Villefranche de Conflent to Collioure …a religious day featuring an Abbey, a Priory & a Beach Town

September 10th

We got up bright and early as today promises to be a big day >> Villefranche de Conflent to Collioure. organize our stuff, an excellent breakfast (best of the trip) and out the door we go…

First stop is a short drive away >>> Abbaye de St. Martin de Canigou, you cannot see the abbey from where we parked as is it situated on a ridge requiring a serious, steep 40 minute hike up the mountain…..it was a wonderful day for a walk crisp and clear with excellent visibility.

Arrived in time for the 1st tour > you cannot get into the abbey, other than via a guided tour. Lucked out as there was only a German couple and ourselves, so the guide > a nun, graciously offered to do the tour in English.

The abbey is now populated by the Beatitude Order (interesting factoid: there are brothers and sisters who take the vows as well as married couples who do not, but are obviously firm believers)  > all in all 15 souls, with the married commuting daily to the village below to see their kids, sleep etc.). Originally established by the Benedictines in the 11th century, it fell on some bad times after the French Revolution but over time has been restored and today is in great shape.

The tour was a little long and somewhat embarrassing as the nun asked us questions, many of which we could not answer ….she found this amusing and herself was amusing as she laughed at herself when making English errors…

Some of the restoration craftsmanship can seen in this shot of the cloisters:

After the tour we hiked up a bit higher to get the $$$$$$ shot:

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We made our way down again, a nice walk enjoying a well-earned chocolate croissant enroute……and then off we went to the Prieurie de Serrabona about an hour and a half drive with the last 26 kms up a nasty winding road through the mountains. It was founded in the 1100’s and has a significant Roman influence with curious looking animistic sculpted columns.

It is uninhabited but maintained by the local conseil generale (local government) as it deemed a significant monument. Quite stark and dark…and in a rather remote location. Interesting but we enjoyed the Abbey experience more.

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Then back down the same road and to the highway…..a really easy drive and there it was ….Collioure:

Now for the hard part: it was 3:40 PM and we had arranged with our AIRBNB host to meet at 4PM, at the flat…..so a bit of loopiness….Miss Charm directed us to a no go street, so we reprogrammed her but she took us back to the same spot….of course everything is one way and parking impossible…..anyway found somewhere abandoned the vehicle and yours truly went to investigate. I remembered seeing a Casino (actually a food store) when checking out the place in Canada on GOOGLE street view, so ran back to where we saw the Casino in real-time, asked a gendarme who pointed out the tiny laneway ….and behold there was a tiny lady waiting to let us in to the tiny flat (more about this later). Then run back up the hill where Annie was guarding the car, found space in a paid parking and lugged our mutidinous luggage to the flat ……WHEW !!!!!

The flat while cute was TINY….large corpulent types should beware, especially when performing their daily ablutions! In any event as promised we are super well located a hop, skip and jump to the beach.

We were bushed but had to check out the waterfront…..this really is a very pretty town in a gorgeous setting…no wonder Matisse, Picasso, Machado and many other artists have used this area as a backdrop for their paintings.

Good nite all…………….