27 June to 3 July - Visit by Edward and Ella

On Wednesday we were expecting the arrival of a nephew and his partner from Barcelona. Unfortunately the bus was late arriving into Perpignan, so they were a bit delayed arriving in Ceret. There was no point in us going in to collect them - we would have arrived back in Ceret at the same time as the bus. So at 8pm we met them at the bus stop and we walked the 10min to our apartment. We had a meal ready and waiting and had a very enjoyable time catching up on all the news.

The temperatures have ramped up to the mid-30s so we are trying to get out earlyish in the mornings for any expedition we have planned. However, it was 10am before we set off on a short walk around the back of Ceret the following morning. We had some interesting things to show our guests, as well as walking past the Capuchin Convent that we seriously considering buying last year. A coffee at Bar Pablo set the scene for a quiet bread and cheese lunch at home, followed by a quiet afternoon.

That evening John and I already had apero with at a friend's house booked in, the only time we could arrange to catch up together. However, it ended up being a group of 7 made up of Swedish, Norwegian, French, English and South African, as well as us. It had a very enjoyable time and hopefully we will do it again sometime, although invariably people are coming and going from Ceret at all different times of the year. Meanwhile our young guests had a nice wander around Ceret and took the opportunity to have an aperitif at a local bar. We cooked a meal of duck for dinner for everyone. The music from the buskers coming up from the square down below is always a lovely accompaniment to having dinner or lunch around the table in our apartment in summer.

Friday was yet another hot day. We squeezed in a coffee (I must point out at Edwards' behest, not mine) before setting off at 10am for the short trip to the Spanish border. We have visited Fort Bellegarde on a number of occasions so knew it would be a good shortish expedition. We wandered around the fort, moat, old barracks, French soldier's cemetery, watchtower and Roman Road for a few hours before heading back to the car, rapidly turning on the aircon, and driving 10 minutes to a little restaurant in the nearby Spanish town. John and I had dined there just a few weeks ago, on our 'haircut day out', and had the most excellent standard Spanish meal. Hence, we returned, and were not disappointed. I even had tuna steak again. It was a relief to be out of the sun and lovely to enjoy a leisurely few hours over the meal. We are getting to know the waiter (owner?) and chef quite well - they are both French. We will definitely be back. When we finally arrived home, after stopping at one of the super-large supermarkets on the Spanish border to stock up on food and wine, we flaked a little. 

Lunch at Cafe d'Avall

Hopefully enough gin to get us through the weekend! That's a full gallon.

Saturday morning is always market morning in Ceret. Edward and Ella set off mid-morning for a fun few hours checking out all the fresh fruit and veges and more. Edward is heavily involved in producing organic vegetables when he is in NZ, but at the moment they are more often than not travelling in Asia or Europe for work rather than home in Canterbury.

John and I had a rest in the afternoon, in anticipation of the late concert we had booked for the evening. It didn't kick off until 9:45pm. It seemed a very late kick-off, until we realised it would be because the World Cup football match being televised at the bar next door and elsewhere would be finishing at that time. Ella put together an excellent Cantonese meal beforehand using their purchases from the market - most appreciated and most delicious.

The outdoor concert was held in one of the main squares. The first half was advertised as Spanish guitarist, and the second a Spanish flamenco dancer. This particular concert is normally put on each summer, but we hadn't yet gone to one, but this time we decided we should get on with it. The young ones were both keen to go too. Ella is in the music industry and performs her own gigs so it suggested a very enjoyable evening for all. The guitar was very good, but the highlight was the flamenco. Just superb. Both the male and female dancers were clearly experts, and put on a great show. We must go again.

Flamenco in Place de la Republique

Sunday was a slow start due to the late concert, and Ella and Edward needed to get some work done, but fitted in the Art Museum. The World Cup Football filled in a bit of time.

On their last day, we did a tiki tour of a couple of the small local coastal towns - first Port-Vendres where we lunched very well on seafood at Bar Tapas L'Abri Cotier, and on to Collioure. Edward was keen to spend a little time on a beach, so we parked at the station in Collioure and walked round to the beach past the church at Collioure. We soaked up a little warmth for a while before braving the water. It turned out to be lovely. Not over warm, but perfect for a 30 degree day. We all swam not once but twice! We must come back with our swim goggles, as it is a good spot for a few laps from one end of the beach to the other. A bit of gelato on the way home topped off s most enjoyable final day for our guests.

