On the Mediterranean, close to the Spanish border, the Catalan rugby hotbed of Perpignan is, as Anthony Foley recalls from their previous visit four seasons ago, "a nice part of the world". Mind, there's precious few pleasant memories from a match Munster lost 41-24.
As the team arrived, there was a palpable sense of wanting to right the wrongs of their last visit to the Stade Aime Giral as the travelling 23-man squad went through a light work-out of under one hour at a nearby university ground.
The after effects of the full-on Celtic League semi-final with Ulster decreed that Munster have held back this week, admitted coach Alan Gaffney after yesterday's session.
"Today we just refined a couple of things; tried to tweak a few things here and there. We split for about 30/40 minutes into forwards and backs and then came together for about 20 minutes. There was nothing flat out. It was all very low-key really," he said.
Seasoned European Cup tourists to France by now, this is Munster's 13th Cup tie in France and as is their custom they have brought their own food specialist, not so much a chef as a head waiter, who ensures the players' dietary preferences and needs are met.
Although Perpignan show seven changes to the team which lost in Thomond Park, they have made just two changes to the team which won their most recent European Cup tie when beating Gloucester 31-23 at home, as well as the side which beat Narbonne 39-0 last time out before Christmas.
Loose-head Renaud Peillard, who has been a regular starter all season, is injured and replaced by Pascal Meya, while openside and captain Bernard Goutta returns to the starting line-up.
Currently on six points alongside Gloucester, with Perpignan on four points, Munster are perhaps best placed to win Pool Two. However, they are arguably most vulnerable to finishing third and thus missing out on the knockout stages for the first time in five years as well. For defeat tomorrow would leave Gloucester and Perpignan as favourites to go through.
The best Munster could hope for in that scenario would be to beat Gloucester at Thomond Park in the final series tomorrow week and thus force a three-way tie on eight points with their two main rivals. In that case, the pecking order would be decided by the total of tries scored in the games between Gloucester, Perpignan and Munster - in other words excluding the Viadana matches.
As things stand, with Munster still to play each of their main rivals once more, Gloucester have nine tries from the three relevant games, Perpignan have seven and Munster only four. So clearly, defeat in the Stade Aime Giral would leave Gaffney's men needing not only to beat Gloucester on Saturday week, but score a good few more tries as well, possibly as many as five depending on how the try tallies go tomorrow.
With Viadana to come next week, Perpignan go into this crunch game knowing that a win would most probably help propel them into the quarter-finals, albeit as one of the two best runners-up.
Alternatively, victory here in Perpignan would put the French side out of contention and leave Munster secure in the knowledge that then beating Gloucester would ensure they win the pool. What's more, with their healthy try count, they'd almost certainly have a home quarter-final as well.
PERPIGNAN: J-M Souverbie; P Bomati, P Giordani, C Manas, F Cermeno; M Edmonds, L Loustau; P Meya, M Konieckiewicz, N Mas, J Thion, R Alvarez-Kairelis, G Le Corvec, P Murphy, B Goutta (capt). Replacements: M dal Maso, S de Bescombes, C Porcu, S Deroeux, J Basset, B Bellot, D Marty.
