Pradès

Today we decided to make a trip down to Pradès, which is south west of Perpignan and south of Limoux, almost at the border of Spain, Andorra and France. The weather was supposed to start out cloudy and then be sunny and reach around 36 degrees. We figured if we left early enough we would do most of our travelling while it was still fairly cool.

So we left Limoux, via Quillan, Axat and then on through the Gorges of St George – what magnificent rocks all around – a little track of a road through such a deep gulley, and with such high ‘walls’. Absolutely stunning. Note the overhang of the rocks across the road - these are high enough to allow buses to pass, so that gives some idea of scale.

Wouter had trouble with the picture below due to the high light contrast. It is quite dark below in the valley, in fact so dark that the automatic lights came on in the car, while up above the light was brilliant. Hence the photoshop adjustment to show the high walls of rock.


At Ussen we took a right turn via Le Pla, which was apparently the scenic route. We climbed up pretty high and then hit a plateau, which was stunning to say the least. It was a sort of continuation of the Plateau de Sault, but with slightly different vegetation – you could say a little more Mediterranean at a high level, but still alpine.

At Formiguères you can see Pic de Pam (yes, it’s true, they have a mountain named after me!) Opposite Pic de Pam (2411m) is a mountain called Pic du Bastard – you may draw your own conclusions on that one. Pic de Pam is the mountain on the right, just above the pier in the picture.

We then drove further to Lac de Matemale, and stopped for a bite of lunch on the side of the lake opposite Les Angles. This town is amazing – it’s a total winter chalet for skiers anonymous. There are literally hundreds of chalets dotted all over the countryside and I guess they are all full over the winter as people make their way down for a spot of skiing on the nearest piste. Of course, the day would not be complete for Cassy without a dip in the Lake, which was pretty deep, cool, and worth every ball thrown to retrieve.

Les Angles:

After lunch we continued on to Mont Louis with its star shaped fortified walls. The next bigger town was Villefranche de Conflent, which we plan to revisit after the mad tourist season. It was absolutely amazing – a completely fortified town with all walls still intact and there was some sort of market going on so we couldn’t find a parking space until well out of the town area. There was also an abbey up the hill behind the town which looked interesting. This will be a day trip in the early autumn. Pic Carlit (with still a few patches of snow):


The long and winding road:


After this point, we travelled a little faster when the road straightened out and to the south you could still see some pretty high mountains – Pic de Canigou (below) is one of the highest in the area and I must say is very impressive indeed. There were lots of villages, some hilltop, others half way up the hills, but all huddled together for protection against the elements and historical intruders. Wouter plans to make a woodcut of the village of Eus (below Canigou pic) at some stage.


After Millas, we headed north again to join the main road from Perpignan to Quillan. A fast trip home again with only a quick stop to drink some nice cold water from the chilly bin (ahhh, lovely!) and then close all doors and windows and enjoy the air con out of the heat of +36 degrees... Envying the canoeists and water rafters going down the Aude some kilometres and getting splashed with cold water.

The grapes and olives growing in the area look pretty hard done by due to the lack of rain, and it looks like they are not watered regularly. The earth looks parched beyond anything I’ve seen in NZ. Wouter said the olives looked like they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth – I wondered who has ever counted the teeth of an olive?

All in all an absolutely mind-blowing day – I just can’t tell you how stunning the views were and I doubt our pictures do justice to the real thing, but hope they give you a bit of an idea. We plan to revisit during autumn and winter to see how it all looks then.