Port-Vendres is always pretty on a nice day

Moules at L'Abri Cotier

Next day we dropped them off at the station in Perpignan for a bus to Barcelona, the trains being on strike yet again. We certainly had enjoyed the visit greatly, and I'm sure my nephew and partner did too.

19 - 26 June Friends Leaving and a Walk in the Hills

This week has been nice and quiet. The temperatures are now much hotter so the earlier start on our morning walks means we get back to the apartment around 9-9:30am. Breakfast, perhaps some weights/exercises and then on to enjoy a coffee and a lovely lazy hour reading a book and watching the world go by at Bar Le Pablo. 

Our expat friends are heading home, due to return to Ceret in late August/September. Hence we are having coffee, wine, apero and dinner gatherings at various location before they depart. Next week we will be virtually the only ones left here of our group.

Locals enjoying the Saturday morning market.
It is as much a time to sit down and have a chat with friends as it is to buy produce.

Thursday was the France-wide celebration of music. Every village, town and city puts on events to celebrate music, in whatever genre(s) it wishes. Ceret was no exception. We had a band playing outside every bar, Catalan choirs singing on the boulevards and a roving drumming group. Sitting outside and absorbing the atmosphere made us realise (just in case we had forgotten) how different it is living in Europe. 

Locals listening to a Catalan choir on one of the main streets in town

Some of the kites put up to by the council to celebrate the music festival

Yesterday one of the bars put on a Celebration of Mojito evening, complete with Brazilian dancers whirling around the outside tables. Living in the historic centre of Ceret means living in quite a small community. On our daily circuits around the main street, e.g. to buy bread from the boulangerie, we see the same faces every day and in turn are well recognised. Hence, we feel a part of this place.

A petanque tournament we came across one afternoon.

Monday was the last chance for a long walk around Céret's old quarries before a nephew and his partner arrive to stay with us for a week. We set off a little before 9am, collecting some pastries for nourishment on the track. It was a 2km trek uphill until we got to the start of the track John had made up on his track app. The route was to take us past at least five sites associated with talc and other mineral excavation in the hills in days gone by. Though we couldn't see all of them, we did come across old mines, buildings and an aerial cableway, complete with rusting buckets. It was a long hard walk up steep tracks for the first couple of hours, then it eased a little, and we trekked through some interesting country and vegetation. It was basically a huge circuit of the Pyrenean foothills behind a neighbouring town. We climbed to over 800m, and were rewarded with some spectacular views up and across the valley, and also down to Ceret and the Mediterranean beyond. With the air temperature probably around 30 degrees we were fortunate that a fair amount of the trek was in bush.

We were also fortunate to see a couple of vultures, with 2m wingspans. We hoped they were not waiting for us to break down. The hills used to be full of lovely mas - farm homesteads. Not many are still farms - they have been bought as done up as holiday homes.

Bridge along the track

One of the vultures

Aerial cableway for the old talc mining

Just one of the many gorgeous mas that snuggle into the Pyrenees

We're up pretty high - looking northeast towards Mt Canigou.

The views were fabulous. We could see right across to Batere where we have a walk we enjoy below Canigou. The hills here are pretty brutal - there's no way you want to lose your way, and we could not have done this walk without constant use of the GPS app on my phone and smartwatch.

In amongst pretty rough country

View down the valley with Ceret mid-photo, the Med in the distance.

Zoomed in on the historic centre of Ceret

The view near the end of the walk downwards into our little town of Ceret was the best we've seen. It showed clearly both how spread Ceret is overall (8000 population) and how tight the historic centre is.  The reasonable-sized population means we have a good number of shops, bakers and supermarkets, while the centre where we spend most of our time is still only village-sized. Ceret is really a Goldilocks town, not too big and not too small. We could also quite clearly see the circle of 200-year-old plane trees lining what was once a moat protecting the town from the frequent invaders.

When we finally chugged home after some 18 kilometres, fairly foot weary, first stop was a shower. The second was a short walk to our local superette to buy a box of six pistachio chocolate trumpets for NZ$3. They hit the spot!

14 -18 June - Up the Vallespir (Tech) Valley

Friday was a fairly quiet day. A bit of a walk, a catch-up with friends at Bar Pablo and some lazing around enjoying the warmer weather. The weather pattern has definitely changed. Gone are the rain and thunderstorms, replaced by mostly clear sunny skies and much higher temperatures. 

