The Château Royal and the Port d'Avall coves

The Château Royal sits on the low headland that separates Collioure's two beaches, and it has been rebuilt by everyone who has held the town: the Templars started it in the thirteenth century, the kings of Majorca made it a summer palace, the Spanish enlarged it, and Vauban wrapped the whole thing in bastions after 1659. The result is a long, blank, sun-bleached wall coming straight down to the water — a background rather than a subject, and a very good one.

On the north side is the Plage Boramar with the bell tower; on the south, the Port d'Avall, a wider curve of pebble beach with fishing boats and the old town rising behind it. Between them the castle wall gives a hundred metres of plain warm stone with no distractions, which is the reason so many portraits are made along it.

South again, the Faubourg beach and the coves below the Chemin du Fauvisme are small, pebbly and quieter, and the water there is clear enough that a wide frame reads as Mediterranean at any hour. The rampart walk above them gives height over the whole bay.

The castle interior is a ticketed museum with its own opening hours, and the exhibition spaces are not the reason to come — the exterior is. Note that these are shingle beaches, not sand: it is hard on bare feet and unstable in heels, so bring something to change into. Hours and any rules on commercial shoots inside the castle change with the season — check before your date.