Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Collieure - 26th May

Today we went for a big drive to Collioure known as the Catalonian Crossroads, where the waters of the Mediterranean lap at the rocks of the Pyrenees. It is in the extreme south of France near the Spanish border, hence the Catalonian reference.

For us to get there is a two hour drive on non-toll roads via Elne which has a great big red church, a busy Friday market and a lovely bakery.
Next stop was Perpignan which was way too big a city for us so we took the detour around it, however on the way home the GPS took us through it; there are a few limitations of using Google to navigate...

Collioure is the land of anchovies which I love, and forgot to buy, and a beautiful seaside town even though it is full of tourists. It caters for everybody with the beach, swimmably clear waters, ancient forts, chateaus, churches, old houses, tourist shops, terraced vineyards, cafés-a-plenty and geocaches.

Our return trip home took 3 hours because we went inland to take in different countryside views and a geocache.

Cheese Experience No.35 We completed a cheese-themed geocache at a very small hamlet of not many houses. However it had a goat cheese producer but unfortunately nobody was home, and the geocache just had a wet logbook.

We stopped at Estagel for an ice cream. The Catalonian weather is quite warm but manageable, unlike the Catalan influence on the language. We had no idea what the lady was saying and either did she obviously, when we pointed to her cat she starting waving hands expressing cat was not for eating, “no no no el gat no és per menjar”, if she had said “non non non le chat n’est pas fait pour manger”, we would have understood.

Our inland route also took us within viewing distance of two of the sons of Carcassonne; Queribus and Puilaurens, not sure why I originally thought we could walk up to see them and there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm from my driver

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.14 - The Riviera. Having been to the Riviera in 2007 we decided that the overpopulated tourist area did not warrant another visit so views of the Riviera in the distance is all we can offer. [Ed: Only one French general was swung by his legs in the taking of this picture]