Roses and Cap de Creus

I have a disclosure to make here. I more or less live in Roses. That is to say, I sold my house in Ireland and bought an apartment here and that is as far as the plan goes. My dream is a plot of brown earth in West Cork sprouting floury potatoes, but as I can’t afford that now without selling this place I spend most of my time here. Girona is the local airport and Michael O’Leary is king of Girona airport and so this little place I had never heard of feels like the hub of the airborne universe. I only hope to God that when Michael bows out to look after his Angus bulls that the whole thing doesn’t fall apart. But the world is falling apart anyway and 2010 may be your last chance to see Europe for Luas fares. If all we are facing is a reversion to healthier living, then you will want to get to know this place.

Walking, Gastronomy, Roses Blues, Jazz and Gospel Festival

Roses Blues, Jazz and Gospel Festival

I am going to start with this, because it fixes the holiday in time. This festival is held in July, and July is the month the 23 km bonnet to boot line of French traffic crawls over the border to take over this part of the Northern Costa Brava. It is held inside the walls of the massive 16th century Citadel or the town theatre and you are not going to have to run a gauntlet of 40 bouncers and handlers to get in. For about €25 (in 2008 - ALL CONCERTS FREE IN 2009!!) you can pick two out of three days to attend the main evening concerts, as well as dropping in on free sessions around town. The evening concerts will run end to end from 7.00pm to 1.00 or 2.00 am or longer and the ambience is pure, old fashioned, spell-bindingly good music presented without too much, or indeed any, stage froth. I saw two of the best gospel choirs I ever heard, one American-style and the other African-style, a Malian supergroup, a Mississippi blues singer, Catalan jazz combo and the product of a 2-day harmonica workshop on two successive balmy nights, where you could move your chair to any place you liked on the packed earth and sip a €2 beer served from a string of kitchen tables. It was pure magic. This is heavily subsidised by the Municipality as a service to tourism, but as with many cultural events in Catalonia, you suspect that they would do it for themselves anyway and the audience is probably about half and half. If I was anywhere outside of a hospital bed, I would try and get to Roses for this event.

Walking

It is possible to do this holiday without a car, but having a car is better. Car hire is so cheap in Spain, as compared with France for example, and petrol is very reasonable too. A small car (which is all you want for the kind of travelling you’ll be doing here) will cost less than a €100 inclusive of collision damage, insurance (unless you are planning to cross into France, for which there is an extra premium) for a week.

Roses sits on the southern edge of the square peninsula that defines the 25,000 acre Cap de Creus National Park. The park extends a further 7,500 acres offshore, and the absence of fishing and of any major water flows off land into the sea along this coast contribute to the crystal purity of the waters. The narrow ribbon of old smugglers’ coastal path rarely leaves the cliff edge all the way to France if you are hardy. In May the park is awash with rock roses, baby irises, hyacinths and bright rock flowers. In winter blue flowering rosemary and thyme take over and lean brown cows wander the hills. This is also mushroom picking season and I have collected king boletes on the side of unfrequented roads near pine trees, although serious mushroom territory would be further inland. There are literally scores of well marked walks that take in hills, coastal path, Neolithic remains (dolmens and standing stones mostly).

 








 





Gastronomy
I was somewhat surprised to discover this aspect of the northern Costa Brava area. But then I didn't know that Costa Brava means 'wild coast' (some of the maddest weather I have seen anywhere) or even that it was where it was. I didn't know Girona was the richest province in Spain (And Michael O'Leary is king of Girona airport). I didn't know the lip couch was designed by Salvador Dali. Hadn't ever heard of Roses. Hadn't ever heard of El Bulli ('probably the best restaurant in the world'). In fact the Emporda/ Costa Brava has a something of a gastronomic reputation and Catalans are conscious and proud of it. Figueres onions, bacon, all the squid and squidgy things from the sea, mushrooms, all have rituals associated with the finding and picking and cooking and eating of them. Catalans are mushroom mad. They eat course after course of sea dishes on Christmas Day. The array of bacon products is spectacular.

El Bulli serves 26 dishes of a fixed menu (for a fixed price) conceived, created, lyophilised and manifested by Ferran Adria and his team of chefs during a six month creative fest every winter and served up the following summer at his unvarnished white vanilla sea shore restaurant just a few miles north of Roses in the Cap de Creus National Park. Out of a million reservation requests made at a fixed date in spring, seven thousand bookings are accepted for the year. For August you must wait three years and the helicopters going overhead in summer are not, as a friend thought, on sea rescue duty, but ferrying diners to and fro from El Bulli. But for all that, you can go down to the door of the place and read or photograph the menu and peer in the kitchen window if you have a mind to, or have a tuna sandwich on the beach in front of it, or walk right past the low sea wall of it on the coastal path on your way towards Cadaques, or France.

The wines of Northern Catalonia benefit from the dry tempest that is the Tramontana wind that comes down a bottleneck from the mountains below the eastern Pyrenees. I am going to quote a piece here from 'Chris' at PJ Wine, about a wine from Marti Fabra's vineyards in St Climent de Sescebes a little inland, without permission from anyone concerned, only because I don't have the vocabulary - I just like what I like - but clearly the vocabulary is out there.

Also I spent a morning tasting wine there with two friends after one of them said Robert Parker had listed one of the Fabra wines among the best 100 in Spain. We had a great time and Marti Fabra wasted a morning explaining everything to us without seeming concern for the small purchases we might make and he gave a free bottle of wine to the one who could speak Spanish. Anyway here is what Chris says on the PJ Wine website:

Formerly known for rosés (rosados), Empordà-Costa Brava is quickly building a reputation for its modern-styled reds and whites, which feature bold, bright, full-bodied fruit. One such red is the outstanding 2001 “Masia Carreras” from Celler Martí Fabra... The 2001 “Masia Carreras” is made from 50% Garnacha, 35% Cariñena, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Tempranillo and 5% Syrah...The wine features an expansive, complex nose of black currants, crushed red and black cherries, cured ham, and herbs. The attack and mid-palate show explosive, ripe fruit with layers of blackberry and wild cherry flavors, enhanced by rosemary and mineral notes.

So you see: ham, herbs, rosemary. See how it is coming together.

Perelada, a little further inland and just 7 kms from Figueres, was once the home of French Carolingian counts and is today the home of the famous Perelada Cava, of which I raided this from the K&L Wine Merchants website (Thanks!):

Castillo de Perelada Cava is the Cava of kings. No, it literally is. This is what "El Rey"serves at all official state functions. After tasting it, I could see why. The winery owns most of their vineyards and uses all three of the traditional, indigenous Cava grape varieties: Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel-Lo, all grown in the region's chalky soil. Bright citrus aromas, in particular a lovely tangerine note, all stand out on the nose. Similarly zippy and fresh flavors on the palate cut a lively impression and would make for a wonderful toasting cava or a delicious sparkler to have on hand for all seasons.

Lots and lots more that I haven't said. I should mention though that Perelada has much more to offer than wine, notably a summer festival of opera, jazz, flamenco concerts at the mid-town medieval castle, which also houses a casino, glass museum, wine museum and library of 80,000 books, including 1,000 multilingual editions of Don Quixote. It is all open to the public.

Haven't even mentioned Cadaques, the Dali Triangle, inland, upland...