Being in the "Auberge de Jeunesse de Perpignan" for quite a long time taking care of some "affairs" in town I can say now that if you spect too much for 17 euros a night with breakfast included the International Hostel of Perpignan is not the place you should to arrange your traveling time. Better go by the Perpignan Train Station, pay much more and I have a "secure" time there :-) By the way, the Auberge of Jeunesse of Perpignan is by the National Police and the Town Police. The neighbeurs are great police canines that will be delighted if you smoke funny cigarretes on the International Hostel garden.

The "auberge" is known to be the oldest Youth Hostel in France but has suffered recent improvents (the main building). Things to improve: the garden and the kitchen decoration.

It has a very functional kitchen out of the main building as Karen Blixen´s house at the "cartier" the Karens in Nairobi, Kenya. Problems arise when guests have no experience and patience in using a community kitchen.

The staff will allow you almost everything. If reception gives you a call is that you have done something quite unproper for Perpignan´s ethical´s code.

Don´t forget, even that Salvador Dalí said that the Train Station of Perpignan is the Center of the World the same does not apply for the "auberge", yes it is a very International environment but "c´est La France"...

Perpignan is the typical modern-ish city without charm, new building and old buildings (some were beautiful), city center is nice, outside of city center not that nice... Certain areas of town look quite dodgy, so be careful where you end wandering at night. The hostel is right behind the police station but also beside an empty park (some weird looking people around there) and the motorway. The good point is that is two minutes away from the bus station and you can go and visit any small villages for a 1 euro flat fare (coast villages and pirinees villages, beautiful). I recommend you to do that.
The showers are like the ones in an old school gym, with tails broken, air conditioning worked at night that was good, toilets and bedrooms were clean. The hostel is closed between 11 am till 5 pm, so you have to wait till that hours to go in or check in.
Another thing, the hostel has a guest kitchen adjacent to the main building, you can access it with a pin and the whole kitchen cleanliness is responsibility of the users. The reality is that the kitchen is in poor condition and dirty, and the door to it was open all day for anyone to come in, not good.

Youth hostels arent hotels, they're cheap places to sleep, take a shower, have some breakfast and go... and mainly meet travelling people from all the world. And the Perpignan Auberge de Junesse is good for that. Clean sheets, nice and helpful staff, good company. Shower cleaning to improve (water, dirt on the floor but maybe it was some temporary problem ). Good and rich breakfast, maps, infos.

Fine, you want a cheap bed in the city. However, bottom line, it's next to the highway. O.K, ON the highway. The hostel itself is rundown and is not up to par with other French youth hostels. What's with the dodgy hallway up to the room floors that seems not painted correctly? Breakfast is just bread and coffee. Personally, I was very tempted to go to the Ibis, a stones throw away. Friendly, but if I was backpacking in France, I'd head to Collioure or to Barcelona and bypass this one.