We opted to see the first half of the ABs vs France rugby match at home on Saturday morning, then went out at half-time to do our round of the market stalls, before sitting down to watch the second half at Cafe de France again. The match was much closer this time, though was marred by a 'red card' episode and France being down to 14 men for most of the match.

The Football World Cup has now started as well, so we are watching a few matches of soccer. Still feeling a little lethargic so not much walking on Saturday, however we were out of bed early on Sunday morning to do a walk/sprint session. Just after 11am we picked up an English couple from here and drove the half hour up the valley to Corsavy. The Rally de Vallespir was on, and using some of the roads around Corsavy. We found the perfect place to watch the rally cars driving relatively slowly up to the start of one of the sections - it was the one and only cafe/restaurant in Corsavy. We took a cup of coffee on the balcony and watched the cars drive by. 

One of the rally cars approaching the start of next rally section.

We only had 15 minutes there because we were due a little further up the valley to lunch with other English friends. In all, there were 10 of us. Over an extended 6-course meal, wine, bonhomie and laughter in full supply, we spent a very pleasant afternoon. The sun was out so nibbles on the deck was a great starter. We are all good friends and it was fun spending the afternoon together.

Small river beside our friends' house, up in the Pyrenees

Arriving home at 6pm we immediately set out for Bar Pablo for a farewell drink with Australian friends, though one was not well and had to stay at home. They have had to cut their stay here severely short due to a very sick family member. It's a real shame because during the few weeks they've been here they were just about to embark on some holiday time for themselves after having spent the vast majority entertaining visitors. It's an ongoing risk if you own a property in a desirable location.

The temperatures are definitely hotting up. The forecast for the next 10 days is now temperatures consistently in the early 30s. We are going to have to get up even earlier to go on our runs. John does not cope well with anything over about 23 when he's running. He basically just overheats. We got in an hour's walk on Monday morning, back in time to farewell both our Aussie friends and collect their car keys. We have to take their car out for a run every 4 weeks or so, to keep the engine and battery in good nick, before their Aussie co-owner friends arrive in August. With higher temperatures we now need to use our fan during both day and night, and need to close up the windows and shutters during the heat of the day. 

A week ago we had our builder in to have another go at finding the leak in our roof. We forgot to add some photos. He parked his hoist truck in the square below and used it to hoist his men onto the roof to inspect it. They cleaned out our gutters while they were up there, which was handy.

The hoist just outside our window

The builder arrived rather early in the morning (while the square was still empty so he could manoeuvre his machine) and we only just managed to get dressed in time before he went into action.

13-15 June Lunch in Narbonne

We have good friends who have moved from Ceret to Montpellier, and we were keen to catch up with them again. We decided to meet for lunch at the halfway point, Narbonne. Given we'd never stopped there despite having driven past it perhaps half a dozen times, we took the opportunity to spend a night there for a quick exploration.

On arrival in Narbonne, finding our room was easy, finding a parking spot less so, but with Karen on foot scouting she found one and I was able to whip the car around the corner and grab it before somebody else did. Into the old centre through the wind (it's always windy in Narbonne - we checked with a few of the locals later) and to the main square where we stopped for a morning coffee.

Narbonne has a slightly sad history. It was once the main base for Rome outside Italy, and a major  centre of trade. Almost nothing remains of Roman building now however - just a small piece of the main Roman road from Rome to Spain, the Via Domitia, discovered under the main square in 1997, and the Horreum which had been a warehouse and market facility. It was lovely for us to see the Via Domitia, as we have visited its southernmost point on the crest of the Pyrenees near us. Once the Romans had faded away, Narbonne became a major trade and religious centre, until the Aude began to silt up and both the trade and the bishop moved out, leaving a partly-built cathedral. Meanwhile the Roman buildings had been almost totally plundered for building materials. Nowadays it is a pleasant, though windy, city of only 52,000 people.

The main square from the former Bishop's Palace.
That's a piece of the Via Domitia 2000-year-old Roman road at centre.

The coffee was most pleasant, sitting watching the world go by. The comparison to the Spanish border town of La Jonquera was interesting. Without the slightest doubt, the French are vastly more wealthy. In La Jonquera the locals are dressed very much down-market, and are a different shape and size - about 150cm and stocky, versus maybe 5cm taller and slimmer in Narbonne.

We'd chosen a little Italian restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a one-man band, the owner also being the waiter, chef, and bottle washer. It turned out to be excellent, a nice little find. Catching up with our friends was good, and after lunch we had a bit of a look around Narbonne together before they headed back home. We struck lucky at the cathedral, with an organist giving an impromptu recital while we were there.

