The Saturday morning market was busy as usual. Even though we are well into autumn, people are still out in force, wearing light summer clothes, drawn to the laden produce stalls, often followed by a seat at a cafe for coffee. This week we couldn't find an empty table at any of the normal cafes for our own cuppa. Typically you have to hang around the edges and be ready to pounce when you spy someone vacating a table.
In the early afternoon we drove half an hour towards the coast to the small town of Laroque-des-Alberes. This is where a good French friend lives. Miquel was widowed earlier this year. Over the last decade we have enjoyed many great times and fabulous meals with him and his wife. Over the next few hours we had a good chat. It was a hot drive back to Ceret afterwards, with the temperature gauge hovering around 29 deg. If only the air-conditioning still worked in the car!
We carried on with another thoroughly social evening with French friends, and again including Miquel. When we dine with Vero and JP, they unfailingly produce great meals, and this was no exception. One of the courses included cooked cepes (mushrooms) which they'd harvested in the forest with Miquel a few days earlier. It was a wonderful evening. The 28 deg temperature on the outdoor terrace slowly lowered, and when an outdoor light was put on we had sporadic visits from three very large hornets. These are not looked upon favourably in any way and were eventually despatched after a lot of waving, flapping and bug-spraying. It was only a five minute drive home, and we tucked up in bed not long before midnight. With the effort of listening to and speaking French for many hours that day we both slept soundly. It was great to be immersed in the language.
On waking on Sunday morning, we immediately checked the weather forecast for Palamos, a town we love visiting in Spain. The light rain predicted for Monday had vanished from the radar so we quickly organised ourselves and set off to spend a few days on the Costa Brava. Palamos is about 1.5 hours' drive away and lies on the coast not far southeast of Girona, and northeast of Barcelona. Each year we have typically spent a 2 day/1 night sojourn there. Every time have done at least one walk along the beautiful coastal tracks. The plan this time was to do two 8-10km walks, one to the north of Palamos and the other to the south.
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| Palamos |
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| A wonderful array of fruit and vegetables |
In the event, we did neither. Call us old, but it occurred to us, while we were humming and hah-ing about which track to tackle first, that we are now in our 65th year and could actually start to 'retire' and not rush around trying to maximise what we see and what we do. We decided to give it a go. We'd booked for two nights this time, and so spent an extremely enjoyable time over the next few days alternating between time on the beach (though well outside the heat of the day), swimming in the sea, having a siesta, imbibing a 2E cava or beer here or there and enjoying tapas or a full meal. It rather took us by surprise and we loved it. In fact, we could get used to it.....
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| A plate of Padron peppers and a glass of cava at a waterfront bar |
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| Tapas at a very small quirky bar (Can Moni) which is very popular with the locals and the odd brightly coloured tourist not sure what to make of it all |
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| Beret with the Basque and Catalan flags hanging on the wall in Can Moni |
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| Palamos Beach |
In the evening we visited another pintxos place we'd visited once previously - Txoko Donostiarra. As a pintxos place, you sit down and food is brought around on platters, as against tapas bar where you pick your dishes from a menu. You choose as little or as much as you like, and at the end of the evening the sticks from the various dishes are counted up and your bill is made up. It's a really fun way of eating.
We'd inquired about a late checkout on the last day and, given our room was full after us, the receptionist said we could check out in the late afternoon instead of by 11am. Bonus, giving us time for a swim in the morning.
On the drive home we stopped off at Verges, a small and very old village 1/3 of the way home. We had planned it to arrive at 2pm, a good hour for lunch. We'd stumbled across this place last year, and enjoyed a wonderful and very cheap 'menu of the day'. Again it was excellent. The fish dishes are a particular delight to us, and, as it always the case when we venture into Spain, we indulge in fish and all manner of other seafood as much as possible.
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| Our lunch restaurant in Verges |
Home by 5pm, pretty weary but feeling immensely relaxed and in post-holiday glow. Tomorrow we have some serious exercise on the agenda - perhaps it's time to do a little catch-up?
Today, Wednesday 4th, has indeed seen us do some catch-up. A solid walk, stocking up on groceries, completion of washing and ironing all the sofa and cushion covers, plus a weights session, has got us back on track again. Looking back on yesterday, the swims in the sea were one of the highlights for me - the water was probably around 23 degrees and didn't seem too cold and a few laps out to the bouys and back was a lot of fun. It was definitely warmer than the 18 degrees of Lake Tahoe.
