Ceret and Colloure

Ceret in the foot hills of the Pyrenees is one of our favorite places, we always enjoy our visits, lots of higily pigily streets, huge plantain trees and  any amount of sidewalk cafe's

 One of Ceret claim to fame is this was the first home of Picasso after he left Spain.  Lots of other painters spent time here resulting in a great art scene.

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A few kilometres away on the coast is the town of Colloure evan better known than Ceret as a painters hangout, made famous by Mattise and Degain and their paintings of the buildings, fishing boats and inhabitants in the early 20th. century

One of the little streets, all the houses painted vivid colours. The streets are very steep with lots of steps, not wheelchair friendly I'afraid.

A street with cobblestones, you don't see many of these anymore.

Another typical Colloure street.

These tomatoes were harvested last year, they are a special Spanish type for making pain tomat, more on that in a future post, they are hanging in my daughter Victoria's restaurant waiting for the coming together with the pain to become pain tomat.

Visiting Racou and a wonderful lunch.

Spring school holidays here in France, which means grandparents doing there bit. For the last week we have been looking after one of the grandchildren here in the south and visiting the others over in the Dordogne. On Saturday we took Maria-Luna back to her Mum meeting up with her at the village of Racou, a couple of kilometres a long the coast from Collioure. Picture above taken at her friend Renauds restaurant in Racou "Menje e Caille"

which is Catalan for "shut up and eat" something every kid hears every day in every language.

We had one of the best lunches I think I have ever had, a simple beach restaurant serving fresh food,everything 'bio' French for organic even the wine. First dish, Mackerel salad the tastiest bit being the salad

Anchovies for which Collioure is famous

Razor fish with toasted almonds 

Clams in white wine with rancid Catalan fat and espelette - a Spanish mixed chili pepper flavoring.

 Potato salad with thin slivers of dried tuna 'Mojami'

To end it all a salad of bitter lettuce,spring onions and chèvre.

After lunch a walk around the village of old fishermens cottages

Old street sign.

A couple more streets in this lovely little village.

The beach at Racou looking towards the headland that separates it from Collioure.

Sights of the Western Algarve, Portugal

Our stay in the Algarve has come to an end, and we are now back home in France. Some pics of the western part of the Algarve where we stayed. The first two pics are of the beach at Alvor.

These two pics are of the headland just past Lagos (pronouced) Lagooosh.

Typical Algarve church, this one at Praia da Luz

Couple of shots of the village of Burgau.

The indoor market at Alvor.

The coastline between Carvoeiro and Albufeira

The outdoor Sunday market at Alvor. 3 kilograms of oranges for 1euro, what a bargain, we staggered back to the villa with 2 sack fulls having spent 3 euros.

The boardwalk at Alvor, 6 kilometres of tracks and boardwalk around the estuary and sand-dunes.

The castle at Silves a few kilometres inland from Carvoeiro.