Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cheaters can just
drive
there: Head to Port Vendres, then follow the higher road to
Perpignanandthesmallsignmarked
FortSt.Elme
ontherightjustbeforeleavingtheport
(the road also leads to the supermarket). Continue on the small road that leads up from the
train station. Port Vendres'
petit train
also gets you there (€7 round-trip, leaves from the
post office).
Check your vertigo at the hotel, fasten your seatbelt, and take this drive-and-hike com-
bination high above Collioure. The narrow road, hairpin turns, and absence of guardrails
only add to the experience, as Collioure shrinks to Lego-size and the clouds become your
neighbors.
Leave Collioure, heading toward Perpignan, and look for signs reading
Tour de
Madeloc
at the roundabout above the town. Climb through steep and rocky terraced vine-
yards, following
Tour
signs. After 10 kilometers (6 miles, or about 20 minutes), you'll
come to a fork in the road with a paved path (marked by a “no entry” symbol that applies
to cars) and a road leading downhill. Park at the fork in the road, and walk up the paved
path. The views everywhere are magnificent—the Pyrenees on one side, and the beach
towns of Port Vendres and Collioure on the other. Allow 30 minutes at a slow-yet-steady
pacealongthesplintered ridgetoptoreachtheeagle's-nestsetting oftheancient tower(La
Tour), now fitted with communication devices. Here you can commune with the gods, but
beware—there's no shade, so do this hike early or late in the day. Once you're back down
amongmortals, youcanreturntoCollioure following
LaRoute desVignobles
alonganar-
row road to Banyuls-sur-Mer, then take coastal N-114 to Collioure and your hotel (skip
D-914 in July and August, when it's too crowded).
▲▲▲
The 15-mile, 40-minute coastal drive via the Col de Banyuls into Spain is beautiful and
well worth the countless curves, even if you don't venture past the border.
Tovisitthewild
Salvador Dalí museum,
taketheautoroutetoFigueres,whichtakes
about an hour each way (museum: €12; July-Sept daily 9:00-20:00; March-June and Oct
Tue-Sun 9:30-18:00, closed Mon; Nov-Feb Tue-Sun 10:30-18:00, closed Mon; last entry
45 minutes before closing, Spanish tel. 972-677-500,
www.salvador-dali.org
).
