David's Diary: Wednesday, December 12, 2001

Banyuls-sur-Mer, France

While formal school is out, learning is certainly "in" and we decide to expand all of our horizons by walking to South to Banyuls-sur-Mer. Port Vendres is located at the base of the Pyrenees and we have to climb up and over the foothills towards Banyuls-sur-Mer. We had thought that the walk would be a short one like our visit to Collioure, but it took more than two hours for us to reach the village.

Banyuls-sur-Mer is the most southerly resort on the French Mediterranean and has an active harbour. Before coming here, we had already sampled the sweet wines which the region is famous for. As we walked over the hills, we walked through the vineyards, organized on terraces, that had produced the wine that we had been sampling before dinner on previous nights.

Aquarium Entrance

Banyuls-sur-Mer is also known for its aquarium. The area is rich in sealife and off the coast a large area of the sea is protected. Our charts clearly indicate the nature reserve and as we head south to Spain we will have to navigate around it.

The aquarium is part of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie based in Paris. While small compared to the Vancouver Marine Science Center in Vancouver, it had a number of displays of Mediterranean sealife. As life-long sailors, we have always been interested in sealife, and our visit to the aquarium helped us grow our understanding of what we will encounter in the Mediterranean. Formal school may be over, but every day we all keep learning more.

On the Beach

After our Aquarium visit, we wandered along the dock and beach next to the marina. Since it is December, it starts to get dark early and before we knew it we couldn't see our way home. We stopped in a street-side cafe and rested while we all had a drink. We called a taxi and our two-hour trip through the hills was reduced to a twenty-minute ride on the highway. But we had explored another bit of France and got to know the Mediterranean, our home now, just a little bit more.