04/16/2012, Carcassonne,France
Choccie Heaven
| Touring France |
04/16/2012, Perpignan, France
Our time in Perpignan has been a pleasure. It is a very pretty town, with a thousand years of recorded history. The Catalan museum, in the 13th century castle's old three-storey-high gates, told a story of repeated conquest by French, Spanish and Majorcans, but continuing fiery independence. All signs are in both French and Catalan. We witnessed President Sarkozy campaigning in Perpignan, emerging to the cheers and boos of the local population assembled outside the beautiful Prefecture building on the canal surrounded by garden beds of spring flowers and old plane trees. Despite the change to windy and cold weather - the Tremontane gusting up to 70 knots in the Golfe du Lion - Perpignan was still lovely. Ancient winding lanes, modern and beautiful shops in ancient stone buildings, and at the top of the old town, the castle built for the Majorcan kings starting in 1297. It is an amazing fortification - the star shaped fort with moat and hugely thick walls - surrounding a magnificent castle with a throne room, a great hall, the king's and queen's separate chambers, the king's and queen's separate chapels with Moorish/Spanish decoration, an amazingly huge kitchen under the great hall and a huge underground cistern and grain silos under the inner court yard. But sadly the moules for lunch were sold out! We settled for Catalan anchovies and roquefort salad.
| Touring France |
04/16/2012, Perpignan, France
Castle of the Majorcan kings, 1297
| Touring France |
04/16/2012, Perpignan, France
Streets of old town Perpignan
| Touring France |
04/16/2012, Perpignan, France
Loge de Mer 1397
| Touring France |
04/11/2012, Collioure,France
Picturesque Collioure, to the south of Canet en Rousillon and where the Pyrenees meet the sea, was the destination chosen by Garth for his birthday celebration. As we still have not taken delivery of the dinghy to get us ashore, we travelled by road to this ancient port.
| Touring France |
