Collioure 17 May 2016 : Caspar Institute

We awoke after a quiet night's rest to the sun spangling the Mediterranean outside our window. We had work to do today:

Find the bakery and buy breakfast
Go to La Poste office and see if our webspot device was where we were told it would be. (It wasn't.)
Walk back up to the train station and retrieve our prepurchased tickets in time to
Ride the train back into Perpignan
To fetch the car we will be driving for the next ten days
Then find our way out of Perpignan and back to Collioure
There to find a free parking place within reasonable walking distance of our house.
In time for Lunch.

from left: Collioure salade with anchovies, fish soup and amendments, chicken Catalan style, crême catalan

There is an abundance of restaurants in Collioure, because it's a day-trip destination as well as a known delight to stay. They're all gearing up for summer; yesterday was Whit Monday, and the place was crowded. Today, it's modestly busy, and all the shopkeepers have time to chat.

So far, not even a soupçon of a bad meal. Even my sélection Catalan (€19.90) showed evidence of serious cheffing. Besides the overall deliciousness, the soup was smooth and perfectly seasoned, and the "Catalan-style" (meaning somewhat rough) sauce with the chicken was something I will try to replicate at home. Crême Catalan is like flan, only with a thin brulée crust. Good flavors.

After lunch, we sat on the square and watched "the boys" play petanque. It's a less civilized game than Boules, played on a rough surface with heavy steel balls. (The older boys had magnets on strings so they don't need to bend over to pick up their balls.) It's a game half of skill, half of luck, played in deadly earnest but apparently with complete good fellowship. Results are adjudicated with the help, as here, of a tape measure.

Every so often during the day we hear the excited babble of voices outside. Looking out, we find a group of adventurous tourists (the less adventurous don't leave the waterfront and town square) exploring, exclaiming over how quaint our narrow little house is.

Our unusual little house is worth an explanation, and I have made one for you here.