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SATURDAY 18TH: COLLIOURE

From Carcassonne we took a day trip to this great Catalan seaside town, 2 hours away.

It was distinctly out of season and very wet and rainy but Collioure still managed to be beautiful and nostalgic, especially when we sat in a brasserie on the harbour and had a coffee and a Grand Marnier crêpe and watched the sea crash onto the walls of the old castle while big local men in red anoraks sat around us and cheered to the TV as England beat South Africa in the rugby.

We climbed up into the hills surrounding the town for some great views and other bits:

Collioure also has a beautiful chapel on the harbour:

In the evening we went back to Carcassonne for a very good dinner at Au Bon Pasteur in rue Armagnac. We tried the small family restaurant's own version of the regional speciality cassoulet, with a duck leg instead of a pork chop, and slices of duck breast in a terrific foie gras sauce. The service and cooking were excellent, although it turned out that neither of us were really cassoulet people.

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