In Collioure: Port-Vendres, one way - The Seven Year Itch - CycleBlaze

October 30, 2024

In Collioure: Port-Vendres, one way

Unlike yesterday’s surprisingly fine day, it looks like we’re only getting a few hours to work with today before rain arrives in the early afternoon.  While we wait for dawn to arrive we focus on route and restaurant selection.  We’ve got agreement on both fronts: we’ll both head to our nearest neighbor Port-Vendres this morning, also stopping by Collioure’s windmill and Fort Saint-Elme for closer looks before making it back in time for lunch at highly rated Le Jardin de Collioure, the one restaurant our hosts said when we checked in that we should be sure to give a try.  In addition, I plan to make it out to the tip of Cape Béar to see its lighthouse again, a feature we biked out to the last time we stayed in Collioure seven years ago.

First though, a few photos that got missed yesterday because I keep forgetting to look at what’s on my phone: 

The interior of Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines church.
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The interior of the Elne Cathedral.
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We ate under the great bull again last night. This time though sitting right beneath him I noticed what I missed before, that his pattern is from posters of bullfights.
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Stopping off to visit a friend on the way home from dinner.
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My ride is considerably less ambitious than Rachael’s walk, adding up to barely twelve miles when I start out.  That’s not much longer than Rachael plans to cover on foot, but I don’t accomplish even that much and fail on reaching three of my four targets.  It starts when I’m barely out of town with my failure to make it up to the windmill.  The route I have plotted out follows a small road behind town up to the mill, but when I get there I find that my ‘road’ is actually a rough gravel track that winds steeply up through a terraced olive grove.  So scratch that goal - I’ll wait and look at Rachael’s photos later for this one. 

We’ve got different conditions again today - reason enough to slip in another photo of Collioure’s waterfront as I bike past it.
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Nope. Pretty, but not going there on a bike at least. If we’re lucky on weather maybe I’ll walk up there after lunch.
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I’ll swap in a substitute goal though as long as I’m here: a tower of the old church that’s now a cooperative wine cellar.
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Here’s another pair of windows that appear not to have seen the light of day for a few years at least.
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CJ HornYour pictures are wonderful. Sharron and I do virtual puzzles on jigsawexplorer.com and use our own pictures (not public). This one will be perfect! Thanks!
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5 days ago
Scott AndersonTo CJ HornVirtual jigsaw puzzles, I’m going to have to look at that.
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5 days ago
Scott AndersonTo CJ HornSay, is this the same woman who came barefoot to your wedding so many years ago?
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5 days ago
CJ HornTo Scott AndersonSharron did come to the church on 6-8-68 in sandles. Good memory! Trying to respond to a recent email about mousse but reply email will not go thru… sigh.
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5 days ago

It’s only about two miles to Port-Vendres following the main coast road as I do.  Traffic isn’t bad this morning, and on the way I stop to admire a colorful slate or schist road cut.

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Looks like a Mondrian painting. I wonder if he was also an amateur geologist.
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With only twelve miles to cover in four hours, I’ve got all the time in the world this morning.  I spend a good chunk of it on the Port-Vendres waterfront, admiring the look and feel of what’s obviously an active fishing and shipping port.  At one point we planned on staying here instead of Collioure, and from what I see this morning it would have been a good choice too.  I suspect if it weren’t a mere two miles from its neighbor it would see considerably more tourist traffic than it does.

Port-Vendres, just around a small headland from Collioure, has a much different character from its neighbor.
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It’s a more balanced community, mixing in some tourism with what’s obviously an active working port.
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In Port-Vendres.
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In Port-Vendres.
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Suzanne Gibson I like the name of the boat - my father's name was Luis and my mother's was Mathilde.
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5 days ago
Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonHow great! It’s your boat!
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5 days ago
In Port-Vendres.
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The town’s primary church stands tall on the waterfront with its attractive domed bell tower.
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Notre-Dame de Belle Nouvelle Church.
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Guarding the east entrance to the harbor is a lighthouse and small fortification, Fanal Redoubt.
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There’s a small swarm of birds circling above the redoubt and resting on its walls. They’re crag-martins, a bird I don’t recall seeing since spring.
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I finally break away from the waterfront and head out to the lighthouse at the tip of Cape Béar, the small headland on the west side of the bay.  The next few miles are a gradual climb up an all but deserted rough-surfaced road that must exist to service the lighthouse at the end.  Not a car passes me on the way up, but I do pass another bike or two and a number of walkers.  If we’d stayed in Port-Vendres instead this would have made a great hike for Rachael.

This is Béar Redoubt, guarding this side of the harbor.
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The back side of Béar Redoubt.
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I get a nice view back at Port-Vendres from the cape. At the top of the ridge behind the town is Fort Saint Elme, the one Rachael and I both plan to stop by today.
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On the crown of the cape is Fort Béar, the fortification in the distance I was trying to identify from Collioure.
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And here’s yet another ruined fortification on the cape, the remains of Mailly Redoubt.
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I get impressive views up and down the coast when I reach the crown of the cape, and then after a short descent down the seaward side I come to the beautiful lighthouse.  It has a rosy coloring that looks like it was built from the same material that sourced the capitals in the cloister I saw yesterday.

The view west to the next town over, Banyuls-sur-Mer.
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Panning back for a wider view. Zooming in on the tip of its opposite headland you can see the tips of the next several headlands also and imagine Cerbere and Portbou tucked in between them.
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And with a still wider view you can see what must be Cape Creus across the border.
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Cape Béar lighthouse. I took the shot from this spot so the tile roof of the building in the foreground would just block out a utility van parked in front of the lighthouse. When I did though, I was surprised by the bird in the lower left of the frame.
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New bird! #287: Blue rock-thrush. I thought I was seeing something different by its long, slender bill. From a distance it almost looks like a woodpecker.
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Bob KoreisThat's some impressive detail from the prior photo.
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4 days ago
Scott AndersonTo Bob KoreisIt was taken as shown, with the bird and I in the same positions. I was lucky to get such a clarifying shot. I’m gradually getting better at removing the shake when I press the shutter.
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4 days ago
New plant: Japanese cheesewood!
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The lighthouse is at the end of the service road, so there’s nowhere else to go next but back the way I came.   After dropping back through Port-Vendres again I start climbing up through it into the hills heading for Fort Saint-Elme.  But I never get there, and I don’t make it back for lunch at Le Jardin de Collioure either.  Two things get in the way.  First, my ride up toward the fort turns to crap - or rather it turns into a steep two block long staircase, one I can’t find a way past as I huff my way up the very steep nearby streets before deciding this is another spot where I’ll just need to wait for Rachael’s photos later.  If I had gotten up to see it though, it would look like this: 

The best look I’ll get of Fort Saint Elme today.
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So that’s one thing.  The other is that as I’m dropping back toward the waterfront again I see on the Garmin that Rachael’s less than half a mile away, still rounding the headland between here and Collioure.  It makes me wonder if she’ll still have time to make it up to the fort and back in time for lunch, so I give her a call.  And then I call her again about ten minutes later, and then finally I start making my way through the steep alleys east of the port until I finally hook up with her coming around a corner.

But that’s a story for a separate post.

Rachael in Port-Vendres, with a somewhat stunned look on her face.
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Today's ride: 13 miles (21 km)
Total: 4,539 miles (7,305 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesNot fair, not fair! Post the Rachael story soon, soon soon. Please.
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5 days ago
Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesOh, go look at some birds.
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Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonWaaah.
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CJ HornType your comment here
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CJ HornTo CJ HornBarefoot in sandles
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