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If you require an active walking and sightseeing holiday without the hassle of hiring a car, and finding your way around, then please read on. You arrange the flights and we will meet you at the airport, and takeover from there. We are based in a beautiful 1870's villa in the town of Prades,Pyrénées Orientales, with views of Mount Canigou. Activities may take you to Cathar Castles, spectacular gorges, into the mountains, aboard a yellow train, to fortified towns, down to the coast or maybe even into Spain to see the Dali museum. Let us know how many days you can spend and when, which activities you would like to do, and we will send you an itinerary
We provide breakfast, and the ingredients for you to take a picnic. There are 3 or 4 restaurants within a five minute walk, and I can arrange to drop you off and pick you up should you want to go slightly further a field to Villefranche for example.
We will provide a Perpignan (40 minutes away) or Girona (90 minutes away) airport pickup and drop off service.
We will aim to be as flexible as possible in the itinerary, which maybe dependent on the weather or the fact that you require a relaxing day by the pool.
Take advantage of cheaper mid week flights, tell us which activities or trips you would like to make, how many days you wish to spend with us and we will forward you an itinerary.
Typically we will take from two to six people, so that a more personalised holiday is offered. Should you have more than six people in your party then please contact us.
Prices are £500/ €750 per person based on two people sharing a room for a seven night stay. Prices include breakfast and picnics everyday,and transport to and from all activities. Also includes airport pickup and dropoff. Rooms are all ensuite.
Prices do not include entrance charges which will range from €3 to €9 depending on activity.
For other durations, and fewer activities please provide your requirements and we shall respond with an itinerary and quote.
It goes without saying, but I shall say it anyway. A reasonable level of fitness is required, as are walking boots, and a small backpack to carry your water proofs. ( I know this is the home of 300 sunshine days a year, but you never know.)
The Saint Martin du Canigou abbey is one of the first Romanesque buildings in the Pyrenees Orientales. The crypt is the oldest part of the Abbey, which was founded by Count Guilfred Cabreta. Consecrated in 1009, it is built on a slope of the Canigou amongst trees, shrubs and flowers and wild mountain scenery. Initially with two floors, the cloister has capitals of white marble (12th century) and pink or green which are later. Saint Martin du Canigou abbey was severely damaged during an earthquake in 1428 Abandoned by the monks in 1783, it fell into ruins. From 1902 to 1932 Monseigneur de Carsalade du Pont, bishop of Perpignan, having bought the ruins, began its restoration. From 1952 to 1971 Dom Bernard de Chabannes completed the restoration and reinstated a spiritual life. We drive 20km (12 miles) west along the River Tet to the fortified town of Villefranche and then South through Vernet les Bains to Casteil. At Casteil it is a steep but beautiful walk up to the Abbey. Depending on fitness the walk up to the abbey will take 30 to 60 minutes. The same route may be taken back down or an alternative down a tree covered track and across a small mountain stream. Finish up with refreshments or lunch in one of the restaurants of Casteil.
Villefranche de Conflent is located, in the middle of Conflent between Prades and Olette. This city was built by the count Guillaume-Raymond de Cerdagne, in the year 1090 and took advantage as early as its origin of fiscal advantages, that's why its name means in French "free town". Until the eighteenth century, Villefranche de Conflent was the administrative capital of the region. The ramparts were strengthened by king d'Aragon in the thirteenth century who used it as an outlying post. Sightseeing tours are organized by the office of Tourism and you will discover, at first, the ramparts and their history. After this visit, we advise you to take a walk in the middle of the city in which you will be delighted to see the pink marbled houses (13 - 14 century) and the picturesque alleys, the shops and their old wrought iron signs, the marvellous door of Spain, its church Saint Jacques and all the relics of the past, here and there. Other interesting place is the stronghold Liberia. The treaty of the Pyrenees: Vauban gave the ramparts their present form shortly after the treaty of the Pyrenees which in 1659 annexed the Catalan region to France. He built in particular the bastions of the King and Queen, and his engineers continued his enterprise later by updating the Medieval ramparts to the needs of the artillery of the 17th century but also in building the Fort Liberia on a peak that overlooks the village A museum town: If out of all our villages a single one is worthy of this title, it is without a shadow of doubt Villefranche. Everywhere the material used is this famous pink marble from the Conflent. It is used in sculpture on the two Romanesque doorways of the parish church It is also to be found on the 13th century bell tower but also in the belfry dating from the 12th century, and even on many of the village houses. You can enter the shops and ground floors of houses on a pathway of pink marble and find it again in Roman arches or in the intersecting ribs of a vault. The marble: It is the quarry of Villefranche which supplied the material for Serrabona, St Michel de Cuxa, and Corneilla de Conflent.
The Petit Train Jaune runs from Villefranche up to Latour-de-Carol. It is one of Europes most scenic journeys, passing
through little villages clinging to the rocky hillside, narrow gorges,
tiny valleys and waterfalls, taking you up to the highest station in France at over 4500 feet (1500 metres).
The journey takes 3 hours each way, 40 miles (63 kms) at a speed of 20 mph (30kph). You may feel this is too long too spend
6 hours of a day on the train, so we have combine shorter excursions on the little yellow train in other activities.
