Mr. Antonio Gaudi

No doubt about it. Barcelona is proud of Gaudi. Gaudi is Modernisme, a means for nationalism for the Catalans.

It's Gaudi everywhere. Gaudi here, Gaudi there, Gaudi behind you, and oh look Gaudi up there.

I didn't go to all the establishments, but here are some that I especially liked the lines and color. The first two below are from Gaudi's own house.


The inside of Sagrada Familia along with the first three of this post...


The famous exterior...


Two houses (Case Mila or "La Pedrera" and Casa Battlo) and a park (Park Guell)...

Spanish cafes and tapas

The nicest thing about European travel in the summer is eating/drinking out and reading in a completely non-stress cafe or eatery.


The best is to leave a city and visit an old castle. Lucky if there is a hilltop cafe! The Palador de Cardona was the most perfect setting. While reading on the breezy terrace all day long (there is a cafeteria on the 6th floor), they would leave you alone and just bring tea and water when you asked.


In the Old Town of Barcelona, there were also two nice cafes. One was hidden in a nice small plaza (Placa de Santa Just) that suddenly popped up after meandering into the small alley. It was called Bliss, and they had good gazpacho.

The other cafe that was even more peaceful was inside the museum MFM (you can reach this place through its courtyard). Their Aroma Tea was very nice. Good tea in continental Europe is sometimes hard to find, so it was a definite added bonus and well worth visiting twice.

As for tapas, there are tons in this town, but unfortunately none of them that had outside seats were that excellent in terms of food quality. My favorite was a place in Old Town that was most crowded and the food quality EXCELLENT.


It was around the corner from, and an alternative to the popular Cal Pep that was closed due to summer holiday, but I need a moment to remember the name! It probably specializes in Spanish ham but everything else was really good too.


On the way back to the hotel, there was a guitar concert so stopped by. Awww, Europe is nice...

Paradores

Honestly, the best thing in Spain are the Paradores. It's the best system ever to be invented and managed.

These are nationally owned hotels that have converted a former castle or a monestary into a hotel that is affordable and extremely plush. There are around 50 of these in Spain (also in Portugal that are called Posadas), of which I have already visited those in Granada and Malaga in Spain and Porto in Portugal.

This time it was in Cardona, which is 80 miles or less than 2 hours on a bus from Barcelona.

Paradores are always unpretentious and genuine, and this one no different. Having converted a 9th century fortress into a hotel, this was probably the oldest establishment I have ever stayed in.


Mind you, it is on a hill top and you do have to bring your own luggage up the hills. But the sense of achievement you feel at the top of the mountain (it does feel like you've climbed up Mt. Fuji when you reach the hotel entrance!), and the days to follow that you spend in this castle are just MAGNIFICO.

Please try to pay a visit if you ever get a chance to be near any of these establishments...

Cahor Wine

Cahor was one of the town closeby from Martignac. We visited a very nice winery, guided by a Scottish who aspired to make a vinyard in Scottland but decided to be smart and come to France. He gave us a generous portion of wine tasting (like 10 glasses!) so we bought a generous amount of bottles.

It was such a nice day.


Their major export bottle is called Probus which is 80% Malbec and some Merlot that I liked, but I bought back the Black Wine and a sweet white wine.

The story behind Black Wine is that it's made the same way as from midieval time like in the picture below, in particular the fermentation process. It tastes quite soft while the aroma is that of a very nice Malbec... and obviously it looks quite black hence the name.


The sweet white wine I bought back is named Moelleux Du Clos made like an aperitif wine. Fermentation is done under a low temperature so that the sugar level is maximized. Both black wine and this white wine I think are very girly drinks, which goes well with my taste.

I like that French wine will not allow adding contents and processing (sugar, vinegar, etc.), and it's all about the soil of the grapes. It's very old school, and this vinyard too had roses planted at the end of the rows of grapes so as to quickly notice any changes with the soil.


I think many have an impression of Malbec being Argentinian, but the Scottish man told me that in a competition Argentinian wine compares nothing to these Cahor wine. It also occured to me that there is generally much greater acknowledgement from abroad for Bordeaux wine in this area, which I thought makes Cahor wine less proud and diligent wineries.

Small Church Across the Street

Just across the street from the beautiful summer house, you can take a walk and visit a small church.


This also is from the 13th or 14th century, with beautiful fresco paintings on the wall.


The absolutely beautiful thing is that they have pink flowers from their garden everywhere inside, and the subtle aroma can make you completely relaxed and happy.

Life from a Magazine

This summer, my friend Suiko and I stayed at Suiko's aunt's summer house in Martignac, which is in between Toulouse and Bordeaux in the wine country of France.

As it is becoming somehwat more common in the country side of France, this is another foreigners' town, with many from the neighboring England where they like anything old. Indeed, some part of this house too, is from the 13th century.



The house stood on top of a hill overlooking a meadow (a real meadow! when do you ever get to use this word!).


I must say, living a French life in this beautiful house absolutely exceeded my imaginary princess life expectations...

French Food Porn!

I am entirely stealing the title from Anthony Bordaine. But I can't help it.


These were mostly from the market around the corner from where I spent the first half of my summer in Martignac in the south west of France.


The luscious breakfast...


Everyday was a feast! If the market wasn't open, the Michelan star restaurants certainly were. How juicy the peaches were! How much foie gras there were! How little restraint there was!