4 Friends in PV

May halfterm. Maria and I arrive first by Ryanair to find a warm, balmy evening, a little cloudy, but the air full of floral smells and a welcoming deep sleep away from the pace of London. Next day, Kate & Penny arrive via Eurostar and TGV, and so begins our holiday. Maria sums it up well on our return,

Seven days
Four friends
Twenty one meals
Ninety one steps
A hundred kisses.

I don't remember that we had time for a 100 kisses, we were too busy sleeping, reading, debating, walking, swimming, cooking, lounging, gardening, browsing, and eating, eating, eating.
Best meal inhouse was fried gambas with garlic and coriander served piping hot with Siloe wine.
Best meal eaten house was definitely our first meal at the Tramontane. Croissants for breakfast with some of our smashed mulberries were pretty good too.

The weather was perfect: warm enough to enable a swim, sometimes twice daily, and yet changeable enough so that we had some cool cloud cover to enable deep sleeps/naps and comfortable walks. The garden looked great and was unusually verdant for this time of the year because it has been an unusually damp spring perhaps.

Missing my garden in France

A cold, dank, dismal day in London and I'm missing my garden in France. Roll on summer holidays when we can laze on the beach, pluck plums, figs and grapes in the garden, sipping fragrant Siloe wine as the little garden lizards dart amongst the rocks. At Easter we usually go out to do a spring clean and wrestle the garden back into shape but I might make it out during February halfterm this year; even if the February weather is a bit apocalyptic, there is always the views to soak up, the air, the food.

Early Bookings for 2009

We've already had considerable interest and 3 weeks bookings for 2009, which is very early for us. I thought there might be some fall off for 2009 with the current state of affairs, but who knows, perhaps the election of Mr. Obama has spread a sense of optimism far and wide.

Michael, from New York, stayed with us in August and has sent some lovely photos of the area and views of the harbour that he took on our big hike up Cap Bear. Thanks to Michael, I returned from Port Vendres this summer incredibly fit: we hiked miles and probably doubled our swimming routine. It all seems a far cry from our rather sedentary life here in London....

Lili's August 2008 fashion shoot: Joy in the Harbour

Very Warm October: Feedback 2008

Its been a busy autumn, with family and friends coming and going to Port Vendres.
We just received this very positive feedback from a family that made a last minute booking and stayed the first week of October 2008:

"We enjoyed the Garden Apartment very much. We had a wonderful week. The

house is located calm, but very central. Shops and restaurants are nearby.

The apartment is very cosy and has much atmosphere (we say this in German, I

don’t' know if it's correct in English). We felt ourselves at home.

Our children love your DVD-collection!

Our whole family can imagine staying again in Port Vendres.

Thank you very much for being your guest in the Garden Apartment,

Bettina, Uli, Lisa, Julian and Nils"

Good feedback like this makes me very happy. Holidays are important, goodness knows we all need one, and its very very hard to have a family holiday and satisfy everyone's needs - I know that from my own experience. We think Port Vendres has something to offer for young children through elders, and it seems that our rentors think so too.

Meanwhile in London the glorious Annie Leibowitz photographic exhibition has just opened at the National Portrait Gallery: very moving experience, a must-see.

Fashion shoot summer 2008

Feedback from our German Guests in August/Early September

This is Yoko and Joy in the garden, summer hols August 2008. After we left we had German rentors stay for 13 days who left the following feedback:

Dear Karla
thamk you for your welcome back email. After an exhausting journey by train (through France) and by plane from Basel I found myself back in Berlin where weather is cold and cloudy. That makes one difference to Port Vendres.

We all enjoyed the pleasant stay in your lovely Garden Apartment. Most of the time we where outside that means on the beach (most times the smaller one in Paulilles) or on a trip in the region (St. Martin, Perpignan, vineyards around, Peyrepertuse, Gorges de la Fou and so on but the rest of the time we loved to sit on the wooden terrace and had a good time there with comfortable temperatures (only the last two evenings of our stay were to cold for eating outside in the evening).

We love the expanding view over the harbour, the hills around Port Vendres and the Pyrenees.

The highlight of our holidays was the menu and wine tasting in Clos de Paulilles what we can recommend with a lot enthusiasm.


