Collioure to Ille-sur-Têt

May 27, 2024

Another good day today!

We were already awake this morning when the hammering and sanding started at 7, presumably from the apartment next door. We just carried on with our morning routine, ate our granola with yogurt and fantastic French strawberries from yesterday’s market, and were out the door by 9.

D114 was fairly busy until drivers in a hurry could change to D914, and then there was a traffic-free interlude on a paved path from where we left Argelès until we turned onto the D2 at Saint-Antoine. We then followed D2 as it wound its indirect way to Ille-sur-Têt.

Flower of the day. There were just a few of this pink variety beside the road just past Brouilla. I had to stop for a quick photo.

The entire area seems dedicated to viticulture and orchards, rather than grazing (which we saw a lot of in Spain).

One of the bigger villages we passed through was Fourques, where we saw signs and posters that are part of local farmers’ attempts to fight back against industrial agriculture. Later, we saw our first, and so far only, inverted town sign.

And, around the corner, the main street of the village.

Tiny honeysuckle vines with big flowers beside the road

I like the way these new distance markers pay homage to the old concrete ones, one of which is shown on the left.

At the top! Note the loose white gravel—there was a bit of this near the top of the climb and more on the descent. Not too bad with our wider tires but we proceeded with caution.

We saw these on the other side of the road when we were descending. Clearly we came up the easy way. It’s odd to me that the top is green; departmental (D) roads usually have markers with yellow tops, and the signs going down were yellow. Green tops indicate municipal roads, I think.

We arrived outside our lodging around 1:30 and check-in was not until 5 so rather than see if we could check in 3-1/2 hours early, we rode into Ille-sur-Têt for lunch. It was a big 3-course lunch, which we ate at a slowing pace without taking any photos. For the entrée, Al had salade composé and I had crevettes. I wasn’t sure what I’d get because I thought crevettes in English would be shrimp, but they were more like large prawns. Seven of them served whole, of course, with a nice mayonnaise to dip them in.

For the plat, we both had Camembert rôti, which turned out to be a whole Camembert (about 8 cm diameter), roasted in its thin wood package, and served with a large roasted potato, some green salad, and some ham (we are still in a Catalan area). Even Al was unable to finish it, though he had eaten most of the basket of bread with his salad.

Of course, we had room for dessert: chocolate mousse for Al and panna cotta for me.

The kitchen closed after serving us but the place is also a bar, so we were under no pressure to finish and leave.

This sign in the restaurant sort of summed it up.

We finally dragged ourselves out of the restaurant to go and see Les Orgues d’Ille-sur-Têt. These hoodoos aren’t far out of town and reviews indicated that they are worth visiting. Whether the visit is worth 5€ is another question. In any case, we got really confused trying to leave town due to Google Maps insisting the route was first down a one-way road the wrong way and then down a road temporarily closed for construction, but we eventually made it.

Les Orgues. It was cool that you can walk right up to them, or at least to the ropes signed not to cross. It was chilly and windy this afternoon so we had our extra layers on.

A closeup of the rock texture, Les Orgues

After Les Orgues, we managed to find our way back to our lodging without making any wrong turns. Mas Tramontane is very nice and deserving of a full report tomorrow.

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Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,105 km (686 miles)

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