Activities / description / area
"Discover and experience the French part of Catalanland, the new “Riviera", is a slogan very often used connected to this part of South France. Here you do find several lovely beaches, fields of vine as far as your eyes may see, and yards of apricot, peaches, nectarines, cherries, and almonds, as well. In the area you have different kinds of country within reach, mountains, plain and a long coastline (200km), which includes a variety of beaches.
Everywhere around you find villages, or "Mas" (old farm of
vine), and castles, which tell their stories of old architecture, ways of living, and dramatic times and periods through the times. The hillsides are warm and heated up by the sun. The deep valleys open wide towards the Mediterranean ocean and La Cote Vermeille, which stretches towards the Spanish boarder in South. This is Pyrenees-Orientales, the summer-holiday - paradise of the
French people. The main town of this department is Perpignan, the town in France having the largest number of sunny days.
 
Perpignan is about 15 minutes away from Thuir, by car. Thuir, which is the main village in the Aspres area, is a charming, busy place, well known because of the famous Byrrh vinecellar, for making the sweet aperitif vines(Cinzano, Dubonnet etc).Groups of tourists visit Byrrh all year through, for guiding. Within Byrrh you find the largest oak barrel in the world, containing 1 000 000 l!
Everywhere you drive along in the district, you will find a village. Close by Thuir, there is a beautiful castle from the middle Ages, named Castelnou (about 10 minutes drive), one of the prettiest in whole France, they say. If you want to go for a ride further away, you may choose Carcassonne, where you can visit the magnificent castle, protected by UNESCO, after 1 hour along the motor road.
We do recommend a day trip to Andorra, through the beautiful landscape in the Pyrenees. The Pyrenee Mountains is, by the way, a very popular winter sport area for skiing. In Figueras, Spain, there is a Salvador Dali
museum, (surrealistic artist) Figueras is 1/2 hour south of
Thuir. Girona, Costa Brava, is a bit further south, about
1 hour. Going to Barcelona is 2 hours.
In the close surroundings there are several tennis courses for use. In Thuir there is a skateboard course.  
The airport Perpignan-Rivesalte, is 20 minutes by car, direction north of St.Sauveur. The connection Stansted-London from Perpignan is very good. Southampton/London-Perpignan are also very good! There is also good connection from Southampton-Toulouse, 2 hours drive from St. Sauveur. Half time the distance, you pass Carcassonne, and from the road you are able to see the beautiful building.
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In the castle Carcassonne, there is a tournament, starting 2th of Juli and going on to 31th of August, every day. Two tournamenets a day, 15h00 and 17h00.
 . . Click on the castle picture above, and you will come to the tourist information about Carcasonne.
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Coming to the beaches at St. Cyprien and Barcares by car, it takes 20 minutes. This area is very good for water sport
activities of different kinds; regatta is one of them. Here you find very good Aqualand parks. Coming to Canet, Argeles and Collioure, takes about 30 minutes. Canet and Argeles have the soft sandy shores, and nice promenades along the beaches. Collioure is a picturesque and very charming coast village, which many of the most known painters (Matisse, Picasso), came to and where inspired by, because of the beautiful landscape, and by the light. It is absolutely worth the experience to take a drive along the coast on the old road, south through France as well as Spain, through various villages connected to fishery and coast activities.
We understand well why the Norwegian champion within the sport of bicycling, Tor Hushovd, has settled down in one of the neighbour villages, here. The landscape as well as the climate is ideal concerning bicycling. Along the busy roads as well as on the rural and idyllic side-roads and paths crossing the vast area of vine-fields, there are excellent possibilities for out door training of various kinds. The bicycle road 20km long, going from Thuir to Perpignan, passing up to St. Sauveur, is among other things, excellent for going on roller skates.