End game - Fin de Jeu Pyrenean

A day by the sea at Collioure gave some of us the opportunity to have moules et frites , unless you were the carnivore who only considered a source of protein as viable if the animal had four legs and had hair. The town has moved on since 1905, when Henri Matisse arrived, painted pictures pulsating with light and colour this giving birth to Fauvism. It still is an artists town, a bit like St Ives here in the UK. There are streets given over to small studios and the around the harbour artists are offering their take on the landscape and culture. It is now very much keen on tourism.

Given over from a fishing port, mainly anchovies, to a port of call for tourists, it was busy, doubly so as it was market day. So much was the decision taken to harbour tourists and not fish that the fishing fleet was told to virtually pack up.

After lunch, we took our own route around this picturesque and popular place.
We were clearly on the homeward leg of the walking trip, but feeling we had achieved a worthwhile thing and would love to do more, perhaps next year. We assembled as arranged at the railway station to return for the last night at Hotel des Elmes.

Another dinner back at Banyuls sur Mer was not being looked forward too. The reservation about lack of volume of food, recorded in an earlier blog, was joined by another one because the previous evening meal was on an open air terrace, though with a canvas roofing. This delightful setting was spoiled by being us surrounded by smokers. Only when smokers eat, they tend to have a cigarette between courses. At least that's what I did when I was addicted. Smokers seem to have taken over the outdoor terraces, so much so that it is more pleasant, as a non smoker, to sit indoors, despite the weather being inductive to being outdoors.



We asked to sit indoors and, with the acceptance, all the formality of the previous night seemed to go. Why there was even an alternative for David. he had no more than began to give the slightest hint of disapproval to the fish, when the maitre eagerly offered him a meaty alternative.



And so the meal went well. Tomorrow afternoon we would set of for home