Since its designation, Collioure has been in full swing, including extra-mural.
The Aimé-Giral stadium and the USAP players, the entire Pyrénées-Orientales department, the tourist offices and the Regional Tourism Committee, are all mobilizing so that, on the evening of March 8 (date of the end of the votes), the village of painters, fishermen, anchovy merchants and winegrowers was elected “French favorite village”, during the program hosted by Stéphane Bern.
“We feel boosted, carried, even trained.
This wave goes well beyond the village and its culture-loving visitors.
We are one of the three Cs of Catalan art.
C like Céret for the cubism of Picasso, C like Cadaquès for the surrealism of Dali, and C like Collioure for the fauvism of Matisse and Derain!
», exclaims Guy Llobet, the mayor, who counts on the unconditional support of the 2,800 residents and the tourists who pass through the 18,000 rental beds in high season: plus the 10,000 daily visitors in summer.
“A special human warmth”
Another symbol, for the exiles of Francoism this time, the Spanish writer Antonio Machado, who died in a hotel room in Collioure on February 22, 1939, still attracts his compatriots to his grave, and his mailbox still collects his mail 85 years after his death!
Without forgetting around ten listed historical monuments, including Notre-Dame-des-Anges and its bell tower.
Iconic cafés: that of the Templars of the Pous family and its collection of paintings from the bench to the ceiling, the Sola café of the emblematic Laurent Puigsardé.
“For us, it will certainly be a source of pride and renown.
Already, being in the race is a great excitement in town,” he exclaims.
“With our landscapes and our sea and mountain terroir and the wine terraces, it is incomprehensible that the village was not selected earlier!
Let’s repair this oversight and win the hearts of the French,” enthuses Laetitia Pietri-Clara, winemaker from the Pietri-Géraud estate, very active in this real electoral campaign.
It also transcends Rue de la Fraternité which brings together the galleries of painters from the village and the Côte Vermeille.
“Collioure has a special human warmth,” observes Marie Hélène, the owner of the Max Rovira gallery.
“A spirit that recalls the atmosphere of Saint-Tropez,” adds Chantal Délos, painter.
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In the heart of the village, at Py Immobilier, we anticipate an increase in demand for housing and “perhaps in the price per square meter, around 5,000 euros currently, which is lower than what is offered on the Coast d'Azur or in the wake of Biarritz", explains Christophe Pomarel, head of the agency.
There are, all the same, a few grumpy people on the terrace who denounce overtourism.
“This will bring even more people when it is already impossible to move through the streets in the middle of summer,” breathes Olivier, a retiree.
“The fewer tourists there are to come and eat ice cream, the better it is for us,” jokes Medhi, who is divided between Paris and Collioure in his parents' house, immediately contradicted by his partner Cécile.
Who will vote and make Collioure vote in the name of Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Mucha, Machado, Dali, the immortals of Collioure.
And for his human warmth.