29 May - 1 June - Mini-break to Sant Feliu de Guixols

Last year we'd been on a trip to Sant Feliu de Guixols with friends, and we'd found the town so enjoyable that we thought we'd go back again. We'd been too late for the little fried fish (sand-eels) known as sonsos, and thought a trip in late May might allow us to taste some again.

Spring this year has brought an unusually sustained period of rain to Ceret, so we were glad to be heading over the Pyrenees to some sunshine. We'd booked two nights on a hotel in the centre of Sant Feliu, and we chose to travel via Palamos where we have spent some very pleasant times in the past. We had one particular beachside cafe where we had eaten our sonsos in the past, so we parked the car and headed there. Horrors, the restaurant was closed. Worse still, it appeared we were too early for sonsos - it seems it has only a short season from July to August. We found our way to Fish, a restaurant we'd enjoyed once before, and had a good menu du jour with a very tasty small sea-bass each.

The view from Fish restaurant, Palamos

Sitting down looking out over the beach, for the first time since finishing formal work we felt totally relaxed and very content with where we had got to in our lives. We felt that our time was completely our own, to be spent in whatever manner we chose. We are still looking for a reno project in Ceret, but who knows if that will happen. We can see how all our hard work in salaried and self-employed jobs, evening and weekend renovations, my web app and everything else has led to this point and has been worth the effort, and every day we mentally pinch ourselves to make sure it is all real. 

The drive between Palamos and Sant Feliu isn't long, so we were soon at our room at Sant Feliu. By 5pm we were down on the beach soaking up some late sun and feeling very chilled. Another reason for the Sant Feliu visit was to track down the best chipirones we've ever had. We were not sure which bar they had been served at, but decided on our last visit it must have been El Gallo, but it was closed this time until the following day. We ate tapas instead at Cerveceria Hot-Dog, as recommended by the hotel staff. Little crispy fried anchovies, chipirones, manchego cheese and a beer. Couldn't be better!

Tapas for dinner, a fabulous charcuterie opposite

It was tempting to think of a move to the Costa Brava. We are losing hope that we will find another place to renovate in or very close to Ceret. On the plus side, the weather on the Costa Brava is better still than Ceret, the seafood is spectacular, normal living is even cheaper, the sea is warmer and right there and so on. On the other hand the French are more friendly, we speak French, we have lots of friends in Ceret, and it is very well-placed for travel in and out. It is also a bit cooler in mid-summer. We had a bit of a look in the real estate windows, to be very surprised that prices are remarkably high. There are any number of places well in excess of a million Euros. We suspect that St F. is a holiday-home destination for wealthy Barcelona residents, and the cars about town certainly reflect the wealth of visitors - plenty of big Mercedes and BMWs.

Breakfast was a good Spanish-style affair - ham, cheese, croissants, fruit, yoghurt and a fully chocolate-coated doughnut to finish! For our second day at St F. we had picked a walk up in the hills, with a scattering of megaliths. It turned out to be excellent. We started up a very fertile valley, full of small farms with a combination of veges and fruit trees, before going up higher. It is much greener here than you might expect, and the foliage is quite a bit more varied and attractive than what we are used to in France. It is an area of big rounded granodiorite boulders like our own Nelson Boulder Bank but larger, and in many spots they had been piled up by previous inhabitants as far back as 2-4 millennia BC.

Agriculture down low

Big rocks!

We gained a fair bit of altitude

Roman road

We were very glad of my Locus GPS app. The track was one of the smaller ones, and very difficult to follow. Without GPS help there's no way we could have followed it successfully. Since last year, I had bought a smartwatch, and Locus have a smartwatch app, so I could check I was on the trail with a quick glance at the watch - so much better than having to extract my phone from a pocket, unlock it and wait for the screen to refresh.

The late Spanish lunches suit our walking well. We can do a 4 or 5 hour walk after breakfast, and still be back in time for lunch. We chose Can Segura for a 13.50E menu del dia - 3 courses, bread and wine included. Fabulous choice as it was all delicious. We asked for white and rose wine, but ended up with a full bottle each of rose and red. Not a carafe or a small bottle, but a full 750ml of very pleasant rather crimson wine.

Fried mixed fish, and Meatballs with Cuttlefish

The dessert choice was spectacular. Ten options, every one of which sounded delicious. My mato (somewhere between cottage cheese and yoghurt) and marmalade was inspired. So fresh, and perfect to finish a meal.

Mango sorbet and vanilla, Cottage-style cheese with marmalade. Nice presentation for a $20 meal!

This is the dessert menu - one of everything please!

It isn't a good idea to compare NZ (or indeed French) prices with what Spain can provide. There's no comparison. 

After lunch we repaired to the beach along with many others, where we soaked up more sun for a while, before a well-deserved shower. Dinner was tapas - we thought we were going to the place we'd visited some years before, but Bar El Gallo turned out not to be it. The waiter had been there 24 years, and had never served chipirones in a paper cone as we'd had them last time. Too bad, what we had was very tasty anyway.

On the Friday we checked out, dropped our gear in the back of the car and walked north from Sant Feliu around the coast to the port at the south end of Platja D'Aro beach. It's a nice walk past beaches, up and over headlands and little coves. The water along this coast is a stunning clear teal-blue, and the rocks and sand a warm colour. Between the two walks (Thursday and Friday) we'd covered about 30km.

Towards Platja S'Agaro. Very tame (huge) seagulls.

Back from our walk we couldn't go past a revisit to Can Segura for lunch. I thought I'd try something new - my choice of pig's trotters with a divine aioli was super tasty. Out onto the beach for the last time - we'd heard Ceret was suffering under thunderstorms and was rather bleak and miserable -so didn't want to waste the opportunity.

Sant Feliu de Guixols

Back on the roads, and we were back in Ceret by late evening. A fabulous trip that felt like a week away. Sant Feliu was a revelation. It is a decent-sized town (22,000) that feels smaller, with a full complement of obviously good restaurants, bars and cafes. There are many quality shops, presumably catering to the wealthy Barcelona clients. Another thing we noticed is that is is very Spanish, specially as compared to say Tossa de Mar which is quite English-oriented, or L'Escala which partially looks to a French clientele. As the whole old town centre is pedestrianised, getting around is easy and relaxed. We'll be back for sure. It's also made us rethink the possibility of buying something further north from Ceret. The Costa Brava is so excellent in so many ways, we think we wouldn't want to move further away it - the walks, beaches, food and prices. So it looks like Ceret for a while yet!