Collioure

Collioure needs 1 day: touring the Catalan harbor with the Château Royal and the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges, with its bell tower jutting into the sea, is the main reason to visit. April-October brings the mildest weather. It's mid-to-upper priced for the Occitanie coast. Fauvism was born here: in the summer of 1905, Henri Matisse and André Derain painted the village's light and colors together with such unconventional intensity that critics nicknamed them «fauves» («wild beasts»), and today a signposted trail marks the exact spots where they painted their canvases.