July 15, Perpignan, France

I'm sitting in an overstuffed chair in the lobby of the Hotel Paris Barcelone in Perpignan feeling refreshed after a restless night's sleep. I intended to stay in the youth hostel here, but I was unable to book online yesterday morning due to the short notice, and when I arrived, the place was full. I had forgotten that yesterday was Bastille Day, the equivalent of our Fourth of July, and that the hostels would be full of traveling youth groups taking advantage of the holiday.

I'm staying in Perpignan until July 20, one more night in the hotel and then four nights in the youth hostel, in an attempt to give my leg a chance to rest and perhaps heal. On July 20, I'll return to Paris. By then I should know if I should stay in France or if my leg still hurts so much that it would be better to return to Phoenix early. In the past, a pinched sciatic nerve has taken at least several weeks to heal.

I don't plan to do much sightseeing here. I'll probably spend the afternoon lying in bed watching the Tour de France on TV.

I had to take two trains to Perpignan. The first was from Bayonne to Toulouse. In Toulouse, I had 21 minutes according to the schedule to find the train to Perpignan, but the train from Bayonne left late. When the conductor (conductress?) came to punch my ticket, I asked if I would have time to make the connection, and she assured me that we would be in Toulouse on time. We kept arriving at the intermediate stations late, so I was doubtful, but sure enough, when we arrived in Toulouse only one minute late, and I easily made the connection.

The country side in the Midi-Pyrenees region between Bayonne and Toulouse was mostly flat, although we did skirt some mountains. It reminded me of Eastern Pennsylvania, because there were lots of milk cows on small farms. Most of them were brown cows (jerseys and/or guernsys, I suppose?), but I also saw some holsteins. Everything was green with lush vegetation, and there were fields of corn and sunflowers. I have never seen whole fields of sunflowers before.

As we rolled eastward, the sky became clearer, and it was obvious that the weather was warmer, because most of the people I saw from the train window were dressed in shorts. It's sunny here in Perpignan and the temperature is pleasant.