Girona

We got to our hotel in the old part of town around 7:30 pm and went out for dinner around 9pm.  We were sort of trying to get to a place the woman at the front desk had recommended but missed a turn somewhere and found a charming corner with several restaurant options.  We went for Basque tapas at Zanpanzar.  Lining the bar were pinxtos, like elaborate crostini.  Slices of bread were covered with different toppings like mashed leek and eggplant topped with an anchovy or roast red pepper and grilled chanterelle.  They were all cold or at room temperature and you could just go up to the bar and pick which ones you wanted.  You could also order hot tapas.  We got a selection of pinxtos and ordered chorizo and a plate of grilled vegetables.  All this was more than enough food given that we had said we were just going to have a light dinner!  Hard cider seems to be the traditional accompaniment for Basque tapas.

In the morning after breakfast we took a walk on the old defensive wall that goes around the backside of the old city. It’s a good three stories tall.  The front is bordered by a river.  Maybe there used to be a wall on the other side too, I’m not sure.  The old part of the city is built on a hill and has a large number of large stone churches and church associated buildings as well as apartment buildings.  

There used to be a large Jewish quarter here too.  The streets are all cobblestone and many flights of steps lead from one area to another.  The tall buildings and narrow streets mean that the streets are rather dim except where an intersection forms a small open space.  Houses are built right along the river and several bridges cross over to a slightly newer part of town.  We also walked through the cathedral near our hotel which was softly filled with the sound of priests singing in a side chapel.

Garden with olive tree along the wall 

On the wall

typical street in the old quarter 

We had lunch at Café Le Bistrot at an intersection of two sets of stairs and a road.  Tables were set up in the open plaza area and you could get lunch of one or two courses with dessert and wine for 12 – 15 euros.  Jake got an onion bread pudding sort of thing in a manchego sauce that the server recommended.  It tasted wonderfully rich.  My appetizer was the traditional escalivada, grilled vegetables, in this case eggplant, onions, and red pepper.  We both got the duck confit with rice and chickpeas for our main course.  A big leg and thigh of slow cooked duck in a gravy.  For dessert we shared a slice of chocolate cake and a bowl of raspberry sorbet.  I had a bold red wine of unknown origin to accompany my meal.

After a nap I went out to explore the other side of the river.  I started in the Devesa, the floodplain forest turned park at the intersection of two rivers.  Large sycamores dominate the park. A huge fair was being set up throughout the park, so it was not the peaceful walk I’d hoped for!  I walked back into town and meandered through the shops and squares on that side.  There are lots of tourists in town, mostly from England and France.  There do seem to be more people here in the day time that must come in on tour buses.  It’s really a lovely town and well worth a couple day visit if not longer.  There are some longer walks out into the countryside that look interesting that we aren’t going to have time to do.

One of the rivers

Sycamores in the park with a ride being set up

Not so beautiful section of the river through town 

Montserrat

Joe and Sabrina had to leave pretty early on Monday and Jake and I decided to go on a day trip to Montserrat.  Montserrat is an isolated mountain with a huge old monastery on top. We took the metro to the Espanya station and just missed the hourly train to Montserrat.  We caught the 9:30 train and arrived at the base of the aerie at 10:30.  The aerie is the cable car up to the monastery, the next train stop has a rack railway that goes up.  We caught the second cable car available and got a good view going up the mountain.  The monastery perches on a shelf among the rounded sedimentary teeth of the mountain.  There is a large church and a couple hotels that I presume used to be part of the monastery (at least one of them anyway).  We went into the basilica as a service was going on, so we stood as reverently as possible near the back as a group of priests chanted and blessed the communion wine and wafers in Catalan.

Cable car lines up to Montserrat

Unknown animals way below

The church

We then got tickets on the Sant Joan funicular that takes you up close to the highest peak of the mountain, St. Jerome peak.  From there you can walk back down to the monastery on a very wide, mostly cement-paved path.  There are beautiful views in both directions from the trail.  There were groups of schoolkids learning about the flora and fauna of the area (again in Catalan) along the trail too.  It is Mediterranean vegetation with wild rosemary, heather, a couple types of oak, and some viburnums in wetter areas.  Also ivy, a type of Smilax, and a honeysuckle vine.    They’ve had a couple bad fires and floods over the years and have been trying to do some restoration projects. 

