The bell tower of Notre-Dame-des-Anges

The most photographed object on the Catalan coast is not really a bell tower. It was built as the fanal, the harbour light of Collioure, a stubby round tower of dark stone set on the rocks at the mouth of the bay; when the church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges was put up beside it in the seventeenth century the tower was simply annexed, and the pink dome and lantern on top were added later. That is why it stands in the water rather than beside the nave, and why it looks like nothing else in France.

The frame everyone wants is from the shingle of the Plage Boramar looking across the small bay: the tower on the right, painted boats hauled up on the stones, and the ochre and rose fronts of the town stacked behind. From the breakwater you get it head-on with the sea behind, and from the terrace beside the church you can put a couple against the water with the tower over their shoulder.

The town faces east into the bay, so morning is the hour: first light lands directly on the tower and the house fronts while the western hills are still dark, and the beach is empty before nine. By afternoon the tower is backlit and the same view is a silhouette — usable, but a different picture.

Boramar is a beach, so July and August put swimmers and parasols in every frame from mid-morning. Out of season it is empty at any hour. The church is free to enter, asks for quiet, and requests that sessions stay clear of services — worth a check on the day's schedule if the interior is in the plan.