Best wishes from me and on behalf of my friends Tina, Barbara, Thomas, Steffen and Felice (our three year old little princess)

Marco

Latest Guest feedback from late July 2008

We had a Norwegian family of 5 stay with us in late July 2008 and here is their feedback:

"Hello Karla. Thank you for letting us stay in your apartment this summer. We had a great 14 days with lovely weather, great food, nice beaches and a lot of “action” in the village.
The village was cozy and had what we needed for a pleasant stay, but parking spots scarce! I will write later and upload some photos to your blog– and by the way thank you for returning the deposit so quickly." Oyvind N

Its true, parking spots are scarce in height of summer in Southern France. Generally the neighbours have fairly regular schedules however- everything stops for lunch, so not a good time to come back and park up, but late afternoon you can often find a spot outside the house. If you cannot, just double park and unload then look for a spot on the side roads that run off of Rue Louis Pasteur - the road that runs into our square.

July 2008

Things are coming to a halt in London at last, and we are all looking forward to our departure to Port Vendres in August..

Reviews: Good for Children!

I heard from Evelyne, our housekeeper today, that the temperature had reached 30c. This must make my neighbours very happy. Its been a changeable spring with more rain then usual. The Catalans like the heat and we expect some extra warmth on the fruit at this time of the year. Tamara from London stayed in June, with friends and two small children and she just sent us this feedback on her stay:

Dear Karla,

Just wanted to let you know we had a fantastic holiday in Port Vendres and we all loved your house. My elder son, Alex (aged 4), loved all the bits & pieces in the house and seeing the boats out of the kitchen window. Thanks also for all the info you sent on the local area. It was great to have some insider knowledge.

Kind regards,

Tamara

N.B: People often refer to the apartment as a 'house' and I don't think this is by accident because the apartment has a very complete feel about it, and it is pretty large - for an apartment, plus we have a HUGE private garden. We are also getting more and more families with small children coming to stay and the feedback from them is overwhelmingly positive.

Dutch Visitors in April

We had a family of four from Holland stay during April, and received photo and feedback from their visit:

"Dear Karla, Just a quick note to thank you for the super week we had in Port-Vendres!

Most of the days sunny, superb "apartment", nice location, also the kids really enjoyed it!

Thanks a lot again!" M & E H, Holland.

Easter in Port Vendres

Dan and Lili were in Port Vendres again this Easter, and this time, Annelise came to visit and to paint and sketch. Dan took down and set up the new single bed in the triplex bedroom at the front of the apartment - this is a super duper large single which easily sleeps two children and one large adult. With Annelise's help, a lot of work was done on getting the garden back into shape and we now also have a new gardener - Frank. Dan's sister Carol, her husband and two children, flew over from Canada to stay at the Garden Apartment in March 2008 and had this to say about their stay:

"Dear Karla, we had a great time in Port-Vendres. We absolutely loved the area -sufficiently off the beaten track, yet large enough to have great restaurants, services, etc. We couldn't have asked for a better vacation. Your apartment and garden are beautiful and very comfortable. We had many relaxing hours cooking dinners and hanging around your place. Evelynne was very kind. Everything was clean and tidy when we arrived, and hopefully we left it as tidy as we found it. Thank you so much for everything."

Carol reminded me to tell people that they have to enter Place Belieu, using the map we provide, via the higher elevation, i.e. from the Obelisk end of the harbour. Also to mention that there is a light switch right outside the main door - very useful for late arrivers during the late winter months /early spring when it might still be dark. Carol also left us a great new cookery book which we hope everyone enjoys.

Fireworks!!

Two great fireworks displays bracket the summer in Port Vendres and Collioure. On Bastille Day, July 14th, Port Vendres hosts a superb fireworks display launched from barges in the mouth of the harbour. The second one takes place at the commencement of the 3 day party in Collioure to celebrate the feast of St. Vincent, around about August16-18th.

More Photos from Charles

From the glorious produce available on the Quay Forgas to huge range of fantastically fresh fish: go shopping, light up the BBQ....enjoy!

