France
Collioure
Matisse's fishing port where the light bends colour until red boats glow against violet water.
Red boats bob against a fortified church whose bell tower doubles as a lighthouse, the harbour framed by Pyrenean foothills dropping into Mediterranean blue. Collioure in France is where Matisse and Derain spent the summer of 1905 and invented Fauvism — the wild colour they painted exists in the light itself.
Collioure has been a fishing port since antiquity, its harbour protected by the Château Royal, a fortress successively held by the Templars, the Kings of Majorca, and the Spanish Habsburgs. Matisse and Derain arrived in May 1905, and the paintings they produced that summer — exhibited at the Salon d'Automne later that year — scandalised critics who labelled the artists fauves (wild beasts). Reproduction panels throughout the town mark the exact locations where specific paintings were made. The Maison Roque, one of the last traditional anchovy-curing houses, has salt-cured fish in wooden barrels since 1870. Banyuls, France's southernmost wine appellation, produces fortified reds from Grenache grapes in vineyards visible from the harbour.
Solo
Follow the Fauvism trail through the harbour with the reproduction panels — standing where Matisse stood, seeing what he saw, is a solo art pilgrimage that needs no guide.
Couple
The harbour at sunset, with the church tower silhouetted and the boats glowing against violet water, is the painting Matisse made — now yours to walk into.
- Matisse and Derain painted here in 1905 and invented Fauvism — the colour reproduction panels still line the harbour.
- The fortified church juts into the bay with a lighthouse bell tower — the most painted building in the Roussillon.
- Anchovy houses still salt-cure fish in wooden barrels by hand — Maison Roque has done it since 1870.
- The beach sits in a sheltered cove with the Pyrenees falling into the sea on both sides.
Anchovies salt-cured in wooden barrels at the Maison Roque, an anchovy house since 1870.
Crème catalane — cracked burnt-sugar crust over orange-blossom custard, served ice-cold.
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