ) that supply the city with thousands of bicycles free of charge ( or for a minor fee ).

The French line Perpignan – Montpellier is electrified at 1. 5 kV DC, but Spanish AVE trains use 25 kV AC.

In 2003 he was rumoured to be linked to French club Perpignan despite having time left on his contract at Leicester.

From 1443 until the French Revolution, several other parlements were created in various provinces of France, until at the end of the Ancien Régime provincial parlements were sitting ( clockwise from the north ) in Douai, Arras, Metz, Nancy, Colmar, Dijon, Besançon, Grenoble, Aix, Perpignan, Toulouse, Pau, Bordeaux, Rennes and Rouen.

On the Spanish border, the French under General Dugommier rallied from their defensive positions at Bayonne and Perpignan, driving the Spanish out of Roussillon and invading Catalonia.

In 2006, the Perpignan based team Catalans Dragons entered Super League Europe, and have since produced a number of top-class French players.

* Georges Coste ( born Perpignan, 1944 ), a French rugby union coach and former player

Victories over Northampton Saints, French Top 14 champions USA Perpignan and Italian side Treviso saw Munster qualify for the Heineken Cup Quarter Finals for a record 12th consecutive year.

They also went one step further in the playoffs than the previous season by reaching the semi-finals ( for the first time since 1995 – 96 ), but lost at home against French side Perpignan.

* In December 1992 Wales defeated France in Perpignan, their first win on French soil for thirty years.

Union Sportive des Arlequins Perpignanais ( French ) or Unió Esportiva dels Arlequins de Perpinyà ( Catalan ), generally abbreviated as USAP in both languages, is a French rugby union club that plays in the city of Perpignan in Pyrénées-Orientales.

He later spent the 2007-08 Northern Hemisphere season in the French Top 14 competition with Perpignan before returning to South Africa in June 2008.

For the 2007-2008 season, he signed for the French Top 14 club USA Perpignan and moved to France after the World Cup.

The famous " Sanch Procession " celebrating the Passion ( Christianity ) | passion of the Christ ( since 1461 ), once forbidden, is still celebrated in the France | French southern cities and towns of Perpignan, Arles-sur-Tech and Collioure

Perpignan was the capital of the former province and county of Roussillon ( Rosselló in Catalan ), also known as Northern Catalonia, and continental capital of the Kingdom of Majorca in the 13th and 14th centuries.

In 2008, Perpignan became Capital of Catalan Culture.

However, since September 5, 2003, there has been a Casa de la Generalitat in Perpignan, which aims to promote the Catalan culture and facilitate exchanges between each side of the Franco – Spanish border.

As the town has a strong Catalan culture, its own motto has been adopted by one of the local Catalan rugby teams ( USA Perpignan, France ): Sempre endavant, mai morirem ( Always forward, We'll never die ).

XIII Catalan were a French rugby league team from Perpignan, in the Catalan Pyrénées-Orientales region of France.

AS Saint Estève were a French rugby league team from Perpignan, in the Catalan Pyrénées-Orientales region of France.

Each year four French teams take part in the Rugby League Challenge Cup, and since February 2006 the Perpignan based club formerly known as UTC ( Union Treiziste Catalan ), now known as Catalans Dragons, play in the European Super League.

On the expulsion of the Jews from France by Philip IV in 1306, Abba Mari settled at Perpignan, where he published the letters connected with the controversy.

The rationalistic method pursued by the new school of Maimonists ( including Levi ben Abraham ben Chayyim of Villefranche, near the town of Perpignan, and Jacob Anatolio ) especially provoked his indignation ; for the sermons preached and the works published by them seemed to resolve the entire Scriptures into allegory and threatened to undermine the Jewish faith and the observance of the Law and tradition.

Abba Mari, through Ben Adret's aid, obtained allies eager to take up his cause, among whom were Don Bonafoux Vidal of Barcelona and his brother, Don Crescas Vidal, then in Perpignan.

The expulsion of the Jews from France by Philip IV (" the Fair "), in, caused the Jews of Montpellier to take refuge, partly in Provence, partly in Perpignan and partly in Majorca.

Consequently, Abba Mari removed first to Arles, and, within the same year, to Perpignan, where he finally settled and disappeared from public view.

In letter 131, Abba Mari mourns the death of Ben Adret, and in letter 132 he sends words of sympathy to the congregation of Perpignan, on the death of Don Vidal Shlomo ( the Meiri ) and Rabbi Meshullam.

At the close of the work are added several eulogies written by Abba Mari on Ben Adret ( who died in 1310 ), and on Don Vidal, Solomon of Perpignan, and Don Bonet Crescas of Lunel.

Alexander Orlov ( born Leiba Feldbin ; code-name Swede ), Philby's controller in Madrid, who had once met him in Perpignan, France, with the bulge of an automatic rifle clearly showing through his raincoat, also defected.

In 1267, Pope Clement IV and King James I of Aragon sent an ambassador to the Mongol ruler Abaqa in the person of Jayme Alaric de Perpignan.

Catalonia included not only the southern Pyrenees counties of Girona, Pallars, Urgell, Vic and Andorra but also some which were on the northern side of the mountains, such as Perpignan and Foix.

Perpignan (, ) is a city, a commune and the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.

, Perpignan had 120, 100 inhabitants ( Perpignanais, Perpinyanés ) in the city proper.

Soon Perpignan became the capital of the counts of Roussillon.

Perpignan acquired the institutions of a partly self-governing commune in 1197.

When James I, the Conqueror, king of Aragon and count of Barcelona, founded the Kingdom of Majorca in 1276, Perpignan became the capital of the mainland territories of the new state.

In 1344 Peter IV of Aragon annexed the Kingdom of Majorca and Perpignan once more became part of the County of Barcelona.

JOB rolling papers are currently manufactured in Perpignan.

Perpignan is served by the Gare de Perpignan railway station, which offers connections to Paris, Barcelona, Toulouse and several regional destinations.

The motorway A9 connects Perpignan with Barcelona and Montpellier.

The nearest airport is Perpignan – Rivesaltes Airport.

On 27 November 2008 an Air New Zealand Airbus A320 leased to XL Airways Germany with seven people on board crashed into the sea east of Perpignan during a test flight.