Ceret - Collioure with Joan

It was Joan's last day with us and we decided to show her Collioure. It was a lovely day, about 18 and a slight wind, sunny most of the time.

Similar to in Ceret, Collioure celebrates its famous historic painters with posters in the places
they painted. They were know as the Fauvists and included Derain and Matisse and spent summers
here in the early 1900s.

The scene depicted in that painting, today. There is less beach and more flagstone.
No Catalan fishing boats but I've read that in the summer there are more of these
colourful wooden boats around.

The bell tower and the church haven't changed though.

From the site of this painting you can't see the sea anymore because of the houses in the way.

We found a table at a restaurant in full sun but out of the wind. We sat right
in front of that blue door to the left of the church.

Joan and I faced this old olive tree next to the church entrance.

This was Mum and Dad's view, back towards the fort and the hills.

The waiter gave us 2 menus in French and 2 in English, except not all the words were translated so there was still some guess work to be done. We ordered half a litre of red and Mum had a glass of white while we decided.

Mum's Serrano appetizer had enough ham for all of us to have eaten.

Dad and I had the anchovy appetizer. They were served with 2 slices of bruschetta and a little salad.
The anchovies were on a bed of grilled red peppers and dribbled with, what we think was, mint pesto.

Dad had mussels.

The rest of us had gambas or king prawns. Both were served with courgettes and potatoes
that had been encrusted with sea salt, roasted and had a dollop of garlic and herb mayonnaise
on top.

Dad had ice cream for desert and we had Crème Catalane. What a meal, we had to walk afterwards or go to sleep. I chose walk and wandered up into the old part of town behind the restaurant.

In the pavement in front of the church. The 3 towers represent the forts on the headlands (one
to the north and one to the south) and the fort overlooking the harbour.

There is a small section of the defensive walls remaining with arrow slits
looking out to sea.

The old section is all narrow, steep, pedestrian streets.

In some, the rock that everything is built on, juts out of the foundations of the
houses or the edge of the road itself.

At the top of the hill a row of what might have been fisherman's houses now
look very attractive. Collioure is very pretty and a main tourist attraction in this
area, housing and rental accommodation is pricey.

 

I walked back down to the waterfront to meet up with Mum and Dad.

The commandos were in the water for their training today.

After a slight problem with the caisse automatique in the parking lot (it ate my ticket and I had to get the attendant to open the machine and get it back - more halting French and many gestures, High School French didn't cover "the machine didn't give me my ticket back and now I can't get out of the lot") we headed back home feeling like we'd never need to eat again.