Perpignan, a typically Catalan city, is the capital of the ‘Pyrénées Orientales’ department. In the heart of the Roussillon plain and only 3.11 miles (5 km) from the coast, the town is bordered by the Pyrenees and the Corbières massif. The city resembles the villages that surround it with its narrow alleys around the city center and its ocher-tiled roofs and if it has spread like any large city in a sprawling way, the center has kept the charm of the smaller Catalan villages.