Letha and Oscar head to Catalunya, driving through France along the way, and follow the trip up with three days in Nice - sounds like a really interesting area, enjoy:

Spain-Catalunya: Dali and Garrotxa

Thanks Letha.

Letha, thank you so much for writing this great report. Much of this will be helpful for my upcoming trip in September (well, October before we get to that area!) I LOVED your description of the local bar with the fabulous food! These experiences are so wonderful, especially when they cost almost nothing! We just don't get 4 course meals with wine and coffee and desserts for 14 or 12 euro in the U.S. - not even if we buy the stuff and make it ourselves!

I also love the story about Can Cruanyes and how you left them money even though it was not expected - but after they left you the welcome basket, how could they even be making anything on what they initially charged you?

I am glad you had a good time and I like the way you and Oscar travel.

Shannon, please feel free to e-mail me if you need any additional information--and be sure to eat at least at one of the Garrotxa restaurants--they are listed at the Garrotxa Tourism website I linked in the resources. Some are more pricy than other but the Oliveras in Besalu is a winner for food, ambience and price.

Yes it is amazing that Donny and Shiobhan were not expecting to make anything from our stay..I will do a review of the place...

Letha, it would be wonderful if you could do a few restaurant reviews too.

You've also reminded me - I really need to get cracking and start studying Catalan. At least the basics... my mom is already studying.

Letha, I enjoyed your detailed trip report. It makes me want to get to that area and spend time.
What are the basics that make up the Garrotxa cuisine?
kathyk

Letha

I loved reading your trip report. Anything to remind me again of Nice and Barcelona. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Sandy

Hi Kathy,

The food itself is actually faily simple--at least the stuff we had--lots of green leafy salads, mushrooms (ceps), spinach leeks etc. Beans. On the meats, the speciality seems to be pork, a lot of cured meats, fish of course and snails is actually a speciality (cargols). We have had snails as an appetizer in Burgundy and other places in France etc. but here it is a main dish where you get a plate heaped with baked snails--not a favorite of mine, we had it just once and it was not intentional--that was how we realized that cargols meant snails :-) But we saw people enjoying them everywhere. In his autobiography, Salvador Dali says it is his favorite dish.

More than the ingredients, it is the unique freshness and taste of the food grown on the volcanic soil. When you walk the volcanic trails, it teases your eyes and nose. The colors and the smells are amazing from the soil to the vegetation to the flowers... In fact, we were walking in Besalu around 7:00 PM when people were ging home after shopping for dinner produce, and I kid not, you could smell the earth from the produce in their baskets as they passed you.

Yes Sandy, I too relive my trips when reading someone else's trip report..