Let The Explorations Begin

After an amazing sleep in a very comfortable bed, that I didn’t have to climb a ladder to get into, I headed from the little house to the chateau where I met the folks that were part of Ihla’s tour. Everyone was quite welcoming and made me feel right at home as we piled into the wo cars to head to Collioure for the day.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had been there 3 years ago and was eager to get back, since that time we only had a few hours and there were things that I missed being able to explore.

We arrived shortly before lunch, so after looking around briefly, we settled down for what turned out to be an amazing meal. I hadn’t had many salads in Zambia, so when I saw some good options for them on the menu, I made a pretty quick choice. Little did I know that this salad, with fruits de mer and foie gras was going to be so amazing.

But even given that, I had some of the lamb curry that I had ordered to share. It was also amazing.
After pretty much stuffing myself and drinking wine along with that, it was time for an espresso before heading out to explore the village.

The first part of the exploration was to take the petit train. These are vey popular in France, and can be a good way to get an overview if a new place. And this one was one of the better ones since it went to the top of the foothills of the Pyrenees above the town and then down to the neighboring village of Port-Vendres.

In addition to those marvelous views, I got to see a tree from which cork had been harvested.

After that, I wandered around a bit before heading off to visit the Château Royal which is currently made up of pieces of a number of castles from different periods.

This yields lots of cool details to view.

After leaving the castle, I had a little bit of time left to do some shopping and wander through the lovely streets of the village.

I even found the jewelry show where I bought some things the last time I was there, but since the artisan had not added many new things, I wound up only buying a couple of things at the shop that I went to before finding this one again.

All in all it was a good day, and despite the long journey I had just had, I help up pretty well. But I was ready for another good nights sleep in a very nice bed.