Exploring Llançà

Armed with a little map of the town, we set off yesterday evening to explore the old town and the new port of Llançà. After checking out the Church of St Vincent and the Roman tower in the old town square, we wandered down to the sea and the newer port area, where we planned to have dinner. In fact, half of the restaurants hadn't opened yet for the summer season, most would only be opening at 8 pm anyway, and some of the prices looked considerably beyond our budget. We wandered back to the old town, did our supermarket shopping, and then had dinner in a charming little garden restaurant in the old part of town. We struck it lucky again, and I got into conversation with a French couple at the next table; they were from Lille in the north of France (where I worked as an English teacher for a year in 1979 - '80) and they make the 12-hour drive down here every year to their holiday home in Llançà. When I asked them if they could tell us anything about a local bus service to Port de la Selva, the next little fishing village along the coast, they quickly offered to drive us there this afternoon. (Carmelita is beginning to be very impressed with the friendliness of French tourists. For my part, I've always enjoyed the French, and find them to be very open and chatty if you're able to speak their language.)

This morning, I slipped out into a chilly wind and managed to catch the sunrise at 6 am. Now, however, our balcony (middle floor of the blue shuttered house in the photo) is bathed in strong sunlight that helps to compensate for the strong prevailing wind. I've discovered that the local Catalan people have 33 different words for "wind" - ranging from the tramuntana (the icy northern wind that sweeps down from the Pyrenees) to the ponent (the powerful west wind that we're experiencing this week.) Any of the winds can blow for several days at a time, combining with the rugged rocky coastline to give the Costa Brava (the wild coast) its name. I'm hopeful, however, that today's sunshine will be sufficient to overcome the cooling effect of the wind, and that I can have a swim in the sea again this afternoon.