There must be something in the water...

It had been a properly hot day - our first this year despite it already being mid-June. By evening we were pretty tired, and chose to retire a little earlier than normal.

Next day we started by visiting the market hall, a very attractive building. Having a coffee there was fun. We chatted for a while with a local Frenchman whose place we had taken at the bar of a drink-and-go cafe inside the market. It brought home how little we manage to speak French with French in Ceret. Perhaps there are just too many foreigners, or maybe we just try harder away from our French home. Either way, we must do something about it as we do enjoy it. The more we talk, the better we get and the easier it becomes.

The bishop's palace proved very interesting, as it had several good exhibitions of art, including a very good one of "oriental art", meaning mainly North African. It was beautifully curated in a Cordoba-Mosque-like setting.

North African scenes in a lovely setting

Lunch was another good find. The menu de jour at a different restaurant was excellent, and again the service was very good. In particular the bread, which arrived in a little paper bag instead of the normal wicker basket, was super tasty. It might seem surprising to many, but there is a big range in French baguettes. They can be noticeably different in flavour, crust, dryness, chewiness, colour and more. We've become experts over the last 7 years! Our favourite would be the flavour of  this Narbonne baguette, add a good golden crunchy crust (but not too viciously dry!) and the chewiness of the croquise from Fournil San Ferreol in Ceret.

A pretty good salad (entree) for the menu du jour

A last few places to visit in the town, including the Horreum and the cathedral treasury, and we were on our way home. The latter was notable for amazing acoustics - a clap when stood dead centre echoed perhaps 5 times, and any conversation could be heard from anywhere else in the room.

Interesting stonework inside the underground Horreum

We tried to visit a chocolaterie  which offers mini-tours and tasting, but most unusually we were given a very poor welcome, I guess because it was near closing time. We were just ignored. Unusual for France, and given our reception we just jumped back in the car and left, A very blustery drive back home.

Anywhere else it is a marche en plein air (market in open air), here it is de plein vent (in full wind)!

3 June - 12 June La Jonquera

Our Saturday morning was a little different this time around. Instead of doing the rounds of the market stalls then sitting down at Bar Pablo for a coffee, we rugged up in NZ gear, complete with our small Silver Fern flag and made our way to Cafe de France. It is the nearest thing to the local sports bar, and was featuring the All Blacks vs France on its big screen. We sat at one of the tables, but given it was 9:30am and market day, there wasn't a huge audience on deck to watch it. 

However, we had a lot of fun. The first half was pretty close, with France having scored the first try, and the sides only separated by one point at halftime. However, the All Blacks then romped ahead, crossing the try line seven times in the second half. We were of course happy, but feeling a little embarrassed as time went by. The French guys around us stayed cheery and kept giving us the thumbs up in recognition of how well the ABs were playing. All the same, we slunk away as quietly as possible after the game finished. The two teams are set to meet again for each of the next two Saturdays, so we are not sure whether we might watch the next game at home, or possibly at Bar Pablo, where there will be a smaller audience.

Sunday was a hoot. After a quiet day we drove halfway out to the coast, to a small town only 20 minutes away. The couple from Luxembourg who are going to rent our apartment here for 4-5 months during winter had invited us to apero. They have recently installed themselves at the camping ground and were planning to live in their 10m (!) camper until they move into our place. The campground is only a few kilometres from where their house is being built.

They are an absolutely delightful couple and, as when they came to apero at our place a few weeks ago, we talked very companiably for three hours, before realising that it was starting to get dark and time to think about dinner. We had arrived when the temperature was around 30 degrees, a rarity for the current weather pattern. But, true to form, the clouds soon returned and it started to rain again. By 8pm it was cooler and wet. So much for sitting outside under the awning and having a cool refreshing drink. We had a quick look through their camper. It is definitely high spec, and very well made. We knew they had towed a car on a trailer behind the camper, all the way from Luxembourg, but didn't realise it was a rather nice Mercedes convertible. They have recently bought another car to use here in France and at some stage will drive the Mercedes back to Germany, where they live more of the time than Luxembourg. Needless to say, they travel around a lot. John and I find it really interesting listening to their views on all sorts of things, and getting insights into the French and German mentalities, e.g. how the Germans felt about themselves and their country after WWII. Likewise, they find our impressions of France, Europe and other places and things really interesting too. Daniele is French but worked most of her life in Austria and Serge is Luxembourgish (retired doctor) but worked in Germany. 

