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Bidding a temporary goodbye to Barcelona, we’ll set sail for Mahón – capital of the easternmost Balearic island, Menorca. This little slice of paradise is much quieter than rival Mallorca, but is just as beautiful courtesy of whitewashed villages, rugged bays and sun-kissed beaches. Mahón’s a good place to buy Menorca’s trendy avarca sandals..

After a restful day at sea we’ll arrive in France at the town of Cassis, whose pastel-coloured harbour gives way to winery-scattered hills and narrow, jaw-dropping calanques inlets framed by steep cliffs. Though many settlements along France’s south coast are household names, others like Cassis fly under the radar. So too does our next stop, Séte, a 17th-Century maritime city in which you can amble around gridded Old Port streets or follow the country-crossing Canal du Midi’s towpath. 

Further southwest, Port de Roses is a gateway to sandy coves in the Cap de Creus nature reserve and coastal Cadaqués’s Salvador Dalí House-Museum. In the Catalonian fishing village of Palamos, you can once again enjoy the buzz of a busy Spanish town – dining on tapas and roaming labyrinthine lanes – or head out to more beautiful Costa Brava beaches. It’s then just a short voyage south back to Barcelona.