For our second of five special birthday events in 2010, a group of 15 of us went on a day trip to Collioure. This small village is located in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of France, close to the French/Spanish border on the Mediterranean coast, and is famous for anchovies, Banyuls and Collioure wine.

We were lucky with the weather and had a beautiful hot, sunny day for our trip. We left Toulouse just after 8am, stopping at Leucate Beach for morning tea, and arriving an hour later in Collioure in time for a picnic lunch on the beach.

Although we didn't do any official wine tasting, due to problems with our reservation at Dominican Cellars, we managed to bring along a chilled bottle of the region's famous aperitif drink, Banyuls, and we all sat sipping from plastic cups in the sunshine.

A big part of our day was spent sunbaking and swimming; the water in the bay was nice and refreshing, and so perfectly clear that even when up to your neck in water, you could see your toes.

Later, we took it in turns to go off in small groups and explore the village and surrounds. The village has small cobbled streets and impressive pink bougainvilleas climb up the sides of the colourful old buildings.

The majority of the shops are art galleries, gourmet food shops and local craft shops and of course there are oodles of restaurants with terraces, in all shapes and sizes.

We toasted our day on the beach at around 7pm with a glass of chilled rosé, then packed up and walked to a nearby restaurant in the village where we sat on the terrace and enjoyed the local cuisine.

After dinner, we climbed the hill to the carpark. From the top, we got a fantastic view of the full moon which was big and orange and level with the castle.

We arrived back in Toulouse at around 1am, exhausted from our big day out and looking forward to the next event.