Catalonia

Last year, at about this time, we went to Girona with friends Sile and Martin in order to eat at El Cellar can Roca. We all enjoyed it so much, that we decided to repeat the trip and this year's destination was Corça, a small village not far from Girona and the restaurant was Bo.Tic. Bo. Tic had been recommended to us a few years ago when we were eating tapas in Callella de Palafugell. We found a very good B&B close by, Mas Vilosa which was enormous - it is a very interesting large house with an extensive garden with a swimming pool. Sadly, the water wasn't quite warm enough to swim.

Our hosts gave us plenty of information about the region which was useful for the following day, but for now, we went out to walk around the village of Corça.

We saw yellow ribbons all over the region, indicating support for the Catalan separatist movement.

Our hosts were kind enough to drop us off at Bo. Tic where we enjoyed a top quality meal - it really should have more than one Michelin star. See my photo journals for more photos of the exquisite dishes! Here we are with the chef.

On Thursday, after and excellent Catalan breakfast of tomato topped bread, cheeses and ham on the terrace, we set off to see nearby villages, suggested by our hosts.

We had visited other villages in the region earlier in the year and while very interesting, there had been many tourists. This time, our first stop was Monelles with its lovely arches. It is not unlike Peralata, which we saw in September, but very much less touristy.

The next stop was Púbol where Salvador Dali bought a castle for his wife, Gala in 1968. Púbol was busier than Monelles, with bus loads of teenage schoolchildren on a day out to the Dali museum. This is the church.

We had decided that our last stop would be L'Escale, but we passed Rupia on the way, where we saw we saw intricately decorated walls.

Some were decidedly past their best.

A river flows under the village

We Iunched at L'Escala in a busy restaurant in the town, then went down to the see front to see the band who were all wearing their yellow ties.

After a short walk along the sea

We set off for home but as soon as we got onto the French toll motorway to were halted for two hours in a long queue waiting for an accident to be cleared - well fed, with no commitments and friends on board the time soon passed.

There was a good sunset to photo with the Pyrenees (Canigou) in the background.