A trip on the ‘Train du Pays Cathare et du Fenouillèdes’ (TPCF) with its bright red and white carriages is not just recommended for train enthusiasts. Along the way, there are magnificent views, oceans of…

Saint Laurent de Cerdans is well worth a visit any time for its church with tall steeple, its Retirada museum (not as harrowing as the main museum in La Jonquera, but informative and well presented) and its many local walks in the footsteps of escapees from the Spanish Civil War. However the village is best known for its production of the beautiful striped fabric, the “Toiles du Soleil” and its long tradition of hand crafted ‘espadrilles

Known for its  mining history,  with a fascinating museum to the “Memoire de la Mine” the mine of Escaro was the first area in France to produce fluorspar, “the most colorful mineral in the world”

I go out walking with a group of friends most weekends. A lot of the time we are up in the mountains with a picnic when lunch comes around, but we’ve had a series of landmark birthdays in the group (everything one ending in 0 from 40 to 70) which has led us to investigate walks with restaurants on route and I thought that I’d share them with you.

One of the loveliest places round here is the Donezan so we headed towards it, up through Axat and the Haute Vallée of the Aude. This valley is a series of precipitous limestone gorges, with wonderful deciduous forests, with ash, maple, beech and elm covering the sides of the gorges and the Aude, so full of water again, rushing briskly down stream, feeding the several power stations on its way.

So Véret Céret… Opened in 1927 as a ‘cooperative’ by local workers, Le France is very much an institution in Céret. Many of us have whiled away a pleasant hour beneath the shady platanes of…

Even more pylons and aerials will go up on poor old Néoulous as increased competition amongst the TV channels leads to Broadcasting companies ‘Télédiffusion de France’ (TDF), ‘Towercast’ and ‘Itas TM’ staking their claim to a piece of this magnificent natural site.