The view from the top

Back down at the monastery you have crowds of tourists, some museums, a large cafeteria where we got a light lunch, and a huge gift shop.  We had to get back to Barcelona by 4pm, so we took the cable car back down, again missed the train by 2 minutes, but got back to the apartment to pick up our luggage just at 4pm. 

Smilax berries

Heather

The path back down to the monastery

Tonight and tomorrow we are in Girona, a half hour train ride north of Barcelona.  It was dark when we arrived, so I look forward to describing it tomorrow.

Sunday in Barcelona

Jake and I took a stroll down to the harbor at the end of Las Ramblas stopping for a coffee and pastry at Cappucino, across Las Ramblas from where we were staying.  Lots of people were out jogging and walking their dogs.  Joe and Sabrina were up by the time we got back and we decided to head to the beach.  We took the metro out to the former Olympic village just past Barceloneta. There is a huge marina there with lots of sailboats and yachts.  We watched one sailor skillfully back his 40+ foot boat into a narrow space between two other sailboats with no hesitation.  Since Joe (who has a captaain’s license) was impressed, I was doubly impressed.  We strolled along the beach commenting on the differences in European versus American bathing prudishness and watching the volleyball games, touch football and a very fit assortment of people doing exercises on some gym equipment (like upside down pushups suspended from two bars or pulling yourself into a handstand on a bar.)The abs these people have! 

It was all so exhausting to watch that we decided to have a leisurely lunch at one of the many restaurants lining the beach.  A bottle of albarino and seafood fixed grilled and as ceviche proved quite relaxing.  We strolled back to the Barceloneta metro station through the old village streets.  The fishermen and their families used to live here, I’m not sure if they still do or not.  Sunday seemed to be laundry day as every balcony was festooned with clothing and sheets.  Back in the old city center we found a church with an excellent collection of gargoyles.  The narrow, far from straight line streets were very picturesque. 

View from Olympic Park

Green roof

Leisure at the beach

Unicorn gargoyle

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In the evening we wandered through a more working class neighborhood with lots of Turkish and Pakistani places (El Raval).  We stopped for a glass of wine, some grilled padron peppers and pan con tomate at a hip looking café off a small plaza.  We had made reservations for dinner at a UltraMarinos on Las Ramblas just down the street from our apartment (right near the opera).  It was an interesting space where the white tiled walls and columns were covered in small graffiti presumably made by the restaurants patrons.  The back part of the restaurant had a huge disco ball and large bar.  But their food was recommended including the paella.  We all shared a small greek salad that had really good fried chickpeas as a garnish.  We ordered two paellas – a black (squid ink) seafood paella and a chicken and beef paella.  Both were pretty good but at home we tend to add a lot more of the goodies compared to the amount of rice.  

Catalonian Independence

It started as a typical day for a tourist in Barcelona – breakfast at the Boqueria Market, strolling around La Sagrada Familia, a few tapas, another stop for cake and expresso, strolling past the remarkable architectural wonders in the Eixample neighborhood.  By 3pm near the Gaudi designed Casa Batllo a crowd was beginning to gather wearing Catalonian flags and holding small paper banners saying “Libertat, us volem a casa” (roughly  Liberty, we want you home), and “Help Catalonia, Save Europe”.  We asked someone about the save Europe part and his answer was that because the EU supports human rights they should be supporting Catalonia’s right to vote on independence. 

Hams at at Boqueria market

Game at the market

La Sagrada Familia

Snails on a church!

Joe and Sabrina with a coffee and gelato

Bat decor on a light fixture

Casa Batllo

Woodwork detail at Casa Battlo

Independence rally

We took a wonderful tour of Casa Batllo that included some really cool virtual reality visuals on a smartphone and watched the crowd build from the windows. Through the VR you could see how the rooms would have been furnished, sea creatures emerging from the walls, and how the ventilation system worked. By the time we exited the building, there were crowds as far as we could see up and down the boulevard.  Every time a federal police helicopter flew overhead there were derisive whistles and catcalls and upraised middle fingers.  When a Catalonian helicopter flew overhead there were cheers.  The Spanish government has declared it is taking over Catalonian government (including the police) at least temporarily, although it did not dissolve the Catalan parliament.  I don’t think Catalonia will go down without a fight. (The papers the next day reported 450,000 people).

