The small back roads gave us access to spectacular views over the old Saracen ports of Coulioure, Banyuls and Cadaques, all beautifully preserved and picturesque.

Coulioure

Argeles, sandy beach to Perpignan bathed in the Azure Mediterranean sea

The Windy road is for the Vineyard tractor, not our car!

Cadaques Fishing Harbour

Cadaques Harbour Restaurant above the fish market

The road led us on to Figueras, where Salvador Dali used to live and the Dali museum.  With a three hour queue of people waiting to get in, we gave that a miss! 

Strange figurines decorate the balcony of the Museum, a farcical representation of those at St Peter’s in Rome

Both David and I came to the conclusion that most of Spain is incredibly industrial  compared to France, and of course the unadulterated, beautiful Costa Brava beach we had our Holiday at in Tossa del Mar in 1958 is a concrete jungle of hotels now!  Spain is having a hard time coming out of the recession, but we did not notice it, there seemed to be plenty of tourists around, although not necessarily British ones, as the Euro is so high against the Pound now!

This little medieval town in the Spanish Pyrenees looks untouched, built on the cliff edge to protect itself from invasion from behind!

Dali’s earlier representation of Cadaques, before he concentrated on his surrealist style