Easter Weekend, day 1

For the Easter vacation we rented a car for 4 days to explore a bit the south of France. On the first day we drove via Vic directly to Puigcerdà, in the Pyrenees on the French boarder. Here we stopped to have a look around in the center where a nice market square attracts the attention.

In Llívia, a Spanish enclave just a few minutes away from Puigcerdà, we had lunch and a walk through the village with some nice houses and the church which has some remaining towers of a former castle.

The weather was sunny, but when we continued further fog came up and it also started raining. We visited Mont-Louis, a fort with a village inside constructed by the famous French architect Vauban at the end of the 17th century to defend the new Spanish boarder after the Pyrenees contract. However the fog was so dense that it was really difficult to see the impressive walls and impossible to see any mountains around.

To get away from this fog, we drove down direction Perpignan and in Villefranche-le Conflent it was much better. This place which also Vauban built into a big fortress is the fortified town surrounded by high mountains and on one side, about 300 meters higher the Fort Libéria. To get to this fort we had to climb up, it’s connected by an underground tunnel which leads from the town to the fortress taking about 1000 steps. From the top we had a nice view down to the town and of the 3 valleys which come together in this strategic site.

At the end we drove further to Axat where we spent our first night.

In the Pyrenees close to La Molina with our Smart for Two.

Puigcerdà with the nice square and Llívia's church where once stood a castle.

Vauban's fortress built next to the Spanish boarder has impressive big walls but unfortunately due to the fog it wasn't possible to see a lot.

The walls of Villefranche-le-Conflent and higher located on a mountain Fort Libéria.

The entrace and walls of the Fort Libéria from where we had a nice view down towards the town of Villefranche.