We walked along fairly easily until we got a major intersection where the crowds went in four directions.  We wormed our way through for a block reaching a more open street then continued our walk back to our apartment.

Roquefort and Lastours

Jake and I spend one day close to home in the depths of head cold misery.  We did go into Realmont to the Swing Bar café for its internet and herbal tea.  And I attempted to make a tarte tatin with mixed success.  I got the wrong kind of pastry dough – whole wheat pie dough instead of puff pastry dough, and the pan I cooked the tart in leaked most of the caramelized sugar out.  But it still tasted good! Margaret had make a big pot of chicken soup the day before, so that was perfect in our condition.

lizard at the local Grayssac cemetery near the chateau

We were not about to miss the group trip to Roquefort the next day though.  It’s a lovely 2 hour drive to the northeast from where we were into the mountains.  Societe is the biggest producer (and the brand you are most likely to see in the US).  We took their tour because you go through the caves where the cheeses are aged.  The distinct taste comes from Penicillum roquefortii.  Societe has isolated 3 strains to produce 3 varieties of Roquefort.   Other producers have other strains that give their cheeses a unique taste.  All true Roquefort comes from Roquefort, France.  The cave temperatures and humidity levels are controlled by fleurines, openings in the caves that allow fresh air to flow through.  Jobs you can have include the person who controls the fleurines, cheese ager, and mold producer.

We had lunch at what seemed to be the only open restaurant in town located in the vaulted brick area below a building.  Their specialty was buckwheat crepes filled with different fillings.  Mine had ham, cheese and walnuts.  Jake got another specialty which seemed to be part mashed potato part melted cheese served with a sausage. 

On our last day in France we all went south through the Black Mountains.  We drove to Carcassonne, but because of where we parked we basically had 10 minutes to tour the old city.  The city is quite impressive from the outside, but the interior is crowded with shops selling stuff and tourists.  We weren’t too disappointed to drive back into the mountains to Lastours.  In fact, we’d really recommend most of a day just to visit Lastours.  Our group had a reservation at Le Puy du Tresor (the well of treasure), another Michelin starred restaurant.  We got there at 1pm.  Lunch ended around 4:30 pm. The food was really good, but I didn’t want to miss hiking up to the ruins of the four castles on top of the hill so I left after the 3^rd course. 

Carcassone

Lastours

Lastours

arrow slit

The courses I had were a lovely poitiron squash soup with a mustard cream sauce, followed by a cepe (bolete, a mushroom) tartlet in puff pastry with some baby vegetables.  Some got a fish course of very rare salmon.  We all got a course of lamb served with some other baby vegetables.  You’ll have to ask Jake about any other courses!  We all agreed that the food was just as good if not better than the Toulouse restaurant, but the service was slow.

The hike up to the castles was steep and rough, but lovely.  The four castles are arrayed along the spine of the mountains all within easy reach of each other.  I never really figured out why 4 were built.   There are also the outlines of walls of a medieval village.  I would love to go there in spring because the hillsides around the castle are covered with iris.  Swallows wheeled around one of the castle towers.

The drive back along a narrow mountain road went through some picturesque little villages and long stretches of oak and chestnut forest.  The chestnut’s leaves were turning yellow and drifts of spiny nuts lay along the roadsides in places.

Toulouse

Now all of us but Carol are at some stage of a cold.  Jake and I in the early to mid-stages, John, Margaret and Paul in the recovery stages.  Nevertheless, we had reservations today for lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant, Michel Sarran, in Toulouse and wanted to do some sightseeing before lunch.  We drove into the city pretty easily and parked in one of the many underground parking garages.  Downtown seems pretty compact, and the older parts of town had little traffic.  Of course on Monday all of the tourist attractions with an admission fee are closed.  But we took in the Basilica built in 1096 that contains the remains of the locally martyred St. Saturnin.  Around 250 he was condemned to death by being dragged by a bull through the streets of Toulouse. Many saints have reliquaries there, including St. Sylve! 