We just picked at a few things for dinner when we got home and slept well, getting up the following morning for our usual walk/sprint session before breakfast. These sessions should be becoming easier as we get more under our belt, but somehow our legs aren't playing ball. Maybe we are too old for this game. I don't think so and we are determined to keep at it. We're feeling pretty fit and keen to continue with plenty of serious walking when we get the chance. 

On Mondays many shops are closed in the towns and cities in France. The same is the case in Spain. Hence, our planned trip to get our haircuts over the border in La Jonquera was put off from Monday until Tuesday. We've done this trip a few times now. Hairdressers cost a lot in Ceret. For the same price, we can hop over the border, both get a haircut, have a three-course lunch and still have money over to pay for the car's diesel. We also usually call in at one of the huge supermarkets on the border and stock up on groceries. This is another big saving. It makes for a good day out, and this time around proved no exception. In fact, it was the best yet.

After the normal haircuts we went to a restaurant we'd been to before, and was highly ranked on Tripadvisor. We decided to order one menu de jour, plus an a la carte main dish. The waiter had brought out a magnificent slab of fresh tuna to show us, and the chief also came out to enthuse about it. Ok, we went with it, and it was indeed sublime. In fact, when a French couple sat down at the table next to us, we highly recommended the tuna to them. They both had it. We ended up chatting together for probably an hour, mostly in French, and, for the Frenchman, very animatedly. It was a whole lot of fun.

Massive tuna steaks, baked potato and charred peppers

We got a whole load of recommendations for a visit to the Tarn area, as they lived near Albi. We also spent quite some time discussing wine. The Frenchman was adamant that you couldn't possibly have, for example, good sauvignon blanc or pinot noir outside the regions they came from originally, i.e. Burgundy and Bordeaux. I don't know where that leaves countries like Australia and New Zealand which never had grapes to start with! I understand that we can't do a proper Burgundy in New Zealand, but we can sure do a decent Pinot Noir. A lot of fun, and such a treat to be able to have serious discussions in another language.

2 June - 9 June Montbolo Walk

Since we got back from our short break to Spain, the weather has been very wet, and often with decent thunderstorms and heavy rain in the afternoon. Hence, we tried to get our morning walks in before breakfast. Most afternoons have been spent putting a fair number of hours searching for and booking accommodation for our month-long trip to the Rhone Valley/French Alps when we have to relinquish our apartment to renters. We've also been researching what walks to do. We've finally got it all sorted. Some friends came around for dinner one evening, and we've had coffees and apero with others during the week. It's nice to be meeting new people.

The weather took a U-turn a few days ago and the forecast for the next 10 days is for most hot sunny weather, typically with temperatures in the high 20s. It's been a very sudden change.

We made the most of the improving weather by heading 15 mins up the valley to Amelie-les-Bains on Friday. There is a walk there we have done 3 times before. It starts with a sharp 1.5hr climb up a hill, thankfully through shaded forest, before emerging at a lovely little village, complete with 17th century church, at the top. The village boasts just one restaurant/cafe, and we'd planned our arrival to have a quick (small) beer/coffee at 11.30am, followed by the Menu de Jour at noon. It was a delicious meal, very simple but tasty. We recognised the owner from previous occasions. We suspected she was an alcoholic, and this time she definitely seemed under the weather. She was very shaky putting things on the table, and took immense care when placing the bottle of water and glasses. It was pretty sad to see. She didn't seem very happy. We know she is English, but had married a local and has lived in this rather secluded little village for years. 

Most of the way up the track - view across to the restaurant not too far away at the top

Village church on the left, restaurant centre (red umbrellas) and view down the valley.
The Mediterranean Sea is in the very distance

After recovering from the uphill effort, it took another 1.5hrs to make our way back down to the car, parked in the town on the valley floor. With a stop for groceries at Lidl on the way home, we were back by 4pm and well and truly ready to put our feet up. A great day all round. Bread and cheese for dinner while watching the French Tennis Open made for an easy evening. Unfortunately it was not so cruisy for John. Having had no side-effects from restarting coffee since we returned to France (4 weeks ago now) he took a dive in the evening, probably because he hadn't had a coffee that day and was a bit dehydrated. He ended up being sick and had an early night. As usual, he was absolutely fine the following day. We were really starting to believe he had reset his 'coffee clock' by abstaining for 3 full weeks before we left NZ but it seems it was just waiting in the wings ready to pounce back when he was a bit susceptible and low on fluids.

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!