More feedback summer 2007

In June, Charles O. from Norfolk stayed at the Garden Apartment and sent us this feedback and some great photos as well:

"All went well and we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday. Although we like
being near the sea (for the air and the fresh fish) we¢re not particularly
after beaches so your lovely garden was an absolute bonus. We spent two or
three days just enjoying the sun, the shade and the view without going
out at all.

The tiny plums (or are they edible crabs) were tasty and we wished the figs had been big enough to eat. The house was very well equipped. The only thing I couldn't find were
secateurs because I would have given the roses a light prune to encourage
more flowering. There were occasional showers so nothing dried out but we
did put waste water on some of the newer shrubs.
We were delighted with Port Vendres and were very pleased we were there
rather than the neighboring costal villages. PV has the right scale and is
a busy working community that we found appealing.

Evelyne certainly is a treasure and full of information. She arrived with
her daughter just after we arrived and she was also there when whe left so
I gave her the keys directly. She was very tolerant of our version of
French and it was good to talk at some length. Evelyne, the wine and
flowers that we found on arrival, and your written information all made us
feel most welcome."

Summer 2007 latest feedback

Eleanor H. (Germany/UK) - stayed in the Garden Apartment for 9 days in mid-May and gave us this feedback:

"Hello Karla
We had a wonderful time in Port Vendres, and are in fact considering trying to raise the funds to buy somewhere nearby. Port Vendres is a verypleasant place, and we found it had a very real air about it, not pretentious at all and very much alive.
The apartment was great, it was lovely to have a bottle of wine brought in
by Evelyne and some flowers. She was fantastic and very helpful. There
was everything we needed, I was delighted to find some of that wonderful hot
smoked paprika in the handy spices box - not a lot of people know
about it and it told us a deal about your cooking habits when you're there!
Fabulous."

The harbour, and a little history.

Port Vendres, the 3rd deepest port in France, still lands more fish than any other place on this stretch of coast. In the 19th century it bustled with colonial trade and ferries from North Africa, today it is also a yachting harbour and often there are cargo boats here too. When the trawlers lamp-lit fighing boats and tuna fishing boats return each day between 4:30pm and 6pm, you can watch them unload and auction the catch on the dock at the far end of the harbour.

Port Vendres is located just a few yards from Collioure on the road which goes along the sea in te direction of Spain (half an hour away). In antiquity, Port Vendres was a stopover for the Greek and Roman boats connecting the city of Agde to the Hispanic coast. Its name "Port of Venus" comes from the Latin name "Portus Veneris"and was adopted from Romans who built a temple to the glory of Venus here. In the 13th century, under the reign of the Kings of Aragaon and Majorca, Port Vendres was an important commercial port - notably Perpignan draperies and Roussillon wines. Under the reign of King Louis XIV it became a naval base, thanks to the king's architect, Vauban. Louis XVI englarged the pot and built the Royal place with its fountains and its pink marbled obelisk, with a sphere surmounted by a lily flower. On the other side of the port, the Cap Bear and lighthouse offer a panoramic view of Port Vendres.

Small Footprint On The Planet

Approximately half of our guests fly to our holiday home, either arriving in Perpignan (40 minutes away by car, 20 minutes away by train), or across the Spanish border to the medieval city of Girona (1 hour by car), or begin their holiday with a few days in Barcelona (2 hrs by car or 3 hrs if you take the scenic coastal route). Other guests have found inexpensive flight connections to the walled city of Carcassone (approx 2hrs away to the north) and some from the United States fly to Paris, where they might take a stopover, then take direct flight down to Perpignan.

If you are concerned about the impact of airtravel, there are other options. More and more of our guests are taking the train to Port Vendres. For approx £110 roundtrip you can pick up a train at Waterloo station, London at about 8:15am, change once at Lille at around lunchtime, and arrive in Perpignan by about 7pm. Then you change to the local coast train, and 20 minutes later arrive in Port Vendres. Our apartment is 12-15 minute easy walk from the train station, downhill most of the way, and with relatively few steps (for this very steeply stepped town!). While in Port Vendres you can take the local buses up and down the coast. This year, one set of guests are taking the train from Barcelona to Port Vendres (changing trains at the Spanish border, Port Bou/Cerbere).

