Walking down an alley to the harbor of Collioure, on the French Mediterranean coast the afternoon before our hike of the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast) and onward onto Spain's Costa Brava.

From Wikipedia:

The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast) of southern France in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales. While part of France, the area was at times in its history, controlled by Spain, and retains a strong Catalan (autonomous part of northeast Spain) influence.

The Côte Vermeille, meaning vermilion coast (or traditionally Catalan: la Marenda) is a region in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales on the Mediterranean Coast near the border with Spain. The Côte Vermeille stretches from Argelès-sur-Mer to the border village of Cerbère. The towns of Collioure and Banyuls-sur-Mer are nested along a 20 km stretch of beaches, small bays, creeks and coves.

Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a red orange color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide).
Used first in English in the 13th century, the word vermilion came from the Old French word vermeillon, which was derived from the diminutive of the Latin word vermis for worm. The name originated because it had a similar color to the natural red dye made from an insect, Kermes vermilio, which was widely used in Europe. The first recorded use of "vermilion" as a color name in English was in 1289.

The Costa Brava ("Wild Coast" or "Rough Coast") is a coastal region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Sources differ on the exact definition of the Costa Brava. Usually it can be regarded as stretching from the town of Blanes, 60 km (37 mi) northeast of Barcelona, to the French border – in other words it consists of the coast of the province of Girona.

Collioure is the name of an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC, designated wine region) situated around the town, (Collioure AOC), producing red, rosé and a few white wines.

Hike description from our excellent tour provider InnWalking.com : This is a beautiful and quite scenic self-guided walking tour along the so called Vermillion Coast (La Cote Vermeille) of France and Spain, along ridges that overlook the Mediterranean and play leapfrog over the coves. The hiking trails follow the edges of the Pyrenees from French Catalunya over the border to Spanish Catalonia. Every day you can choose between a coastal path, or a climb to the Pyrenean foothills to enjoy stunning vistas, then a descent through vineyards and fragrant maquis that go down to the water. The options vary between 3,30 and 7,30hrs with accumulated height gains and descents of 450m to 1250m. Your walking trail goes along the Albères with their fourteenth century signal towers, and then descends down to the sea where you will find the most beautiful coves. You’ll be surprised how peaceful and quiet this lovely region is, from its hiking paths to its fishing ports.

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