Collioure

Taking advantage of an offer from SNCF – travel anywhere in the Occitanie Region for only €1 per trip…I decided to get my money’s worth by going to Collioure (near the Spanish border). Setting off from home a bit before 6am, I arrived in Collioure over 2½ hours later.
This was the route for the walk I did – about 7 or 8 km. The highest point is at Fort St Elme (just under 200m; so nothing too strenuous)

Walking from the railway station and up the hill out of the town to the east. Up a short hill and past a couple
of old forts. Through the back of a car park to the top of some cliffs. Only about 40m high.

But it was very windy.

A few unofficial tracks lead down the cliffs. There are a few signposts on the way down (without signs! – long since rusted away). On the way back up was one other signpost – with an old sign that warned people not to enter military property.

Here, you can see the cliffs, with the hint of a path a few metres above sea-level. Because the path is so badly damaged, it is impossible now to reach this section directly from the town – hence the short walk to the cliffs.

I don’t know when the path was ‘built’, but it was made from concrete. It has been officially ‘closed’ for some time, with various sections having been damaged, or worse. From Collioure, the path ran both east and west (more on the western section later).

The wire is a zip-wire running from the French commando training centre on the top of the cliff behind us. It is attached to two steel pylons in the rocks.

I had previously been on another section of this coast path. What is a bit unusual about this one is that it is just above sea level (or not, depending on weather conditions!)

In some places, complete sections have disappeared – this actually looks like the entrance to a little harbour, but is simply where a bridge section has been washed away.

Back up the cliffs and heading towards the town…

Out of the narrow streets and into the wind!

St Vincent’s Chapel

Plage de l’Ouille (Ouch Beach)

Looking back from the chapel. Church of Notre Dame on the left

Looking across the town beach, Château Royal in the background

Château Royal (left) and Notre Dame Church (right)

Leaving the town to the west on another section of the coast path

You have to get the timing just right on this section

Leaving the path again, and heading up the hill towards the old windmill

Built in the 14th century. Derelict in the 19th. Restored by a group of local carpenters and now used to press olive oil.

On the path up to Fort Saint Elme

Looking back down the hill - the railway line appears from the bottom left (having run though the base of the hill)

Back down the hill…

And back to the railway station. Still windy, but a bright and sunny afternoon for the trip home