The bell tower of the basilica in Toulouse

Hanging model of the church I think

St. Sylve's reliquary

We walked past the Benedictine convent, the Ecole de Beaux Arts, across the Pont Neuf (a misnomer now), past an old hospital and through a little section of African shops, then back past the Hospital de la Grave (doesn’t sound like a hospital you’d want to go to!) and back over the river.  Then up through part of the University whose campus paths were not marked on our map, miraculously arriving in front of our restaurant at the appointed hour of 12:30. 

Everyone was seated in an outdoor covered patio behind the restaurant.  We were first presented with a trio of amuse bouches – tiny little pastries with different fillings – while we perused the menu. Once we had ordered a second amuse bouche arrived of a tiny portion of creamy scrambled eggs with a madeira sauce in an egg cup, a little crispy cigar of cheese, and a soft boiled egg that was somehow coated in crispy thin bits of pasta. Five of us ordered a fixed menu and Jake ordered off the a la carte menu.  My entrée consisted of sautéed mushrooms and onions served over buttery phyllo layers, a small poached egg and some greens dressed with a tangy vinaigrette.  I also find it amusing to identify the weeds in ones gourmet salad, in this case oxalis.  This was accompanied by a very nice viognier wine.

Jake’s entrée was foie gras soup with an oyster.  The soup was like foamed foie gras.  It was accompanied by an arrangement of little leaves and flowers and squares of foie gras.  I tasted the “oyster leaf”, which really did taste much like an oyster.  The waiter did not know the Latin name but apparently it is grown in gardens around Toulouse. (Mertensia maritima)

My main course was a fairly simple cylinder of rosy trout coated in crisp panko served over zucchini noodles with some other finely diced vegetables and a warm vinaigrette.  For the main course we switched to a robust red wine that I think was a blend but had the amusing name of Bur l’ es que?

Dessert was a triple layer concoction of cake and gelled passion fruit topped with chestnut ice cream and served in a pool of passion fruit puree.  Jake got a delicious looking chocolate confection but as it was pretty much gone by the time I had finished ooing and ahhing over my first bites of passion fruit I can’t tell you much about it.  Two people got a cheese course with an ample selection of very tasty cheeses from France, Italy and Switzerland. With our expressos the waiter brought out an amuse bouche of three dime size tarts.  One was orange, another fig, and the third caramelized banana with a tiny piece of gold leaf on top.

With the able help of Jacqueline, our car’s GPS, we were able to get out of the city and back home for a much needed rest with only one wrong turn,  one odd detour, and one operator error.  

Latour de Aragon

We are spending the week a few miles northeast of Lautrec, in the midi-Pyrenees region of southwestern France.  This is farming country with the final harvest of sunflowers standing in the fields and other crops (corn and soybeans mostly) harvested with the freshly turned ground pale brown.  In the few days we have been here the days are sunny and warm, the afternoons windy and dry and the evenings crisp. 

Jake’s cousin Paul swapped his one bedroom apartment for a chateau, L’Tour d’ Aragon for a week.  We think it was built in the 1400s.  It was certainly around in the 1500s according to a history book of the region.  The stone walls are easily 3 feet thick.  Set into the walls are tall doors and windows with heavy wooden shutters.  We open the windows during the day to let the warmth of the sun in, but it doesn’t last too long in the evenings.  By dark we are wearing fleeces.  Tonight I think we’ll try laying a fire in the huge living room fireplace. The Chateau has three stories and two towers, a square one and a circular one that has the stairs in it.  In one small wing there is a cinema that can hold maybe 20 people in theatre seats.  It’s tempting to test it out but the room is rather musty from disuse.  There have to be hundreds of movies on CD though.  In the main part of the house, the first floor has an entry room with a small laundry/storage area and a bathroom behind a screen as well as a tiny one person sauna.  There is a kitchen and eating area room, a living room with a giant fireplace, a formal dining room, and a library.  The second floor of the main section has bedrooms in two wings and each wing has a bathroom.  Several bedrooms have a fireplace but I do not think they are operational now.  The third floor has more bedrooms with bunk beds and one larger room at the end.  Dead flies lie very thickly on the third floor. Another small wing is under renovation and could almost be  a separate apartment.  Back on the first floor are several curious wells with metal grates.  The one in the kitchen has a light and a metal ladder for access and nooks in the circular walls hold bottles of wine.  The front of the house has a large patio with an old well next to the front door. In back a yard slopes down to the plowed fields and has a pool, closed for the season, and a tennis court off to one side.

