South of France/ Northern Spain

Story by Karen Walker
Photos by Mikhail Gherman

I recently drove from Perpignon to Barcelona, not in a direct line but rather in a meandering, twisting, turning exploratory way. We went through the poplar lined country lanes of Southern France and Northern Spain, up and down the sand dunes of the Costa Brava, along eight lane freeways chocker with trans-European trucks and commuting locals, off-road through valleys of boulders, past hundreds of Spanish wheat fields lined with bright red poppies and finally through the foothills of the Pyrenees’ twisting turning roads lined with cork trees and bearing the tire marks of the annual Catalan Rally.

We clocked up 600 kms in just two days and it was a wonderful way to experience, for the first time, the countryside of France and Spain.

I was constantly amazed at how all those travel brochure clichés actually existed. The tiny little French villages with narrow winding streets inevitably had little boys walking home with baguettes under their arms, every field was golden with wheat (this is the part of the world the Romans used as their breadbasket for the entire Roman empire) or intensely bright with mustard. Every distant mountaintop seemed to have a grand and ancient fortress on it and the one we visited, towering over the French / Spanish boarder - the Fort de Bellegarde, dated back to 1285. The most thrilling part of the visit for me was driving over a real drawbridge across a real mote - just like in a childhood fairy tale.

In the middle of the afternoon the charming Spanish villages were all deserted as everyone disappeared for their siesta. Up in the mountains we passed valleys and hills of bright green grass and shady olive trees and the jersey cows were all having their afternoon siestas as well. The valleys and hills are steep and it’s impossible to see from one field to another so the cows all wear bells and as we snaked through the narrow mountain roads we could hear the cow bells echoing throughout the valleys and there was something so calming about the mood it created.

By late afternoon the villages were lit golden pink as the sun dropped and people reappeared for their evening strolls. The village buildings were all bright ochre and had red Spanish roses creeping over them.

The whole trip felt like we’d been driving through a series of paint-by-numbers images but there was something so delightful it all. I’d recommend this as a wonderful way to see France and Spain outside of the big cities.

Where To Stay

We stayed at the Mas de Torrent, a fancy lodge dating back to the 18th century. It’s rated as one of the best weekend getaway spots in the Costa Brava with sensational food.