EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

West of Céret, past the leaping single span of its fourteenth-century Pont du Diable , the view opens north towards the towering imminence of the Canigou Massif. AMÉLIE-LES-BAINS , the next place you come to, is a rather stodgy health spa for the elderly and rheumatic, and is hardly worth a stop. If an overnight stay is necessary, however, you're best off heading for the attractive Hôtel La Chaumière at 2 av du Vallespir (tel 04.68.39.05.35; 160-220F/¬24-34), right on the river in the middle of town.

ARLES-SUR-TECH , 4km up the valley, is a more interesting proposition. It has a beautiful Romanesque Abbey (daily: March-June, Sept-Nov 10am-noon & 2-6pm; July & Aug Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 2-7pm, Sat 2-7pm; Dec-Feb by appointment through the tourist office - 20F/¬3.05), whose Carolingian origins in the ninth century are thought to account for its back-to-front alignment of altar at the west end and the entrance at the east. The massive interior is impressive, but the abbey's most renowned feature is the cloister , whose pointed white marble arches and twin columns prefigure the Gothic, showing its relative lateness compared to other examples of Romanesque in the region, like Serrabonne . Twin towers flank the church, while against the wall outside the east front - whose plainness is beautifully relieved, as the sun turns, by the shadow of blind arcading - stands a very ancient (fourth- or fifth-century) sarcophagus, known as the Ste Tombe , which has the mysterious and scientifically inexplicable habit of slowly filling with very pure water. Every year, on 30 July, when Arles celebrates its fête dedicated to SS Abdon and Sennen, the water is siphoned out and distributed after Mass to the pilgrims who have come to worship. The town's other points of interest include the probably prehistoric Fête de l'Ours , a festival designed to exorcize human fear of the bear, traditionally held at the end of February when the bears woke from their winter hibernation. There is also a torchlight Procession de la Sanch at Easter. The GR10 passes through Arles, climbing north towards the Cortalets refuge on Canigou and south towards the Roc de France.

The tourist office (Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 2-6pm; tel 04.68.39.11.99) is in rue Barjau. Your best accommodation option is the attractive Hôtel les Glycines on rue du Jeu-de-Paume (tel 04.68.39.10.09; 300-400F/¬46-61), with a good restaurant (from 90F/¬13.73) and wisteria-shaded terrace. There's a campsite on the west side of town.

A couple of kilometres out of Arles, on the road to Prats-de-Mollo, is the entrance to the Gorges de la Fou , some 2km in length, very narrow and up to 250m deep (Easter-Oct 10am-6pm; closed during bad weather; tel 04.68.39.16.21; 30F/¬4.58). It's spectacular, but unfortunately something of a tourist trap, with a car park, admission charge, snacks and a metal catwalk all along the bottom of the gorge.