Abbaye de Saint Michel-de-Cuxa, is 2 miles (3km) south of Prades on the D27. The Abbey dating from the 9th century, has now been largely restored, and has come back to life, now that monks from Montserrat are living there. Three kilometres south of Prades it is one of the loveliest abbeys in the country. Although it was ransacked after the Revolution it is still beautiful, with its crenellated tower silhouetted against the wooded slopes of Canigou. The bare stone crypt and church – the altar slab was rediscovered doing duty as a balcony on a house in the village of Vinca – are impressive enough, but the glory of the place is the cloister. Although some of the capitals were shipped off to the Cloisters Museum in New York early in the twentieth century, those that remain are a feast for the eyes. Carved in the twelfth century in rose-pink marble from Villefranche, they are decorated with exact and highly stylized human, animal and vegetable motifs. The monastery is still inhabited by a small community of Benedictines from Monserrat in Spain. We will walk from the house to the abbey, taking about an hour and a quarter. There is an initial steep climb up two sets of steps, as we walk towards the Canigou, and then branch off along an irrigation canal towards the abbey, which we will glimpse from above through the trees. After a visit around the abbey and cloisters we head back, under an hours walk downhill to Prades
The columnar structures at Ille sur Tet: These columnar structures (les orgues) are the result of over 5 million years of geological history. This natural phenomenon is made up of a succession of devil's chimney's. Soft rock columns that have been eroded by rain and overhung by conglomerates of harder rock which is more resistant to erosion. We will drive 20 kms to Les Orgues, and once parked take a 30 minute walk to the site, spending approximately an hour there before returning back to Prades.
Prieuré de Serrabona. We will drive for about 40 minutes up to this beautiful Romanesque priory. Then follows an hours uphill walk to the crest, which we walk along taking in the views of Perpignan, the mediterranean, Spain and Mount Canigou. We stop for a picnic before heading west down into the valley, and then North back to Serrabona, where we can visit the priory and its gardens.
Prieuré de Marcevol. A short drive east of Prades, we cross the River Tet and park up. We then walk uphill for an hour to the Romanesque priory of Marcevol.
Castelnou is a beautiful medieval city classified amongst the "loveliest villages in France". Visit the 11th century feudal castle (it used to be the military capital of the Viscount of the Vallespir), the church and the ramparts and enjoy the Canigou panoramic views from the belvedere.
Right in the middle of Conflent, at 500 metres high, between the towns of Prades and Mosset is located this spa already known by Phoenicians and Romans. The source of warm water has regenerating properties, allowing to cure the dermatological infections and curative properties in the respiratory problems and also of rheumatism. Its benefits on the skin diseases were discovered by chance by the Marquees de Llupia, in the seventeenth century, when his sick dog rolled in the mud and was miraculously cured of its sickness. A 20 minute drive to Molitg les Bains where we will park up, and spend an hour walking up to a ruined chateau that overlooks the Molitg, and then back down to picnic by the river.
Vernet-les-Bains has been famous since the Middle Ages for the beneficial properties of its hot springs. The springs are sulphurated, with traces of sodium, various silicates and some fluorine and magnesium, and have a temperature between 33° C and 66° C.They contain microscopic plankton (vernetine) which help in massaging and improve the condition of the skin. We will drive for 20 minutes to Vernet, and then walk for an hour up to the Cascades des Anglais - the Engish Waterfalls - once frequented by Rudyard Kipling. A picnic on the rocks at the top of the walk before returning to Vernet.
If heights are not for you, and crossing little one man suspension bridges a few metres above the river are not your thing, then you will miss out on a truly wonderful walk. This is a 4 hour walk up one side, and down along the other, of the Carança Gorge. Its about 30 minutes drive from Prades to Thues les Bains, and then we step immediately into the Gorge. We soon begin an hour to 75 minutes climb depending on pace, into this beautiful gorge. We then descend down to the river, and walk along the river, until we reach the first of several gantrys and suspension bridges. After the last bridge we stop for a picnic, and then follow our tracks back until we reach the place or our original descent. We do not return along the same path but instead carry along the river until we reach a path that has been blasted out of the gorge side, returning to our starting point. A 15 minute drive takes us to the spa bath of St Thomas les Bains. See Activity 15 below. Where we spend as long as is needed to recover in the thermal waters.
An hour and a half to the Dali Museum in Figueras, Spain. Two hours slips by before we step out of the intense Dali world and take a coffee in the nearby Piazza. We then drive to Llança on the Costa Brava and stop at a beautiful cove for a quick picnic lunch. We take the coastal road up to Collioure, a beautiful fortified port and spend 90 minutes walking through the museum gardens up to a restored windmill and onto two forts. It is the approximately an hours drive back to Prades.
An hour and ten minutes drive, and we walk up to the ridiculously perched Castle of Queribus. A 15 minute drive to the even more spectacular Peyrepetuse castle where we easily lose an hour wandering around its mountain top splendour. A picnic lunch and then, after 45 minutes drive onto Galamus gorge where we drive under the overhanging gorge and take a brief stop for the views. Its another 90 minutes drive home, but I believe the days sights will be more than worth it, and if you're up to it, we'll stop at the Roman Aquaduct of Ansignan on the way back.
Every Tuesday morning the conflent producers setup in Prades. A relaxing morning wandering the Prades streets and making a few purchases of the local jams, cheeses and wines to name but a few.
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L'eau thermale de Saint-Thomas est classée parmi les plus chaudes de type Pyrénéen (58° C).Elle est sulfurée, bicarbonatée, riche en fluor, en silice totale et en oligo-éléments.Son plancton thermal la rend légère et douce pour la peau.Cette eau exceptionnelle, naturellement utilisée, a une action antalgique, décontracturante, antiallergique et cicatrisante.La température varie selon les exigences climatiques : 34° à 38° C. | 
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| Villa Lafabrègue Home | Two Gites | Organised Activity and Sights Holiday | Bed and Breakfast Rooms & Prices | How to get to Prades | What To Do in and Around Prades | Contact Us For Bed and Breakfast | Links |