Although I live in a beautiful part of the South of France, I do like to take my family on new trips not too far from our home. Our last holiday destination was Corbère, a small village in the Pyrénées-Orientales department near Perpignan. While exploring the region, I suddenly spotted a lovely village perched on terraces in the middle of the garrigue. Instead of going to Prades, we had to find out more about this picturesque village, which happens to be one of the most beautiful villages of France.
Conflent valley
Eus looks out on the Conflent valley and the snowy summit of Mont Canigou. On our scenic route to the hilltop village, we had plenty of gorgeous views, both of Eus and the valley below. Of course, I had to take some pictures (our kids call me “the geek”, I wonder why…), and we also had a lovely picnic before entering the village.
Cats
Time to explore. Via the Carrer de l’Ajuntament we walked all the way up to the Saint Vincent Church. Well, Eus is a small village, so the climb was not too bad. Especially when you include a few stops- for me to take some more pictures (“geek”) and for the kids to admire the cats that seemed the only living creatures in the village. The church dates from the 18th century and stands on the ruins of an old castle. Right at the top of the hill, we were rewarded with another great view.
Catalan
While we strolled through the cobbled little streets of the picturesque village, we noticed more Spanish street names. Back in the 16th century, Eus belonged to the Spanish territory, and they successfully defended themselves against the French for about 200 years. In the 18th century, Eus became French again, and nowadays it is still part of the Catalan Pyrenees. If you want to see Eus at its best, apparently you should go during springtime, when the peach trees bloom and the top of Mont Canigou is still snowy. I have to come back I guess, for some more geeky moments ;).