The front courtyard

formal dining room

The renovated large bathroom

Spiral staircase in the round tower

We are here with two of Jake’s cousins, Paul and Carol, and another couple, John and Margaret, friends of one of the cousins.  We arrived in three separate cars.  Paul and Carol arrived first and lucky for us opened as many windows as possible and started vacuuming up the dead flies and stinkbugs that lay on the floor.  John and Margaret had managed to find a grocery store and had bought some baguettes, cheese and wine.  I swept off one of the outdoor seating areas and we had our first repast plen aire. 

The next day we had heard there was a market in the nearby town of Graulhet, so Paul, Jake and I set off to see what we could find.  After driving through the middle of the narrow streets of the medieval downtown, no market could be found.  Instead we got a coffee at the tabac and pastries at the Boulangerie two doors down and found out the market is on Sundays but that Castres has a Saturday market.  So we went back to our place to collect the others and headed south to the large town of food stalls to keep us occupied for some time buying fun things for dinner.  Jake had decided he would roast chicken and vegetables.  We put our purchases in the car and walked further into town where we found the real Saturday food market just starting to close up!  We had enough time to quickly walk through the rows and buy some of the famous local garlic, rose garlic. 

cheese selection at the market in Castres

Agout river in Castres

Most towns have a street with pink umbrellas for breast cancer awareness month

Formal garden in Castres

Our group in Castres

The river Agout runs through town and we had hoped to find a place to lunch along the river, but many restaurants were full – they don’t seem to have waiting lists, they just serve enough for the customers who have made reservations.  Brasseries though seem to have longer hours and more availability.  We found one near the main square that had a table for six and a decent looking menu.  I had mussels and fries that were pretty good.  Jake’s salad nicoise was fine, but seemed to be made with anchovies rather than tuna.  Fortunately he likes anchovies.  After lunch Jake, Carol and I went to the Monoprix downtown to shop for regular groceries like milk and orange juice.  In France you pay for bags at the store and although we had brought bags, they were back in the car with our market purchases from the morning.  We got away with buying one bag and Carol and I carrying the remaining groceries the quarter mile back to the car. 

Back at home we had a relaxing afternoon reading and  napping.  I tried out the hammock at the bottom of the yard under two old poplars.  Jake hiked up to the top of the hill and brought back some overlooked heads of garlic that had been plowed up in the upper part of the field.  He and I worked on dinner while Carol and John set up the formal dining room for our meal.  We also discussed the conversion of F to Celsius in trying to decide what temperature to cook the chicken!  It came out fine but took awhile to cook.  We had cheeses, olives and pate from the market to try out while the chicken cooked anyway.   After dinner we went outside to look at the stars as there is little light pollution out here!

On Sunday Jake and I decided to find a place to hike while the others went off to visit Albi.  We found a map for some hiking routes right around Lautrec so after stopping at a café in town that has wifi to check messages, we set out on the well signed Route des cettes (whatever a cette is!).  The trail goes along small roads and across the hills along farm roads and walking paths.  It provided beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and of the town of Lautrec which perches on the side of a steep hill.  It also went by a race that was going on for cyclists (road and mountain) and runners and for hikers.   We passed at least 50 hikers.  At the end of the race everyone was getting a lunch of lentils and a big grilled sausage, bread, a potato dish, and a pastry.  Kronenberg beer had a tent for beverages.

The race in Lautrec

LOTS of snails, on fennel

The roughest part of the walking path

View of Lautrec

lizard on an old stone wall

Center of Lautrec

Many doors had a small sheaf of grass tied on

We walked around the picturesque medieval part of Lautrec looking for lunch, but all the restaurants were booked or had run out of food.  Just outside of downtown though we stopped a brasserie with a nice outdoor patio and friendly service.  Our young waiter broke into pretty good English, but then somehow Spanish came up so we started speaking in Spanish.  The other waitress spoke Portuguese so I tried that out too to both our amusement.  Their mastery of three languages was better than mine.  I had a pizza with a thin crust and better cheese than the average pizza and Jake got a salad. We passed on the special of the day – duck hearts.  In retrospect we really should have tried them just to see how one cooks a duck heart!

Back at the house we had a more conventional dinner of handmade pasta and sauce that we had picked up at the Saturday market.