Collioure is the postcard of this coast, and for once the reputation is earned. Matisse and Derain came here for the light and more or less invented Fauvism on the strength of it, and you can see why: the colour comes off the water and the terracotta and the pink rock all at once.
The bell tower is the thing everyone photographs, and I was not going to be the one to resist. It stands right in the water beside the old church, with the royal castle closing the bay and the whole town stacked up behind in warm stone. From the hill above you get the fort on the ridge and the vineyards running down to the roofs.
A bright, breezy day for the last real stop, base ISO, the light finally behaving. Some places you photograph knowing thousands have made the same frame, and you make it anyway.