Heading up the Pyrenees

We race back from Collioure, had some lunch at the train station cafe and took a bus up the Pyrenees for a little village called Villefranche de confluent. We passed a few cute villages and here am I trying to take pictures of them from the bus. There was this massive church in one of the villages, as the bus turned this way and that I tried pointing my camera at the tall towers. I managed to take a little picture of it.

You can barely see the top of that massive church. It looked medieval and hauntingly beautiful. We left Perpignan train station at 3.30 pm and it was late afternoon when we reached here. We only had a few hours to see Villefranche de confluent by the time we got there. We came back to Perpignan pretty late that night and it was our last night in France. The next day we would be on a train heading across the border to Spain and to Barcelona. How time flies, whether or not you're having fun but we were having fun.

Here we are where the bus dropped us off at the train station in Villefranche de confluent. There are no train services, just the bus that comes up from Perpignan. From here this little yellow train takes over and takes people further up the Pyrenees. In the summer time, some of the carriages are opened air and people can just looked at the beautiful surroundings in the open. I'd like to come one day to take this little yellow train. We didn't have time this trip. Pity!

It's beautiful and wild.

Where the bus dropped us off.

A group of tourists, one of them made gestures indicating she wanted the pictures I took of them, these pictures, but their vehicle took off before we could exchange addresses. They were laughing and they seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The river, Tet flows the whole way from way up in the higher Pyrenees down to Perpignan.

Villefranche is further up this trail to the left, to the right and high up is the fort, Fort Liberia. We tried getting up there but couldn't find the way. There's supposed to be an easy way up otherwise walking and climbing up is too exhaustive. We never made it up to Fort Liberia.

Time for a photograph, c'est moi! Villefranche is behind me, up ahead.

Villefranche de confluent. We'll get to it soon enough.

We have to cross over the train tracks and a bridge over the river, Tet. It is so gorgeous and wild, in the middle of nowhere. How did we even find out about this place? How did we even know how to get up here? I have my sources. A book written by Amy Oakley, 'Hilltowns of the Pyrenees' published in 1923.

Beyond those trees is Villefranche. Amy Oakley said, 'she prefers Villefranche from the outside'. It is beautiful from the outside but I like the inside too.

Next posting we'll see the inside.....