Lesley and I have just returned from a week’s holiday in the South of France, to Roussillon (the Catalan region of France). We flew from Edinburgh to Toulouse with Jet2, who are a budget airline but the flight was fine.
We stayed in a gîte in the small village of Le Vivier, which is in the foothills of the Pyrenees, amongst some impressive limestone ridges.
The weather was not quite what you might expect from the south of France (more rain and clouds than I was expecting) but we still managed to do a lot in the short time we were there. We went to a typical french market in the town of Espéreza to stock up on food (great bread, cheese, vegetables, sausages and cheap red wine), we went to Tautavel (the site of a cave in which remains of ancient humans have been found), we went for a hike in the local forested hills, we went to the coastal town of Collioure (famous as an inspiration for artists), we went to Rennes-le-Château (impressive place regardless of all the holy grail-related nonsense) and we went to the roman aqueduct at Ansignan (that is still in use).
I also hiked to Puig Carlit in the Pyrenees (more about this in a blog posting to follow).
We went to the nearest large city, Perpignan, where we walked around the imposing and satisfyingly ancient-looking Palace of the Kings of Majorca, with impressive views of Canigou mountain from its tower. We also went to the ruined Cathar castle of Queribus, which must be one of the most impressive castles in the world – it sits high up on a lofty limestone crag with unbelievable views of the surrounding area and the Pyrenees summits on the horizon.
On the trip back to Edinburgh I got a good view of two Airbus A380 aircraft sitting on the tarmac at Toulouse airport (the first time I’ve seen this aircraft), and our plane also flew over three A380s that were under construction – they were pretty easy to spot being so enormous.
You can see photos from the holiday on my website here.
Lesley’s blog posting about the holiday is here.
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