The white houses of Cadaqués

The white houses in Cadaqués Old Town provide a perfect surface to be coloured by the changing daylight – given this was once a central part of Salvador Dalí’s life, the “canvas” metaphor is an obvious one. As a result, the character of the houses transforms, from the soft, diffused light of dawn to the harsh sunlight from the zenith, or from the cold colour temperature of the blue hour to the warm, golden sunrise.

The waterfront road Riba Pitxot, with its arcades in front of the small bay of Port d’Alguer and the Old Town, dominated by the Gothic church of Santa Maria, offers a typical and popular Cadaqués motif. As in Collioure, the locations where famous paintings were created are often marked by information boards and frames to look through, including on this street for Dalí’s famous painting.

That morning, however, I had been drawn to the opposite perspective: the view out to sea and towards the light of dawn. The magical silence of the twilight world of a city’s early awakening still hung over the harbour. I was still alone, no traffic. As in many other places, the binmen were my first encounters of the day, before dogs were walked by their owners or joggers were out and about.

Finally, the first rays of sun hit the Cala Nans lighthouse at the southern end of the bay, which, incidentally, is the destination of a beautiful hike.

The tip of the Santa Maria church tower also shone out, the first building in the Old Town to light up, like a lighthouse above the sea of houses.

Soon, the rising sun also floods the walls in the narrow alleys with glistening light in a bleaching brightness that cuts sharply into the eye.

The towns of Figueres, Cadaqués and Púbol are called the “surrealist triangle” because the painter Dalí lived in these places, which both shaped him and were shaped by him, and museums can be visited there today. On this trip, we had formed our own triangle – Collioure, Cadaqués and Cerét – which were visited by numerous artists of many styles and processed into works.