Windmill

CHAPTER 8

On the hill south of Collioure, about halfway down the slope from Fort Saint Elme, sits a spinning windmill- once not much more than the remains of a stone shell- but recently restored, using traditional materials and methods, to a fully functioning, olive oil (among other things), producing marvel.    For the oil, they use olives harvested from the grove of olive trees that blankets the surrounding hill, and that you walk through on the way up to the windmill.  You can buy a bottle of this as-fresh-and-local-as-it-gets oil, for an inflated tourist price, from an old man sitting at a folding card table at the entrance to the windmill.

Our own personal visit to the windmill did not end with any tasty local oil, but rather some mango gelato (Hadley’s favorite, and therefore by default our standard flavor), an afternoon on the beach, and a glimpse of the French special forces frog men.