I am back from holiday, a holiday of doing nothing but drinking wine and eating bread, cheese and lovely French and Catalan food in a sleepy little village about an hour from Perpignan.
Some highlights:
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| The view from the balcony |
This is the view of the Vingrau cliffs from the balcony. These cliffs look peachy-pink in the sunset and are even more spectacular close up. You can see eagles catching thermals round the cliffs and at the base there's an excellent Catalan restaurant called Lou Barrel.
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| Drain pipes with character |
In the village where we stayed there were a number of very entertaining drain pipes. This was my favourite - a slightly startled snake - but there were also some lovely lions
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| Vineyards |
We were in the Midi-Pyrenees which has a lot of vineyards some owned by big companies and some by village co-operatives. This one is at the bottom of the Vingrau cliffs stretching out into the valley. There are some lovely wines some of which can be found in the UK like Mont Tauch wines.
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| Wild harvest |
Everywhere we went there was wild harvest. Fennel and wild thyme grew all over the vineyards and up the mountains. On the side of the roads there were these amazing blackberries that were so sweet and juicy that we couldn't resist gathering up for eating later. In the carpark at the Chateau Aguilar we found these lovely ripe figs that were quite amazing. Foraged food in the sun is somehow better than food from a shop...
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| Mountain Goats |
As we flew with BMI Baby I couldn't take any knitting so this is the only vaguely knitting content to this blog post. We went for a drive (my husband likes the mountain roads far more than I do...) and followed a road that took us up Mont Tauch itself to see where the road went. Along the way we discovered signs for a mohair farm but as we were halfway up a mountain, and the sign led down a dirt track and we were in a Seat Leon we decided not to venture further. It was a beautiful day so what you can see behind the sign is actually cloud. And we were in a Seat Leon!
3 comments:
looks like you have had THE best relaxing time, lovely natural foods, and those funky drain pipes why cant we have those over here too LOL
I want! Wonder what the weather is like this time of year?
I've got a lovely recipe you can make from those there blackberries, courtesy of the wondrous bible that is the National Trust Book of Teatime Recipes. It's for Blackberry Tea Bread, a marvellously moist PINK cake. Too tasty! Will send you a picture :)
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