Leucate is a small town on the mediterranean coast between Narbonne and Perpignan. Yesterday morning (Friday 22nd March) I said to The Man (while we were sipping our morning cuppa in bed), ‘Let’s go to Leucate today. The weather forecast says it will be 24 degrees and sunny. Why don’t we go out for the day?’ He didn’t take much convincing and by 10am we were on the road. We’re both now in our seventies and if you can’t do as you please when you’re our age well…what’s the point?

Leucate is about an hour and fifteen minutes drive give or take five, if you head down the motorway. It’s a pleasant drive because at this time of the year there’s not much traffic. The only downside is you have to pay the tolls which amount to about €20 in total. You could drive the long way around but we just wanted to get there.

The area is expansive and mostly flat. As far as I can make out there are three main parts to Leucate; the village, the beach and the port/marina. We went to all three plus a small fishing harbour between the beach and the port area, with around 17 fish restaurants, which are housed in shacks…that sounds awful but I can’t think of another way to describe them. When I stood on the bridge and took the photograph I was reminded of our holidays in Thailand and other areas of South Asia. We didn’t eat in any of the restaurants because we’d already had our lunch by the port.

We drove first to the beach, La Plage, where we walked along the sand and collected a few shells. We took a coffee at the La Côte Rêvée hotel which was a little pricey at €4 for a tiny cup but hey…we’re in the South of France – ON THE COAST, we accepted the cost and handed over all our change which wasn’t quite enough but he took €7 and left me with 50 cents. The thing was, we’d left our cards and money locked in the boot of our car while we walked and we couldn’t be bothered to walk back and get it — anyway, I needed the loo.

After downing the coffee we then thought we would head to the port further down the coast. It was a working port and bereft of restaurants (we were ready for lunch by then). We looked on the map and found a cluster of restaurants just a short drive away. We chose Le Bistrot des Copains, and when we arrived there it was beside the Marina so we were able to eat our excellent lunch, outside, right beside the beautiful yachts and boats. Lovely and exactly what I’d imagined when lying in bed in the morning thinking about our day out. Result!

After lunch we decided to take a look at the actual village of Leucate which was delightful. A beautiful square with shops, cafés and surrounded by small, attractive colourful houses. We noticed however, that there were few balconies, which is unusual in France I think.

We were about to head home when a friend of mine sent a message telling me about the area with all the seafood restaurants. We’d already eaten but decided to take a look anyway and we weren’t disappointed.

Enough of me waffling on. . . take a look at these photographs. . .

Scenes from La Plage . . .

Lunch by the Marina

Leucate Village. . .

The Little Fishing Harbour with its many restaurants and boats. . .

There is so much to see in the area and we were only able to take a quick look but cannot wait to go back. I can’t tell you much about the history of the area, there is a museum but it was closed yesterday. There are many salt water lagoons and inlets. There are paths for walking, cycling and of course plenty of water based activities. Probably a plethora of wildlife too, but you can’t see much in a few hours. We did our best and next time we’ll stay the night at least if not several!

We need to collect more shells for when the grandchildren come to visit . . .