Taxi Perpignan → Prades

Prades is a charming Catalan town living in the majestic shadow of Mount Canigou (2,784 m), the sacred mountain of the Catalans whose snowy silhouette dominates the view from every street. Capital of the Conflent, a land of deep gorges and perched villages in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Prades is world-famous for its chamber music festival founded in 1950 by Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, a political refugee who chose this small town as his place of exile after the Spanish Civil War. The Pablo Casals Festival, one of the world's oldest classical music festivals, draws musicians and music lovers each summer to the Saint-Pierre church and the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. This Benedictine abbey, nestled in a green valley 3 km from Prades, is a jewel of Catalan Romanesque art from the 10th-11th centuries whose cloister — partially reconstructed (the other half is in New York's Cloisters museum) — is a masterpiece of medieval sculpture.