CHAPTER 6 - Swimming and Sunbathing
Whether you're the swimming type or you just like dipping your toes in the water without getting the rest of you wet, you'll probably like to go to a lake, or the seaside, or the river rock-pool, or maybe Montolieu's very own municipal swimming pool - complete with its rather lovely little café. The pool is a five minute walk from the lower part of the village, and is open in July and August.
Next, let us tell you about one of the lakes. Lac de la Cavayère is a twenty minute drive from Montolieu. It has a sandy beach and is just like being at the seaside, but closer.
There's a cordoned-off swimming area - also monitored by lifeguards during summer months - so it's an ideal place to take young children. Kayaks and pedal-boats are for hire - and there's a 'Go-Ape' type adventure playground. There's also a water park with huge inflatable slides on one side, a zip-wire across the water, and motorised pull-along ski-boarding on the other, next to an excellent outdoor café. Then, to walk off your lunch there's a path that goes around whole lake. 
If you do want to go the distance and travel to the seaside, Narbonne Plage is the nearest - about 50 minutes by car. In our humble opinions, we would recommend to continue 10 minutes further south along the autoroute, in the direction of Barcelona (that can also be reached a further hour or so away), and you will come to our favourite beaches - Leucate Plage, and La Franqui, both with cliffs in the background. Also further down the coast is the wonderful arty seaside town of Collioure - we urge you to check it out if you have time.
La Franqui hosts an international windsurfing competition every April, and is (again, in our humble opinions) offering the best beach in France.
Back to home... remember in Chapter Two when we told you that Montolieu is on a huge rock between two rivers? Well, if you're needing to cool off from the summer heat, you can walk to the medieval bridge and go alongside the river for a couple of hundred yards until you come to a rock pool. Parts of the pool are deep enough to swim in - or you can lay in the stream and let the fresh water wash over you.
The point is that if you do want to swim, paddle or just sunbathe - you can. You'll find detailed maps and directions inside the Writer's Retreat.
In a new addition to our website, we have recently discovered the delights of Lac du Lampy, and we'd like to share that discovery. It's about 20 minutes from Montolieu, up to Saissac and turn right. The beautifully tranquil lake takes about an hour to walk around the surrounding path and woodland, and when you have done so, take advantage of the excellent Restaurant Lampy run by a very friendly Dutch couple who speak perfect English. You'll get a warm welcome for sure, and the food is great too.
We weren't sure whether to include it under the 'Swim and Sun' or the 'Food and Drink' chapter. Who cares - we say just go there!
And finally, if you like fishing, you need go no further than Montolieu itself. The local fountain outside the Casquette et Chapeau is teaming with good catches that will win you any competition.
