Mini-expedition day today. After a cruisy start we got away at 11:30am to Collioure on the coast. It is only a 25 minute trip, but quite long enough. Suzy and I were in the back seats of the 7-seater hire car, and didn’t really play up too much at all.
Collioure is a gorgeous seaside town, with a castle right on the water’s edge and two more slightly inland. It now attracts lots of tourists but it is too early in the season for too many yet. Because we now live here J & I don’t consider ourselves to be tourists – which is very snobby of us! A coffee by the water’s edge was followed by a gentle wander around the town, looking in at various galleries and shops. Lunch was in a quiet restaurant back from the water’s edge, where a carafe of cold rosé went down a treat with my canard (duck) salad and John’s moules à la crème (mussels in garlic).
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| Collioure |
We climbed back into the car to drive the short distance further down the coast through Port-Vendres and then home to Céret via a quick squizz at a nearby chateau which is up for the sale. The latter is set within a large walled-in park of a garden, complete with a number of follies. The chateau is just stunning but in pretty sad state of repair and would need a few million on top of its multi-million Euro price tag to do it up. Alas, we have to dream on, but it was a very pretty diversion on the way back to Céret.
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| Emma, Nick, Jack & Suzy |
Jack has been a lot more settled today and everyone is pretty chilled out. We were very lucky to fluke a carpark when we arrived back in town, as the place is definitely filling up in anticipation of the cherry festival this weekend. The local council has been working hard, with extra street cleaning over the last few days, stages being put up beside the main street and elsewhere for the planned activities – dancing, music, bands, cheery-spitting competition etc. It should be lots of fun. Brilliant timing on the part of Suzy and Tim to arrive in town for Céret’s biggest festival.
