Pyrénées-Orientales: what to see and do
39 sites listed in the département. Washed by the Mediterranean and dominated by the Pic du Canigou, the Pyrénées-Orientales cultivate a strong Catalan identity between Perpignan, vineyards and fortified villages such as Villefranche-de-Conflent. Gorges and Vauban fortresses complete this southern heritage.
Collioure
A little Catalan port of colourful houses nestled in a cove of the Vermilion Coast, immortalised by Matisse and the Fauvist painters in the early twentieth century.
Les Gorges de Galamus
The Galamus Gorges offer the grandiose spectacle of the struggle between water and limestone rock.
Les Gorges de la Fou
In the heart of summer, shade and coolness are sometimes welcome... Add the extraordinary beauty of a site and the walk becomes even more pleasant.
Les Orgues d'Ille sur Têt
"Les Orgues" are strange rock formations eroded by time and shaped like chimneys.
Pic du Canigou
At 2,785 metres, the emblematic summit of the Catalans, the easternmost high point of the Pyrenees, visible from the Mediterranean in clear weather.
Canyoning Park
Extreme thrills for climbing and sliding fans: jumps of 3 to 7 m, slides, abseiling under waterfalls, climbing nets, rope ladders, a 100 m zip line ending in the water. Equipment provided on site.
Grotte de Fontrabiouse
The Fontrabiouse cave, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, is equipped for guided visits all year round on a route of about an hour.
L'anse de Paulilles, un bijou de la Côte Catalane
Located in the commune of Port-Vendres towards Banyuls-sur-Mer, encircled by the famous Banyuls-Collioure vineyard, the Anse de Paulilles is one of the most beautiful on the Catalan rocky coast.
Torrent de la Têt
The Têt rises in the Carlit massif, near Lac des Bouillouses, and runs about a hundred kilometres from west to east to its mouth in the Mediterranean, north of Canet-en-Roussillon.
Aqualand Saint Cyprien
Aquarium de Canet-en-Roussillon
Castelnou
In the Roussillon plain, south-west of Perpignan, this old fortified village nestles at the foot of a former feudal castle remodelled in the last century.
Château d'Ultrère
Château de Canet-en-Roussillon
Château de Castelnou
Château royal de Collioure
A superb citadel whose foundations plunge into the sea, the château de Collioure was built on the remains of Roman constructions, later transformed in Visigothic times and first cited in 673.
Eus
Designed for defence, Eus repelled the French in 1598 and in 1793 the Spanish army that then dominated the Conflent.
Evol
Évol is two kilometres north-west of the town of Olette. It is a typical village that has kept its heritage and architecture.
Font Romeu
Fort Lagarde de Prats-de-Mollo-la-preste
Intended to watch over the Franco-Spanish border, Fort Lagarde overlooks the fortified town of Prats-de-Mollo.
Fort Libéria
Forteresse de Salses
At Salses, a small village in northern Roussillon, stands the finest example of so-called "transitional" military architecture.
Grotte des Grandes Canalettes
On the Perpignan–Andorra route, 200 m from the medieval town of Villefranche-de-Conflent, the Grandes Canalettes cave is one of the last caves developed in France.
La Vallee des Tortues
Lac des Bouillouses
Lac des Bouillouses and the Pic del Pam (2,470 m). After leaving the tarmac of the car park, the path climbs into the firs and, after a few minutes, gives glimpses of unusual views of the Bouillouses.
Le Tropique du Papillon
Les Angles
The village of Les Angles marvellously blends tradition and modernity.
Les gorges de la Carança
Mont-Louis
Vauban's stronghold in Cerdanya, the highest in France, inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
Mosset
Between Perpignan and Font-Romeu, the commune of Mosset is one of the largest in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, with a vast territory of 7,120 hectares, for an elevation difference of nearly 2,000 m. A medieval village, a former border town between the Kingdom of France and that of Aragon…
Musée de Tautavel, Centre Européen
Inaugurated in 1992, the new Tautavel Museum, European Centre of Prehistory, is a formidable tool for popularising the sciences related to archaeology and particularly to prehistory over the periods of the Mediterranean Quaternary.
Palais des rois de Majorque
Parc animalier de Casteil
The Casteil Animal Park is, above all, an oasis of peace, in perfect communion with nature.
Pont du Diable à Céret
The Devil's Bridge, or Old Bridge of Céret, is a single-arch stone bridge dating from the fourteenth century.
Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste
A fortified village of the Haut Vallespir, dominated by Fort Lagarde built by Vauban.
Salt de Maria Valenta
A waterfall of the upper Vallespir ("Saut de la Marie Vaillante"), known to canyoning enthusiasts.
Villefranche-de-Conflent
In the eleventh century, the powerful count of Cerdanya, opposed to the count of Roussillon, found in Villefranche a strategic site, the village being deeply set at the confluence of two rivers.
biodiversarium Aquarium de Banyuls
