Perpignan - Collioure Day Trip

Sunday, June 19 ~~ Sunny, warm (25 C), with a nice breeze; cool morning

Today, we took a day trip via train to Collioure, a very pleasant town on the coast, known as "The City of Painters."  There, they were also celebrating the festival of St. John!  We got there mid-morning, and found a wine-tasting going on in the park.  The tourism office was open, and provided us with a town map, a listing of the day's events, and a map of the Chemin du Fauvisme.

Since we had only had a coffee and some left-over snacks on the train, we stopped for another coffee and croissant, then walked around the town, looking out for the Fauviste paintings and "viewing frames." 

We also stopped in at the Notre Dame des Anges

and this chapel

The Fauvist paintings (Matisse and Derain) are posted along the route (the Chemin du Fauvisme), where the artists had painted them - we could see both the painting and the inspiration for it :-). 

The "viewing frames" are metal "picture frames" set up so the view through them corresponds to a painting (not shown, but referenced) - we found 3 of these around the village - so exciting each time :-D

We had lunch, then headed around to the other side of the bay.

We got back to the center of town in time to see some folk dancing to traditional music!

Ice cream called, so we got a cone each of *very* rich coffee and dark chocolate, then caught the 4pm train back to Perpignan to *rest!*