Collioure

South of Perpignan, just before you get to the Spanish border, Collioure, a small fishing port is dominated by the Chateau Royal, which forms part of the harbour wall.

The chateau walls were built by the knights Templar in the 13th Century. It then became the main port of entry for Perpignan , remaining under the rule of the Spanish Aragon until France took control in 1659.

The outer fortifications were reinforced ten years later by Vauban, who demolished much of the original town in the process. Part of Vauban's destruction was the town's church. This was replaced in the 17th Century by the rebuilding of the Eglise Notre-Dame-des-Anges. This church sits atop the quayside and contains no fewer than five Baroque altarpieces by Joseph Sunyer and other Catalan masters of the genre.

It is these chateau walls that offer shelter to three beaches that are dotted around the harbour. With both sand pebbles, these three beaches are a nice place to sit and admire the view past the Chateau walls and out to sea.

Today, it's a mass of brightly coloured houses sheltered by Cyprus trees and brightly painted fishing boats, bathed in famous luminous light. It was these colours and the incredible light that attracted Matisse to Collioure in 1905.

Here he worked with a number of artists including Andre Derain. They were given the name of "Fauves" (Wild beasts) for their "Wild" experiments with colour.

"View of Collioure" by Matisse 1905	"Port de Collioure" by Derain 1905

The town still retains this link with Matisse and there are art galleries and souvenir shops dotted along its pretty cobbled streets.

You can even visit the Chateau itself for it's own modern art exhibition. Although these art galleries and souvenir shops are plentiful, the town's main business is still Anchovies, with three salting houses testament to this.

So weather you're an art lover, a history lover or just fancy a day out to a pretty seaside fishing village, Collioure is well worth a look.

You can find Collioure on Michelin map No: 344,

Grid reference: J7

Or click here to see a basic location map

For lots of other Languedoc sightseeing ideas and to understand what these map references refer to, click here to go to my page on Languedoc sightseeing