The valley capital is Prades, easily accessible by train and bus on the Perpignan–Villefranche–La Tour-de-Carol route, and the obvious starting point for all excursions in the Canigou region. It's an attractive place, although there are no great sights beyond the church of St-Pierre in the town centre, and it enjoys a standing way out of proportion to its size or economic power. This is largely thanks to the Catalan cellist Pau (Pablo) Casals, who set up home here as an exile and fierce opponent of the Franco regime in Spain. In 1950 he instituted the internationally renowned music festival now held every year in the abbey of St-Michel-de-Cuxa from late July to the middle of August. Today he is commemorated in a small museum (summer Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 2–6pm; winter Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 2–5pm; free). Prades is also a centre of ardent Catalan feeling, hosting a Catalan university in August and boasting the first Catalan-language primary school in France.The tourist office at 4 rue Victor-Hugo (June & Sept Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 2–6pm & Sat 9am–noon; July & Aug Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 2–6pm; Oct–May Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 2–5pm; tel 04.68.05.41.02, www.prades-tourisme.com) is a mine of information about the area and can sort out advance bookings for the music festival. In search for a Prades hotel, look at this website. For accommodation, try the Hostalrich (tel 04.68.96.05.38, fax 04.68.96.00.73; under €30), or the friendly and spotlessly clean Les Glycines (tel 04.68.96.51.65, [email protected]; €30–40), both on avenue de-Gaulle, at the south end of rue Victor-Hugo. If you have a car, you could try the delightful Hôtel St Joseph, across the river in Molitg-les-Bains (tel 04.68.05.02.11, fax 04.68.05.05.23; €30–40) which has an excellent restaurant (from €12.20). The municipal campsite (tel 04.68.96.29.83; closed Oct–Mar) is by the river on the road to Molitg. Three kilometres south of Prades is one of the loveliest abbeys in the country, St-Michel-de-Cuxà (May–Sept Mon–Sat 9.30–11.50am & 2–6pm, Sun 2–6pm; Oct–April Mon–Sat 9.30–11.50am & 2–5pm, Sun 2–5pm; €3.80), dating from around 1000. Although it was mutilated after the Revolution it is still beautiful, with its crenellated tower silhouetted against the wooded slopes of Canigou. The bare stone crypt and church – the altar slab was rediscovered doing duty as a balcony on a house in the village of Vinça – are impressive enough, but the glory of the place is the cloister. Although some of the capitals were shipped off to the Cloisters Museum in New York early in the twentieth century, those that remain are a feast for the eyes. Carved in the twelfth century in rose-pink marble from Villefranche, they are decorated with exact and highly stylized human, animal and vegetable motifs. The monastery is still inhabited by a small community of Benedictines from Monserrat in Spain.
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