Alternatively you can take your car on one of the ferries and drive down. My brother does the Callais to Port Vendres trip in 11 1/2 hrs - but he is an exceptionally good driver. We've taken the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo which leaves us with approximately 9 hrs drive to Port Vendres. I tend to take the Dover-Callais ferry, and allow a leisurely 2-3 days to drive down with the children, enjoying the scenery on the backroads, staying at local campsites. Last summer I allowed 6 days to drive up to Callais, chosing campsites that were scenic and had good restaurant/cafes and it was one of the best road trips I've ever taken with the family.

For further information on trains go to http://www.seat61.com

Our Lady of Good News

La Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle, or Our Lady of Good news, stands guard over the fishing and diving boats at the Vieux Port towards the harbour’s northern end. With its inset statues of Saints it is pleasingly plain with the odd gothic hint, painted a coral colour and topped-off by beautiful, almost Islamic, blue dome.

Frankie

This is a photo of Frankie Purja, our dear friend and neighbour, taken in his home on Rue Louis Pateur, in autumn - apparently while in mid-song! I met Frankie the first summer we stayed in Port Vendres, and he has become one of our dearest friends. You will find his name and number on the shutter door in case of emergencies. He speaks pretty good English, learned as a boy in Algeria from the Americans who liberated Algeria from the Germans during WWII. Frankie is one of the kindest people we have ever met. You will see him traipsing around the port, redistributing all the 'finds' he picks up - green bananas from the huge banana boats, fresh sardines from his brother-in-law, a lamp, chair or old TV that he thinks would suit your home. In the summer he'll often have one of his many grandchildren in tow, or his lovely wife Louisa. Louisa is a fantastic cook but is also the best advice on any local remedy for almost any ailment you might get.

A Very Warm December 2006

We got away to Port Vendres the first week of December 2006, and it was a balmy 70 degrees and sunny. All the roses were in bloom on the upper terraces and we ate outside most days. Dan started weeding and watering the terraces, starting with the bottom one with the Oleanders and fledgling Olive tree. Its quiet at night along the coast in winter, but Port Vendres is a busy working port and still buzzes by day. At 6pm most evenings we'd head down to the fish port to the wet bar for oysters, shrimp, chilled white wine. Leaving Perpignan airport to return to the madness of Christmas preparations in London, we caught a spectacular sunset over Canigou mountain (above) - living up to its name as the spiritual heartland of Catalonia. The family were waiting for the treats we bought back: Banjuls appertif wine, anchovies, chestnut spread, chocolate covered nougat, and homemade hazelnut- embedded salami from the saturday morning market in Port Vendres.

Baby in Port Vendres

It's been awhile since I updated this journal about our home in the south of France, been a busy time at work and with the family. But I do want to backtrack a bit and mention the Scandinavian guests we had during the last two weeks September. Siv came with her husband and 8 week old baby - the youngest person to stay in the Garden Apartment! During that time there was a fierce storm and I wondered how that affected their holiday. Siv wrote:
" Dear Karla,
oh yes, we had a real storm, but it was facinating. We went to Andorra for two days during the storm, so we didn't suffer. Thank you for a pleasent stay in your appartement in Port Vendre. We enjoyed it!! We allready miss lovely breakfasts out door! Siv, Jermund and Linnea".

I know what Siv means about the storms, when they do blow up they're very dramatic, perched as we are, between the mountains and the sea, high up on our rock above the harbour. What a good idea to visit Andorra. Thats a trip I haven't made yet, mainly because we tend to go north of apartment in winter for ski trips. Dan and I are off to the apartment on 29th November for 6 days for a little peace and tranquility before the madness of the holiday season takes over. We'll be just in time to celebrate the beautiful Louisa's 70th birthday.

Picking fruit in September

September 2006, there were stil a few dozen plums on the tree and the fig was covered in sweet, dark fruit. This is the time of the Vendage, when everyone is busy gathering in the grapes on the hillside. There seemed to be a lot of flies this year, and my neighbour thought perhaps it was because it was a very sweet cropping year for the Vendage. To reduce the number of insects in the garden, I picked all the remaining plums and a lot of the figs. Plums went to Suzanne who made a German plum cake, and to Louisa who makes vast quantities of confiture. The figs are just devoured for they reach the kitchen door. I also left out a fly trap as directed by Louisa - small containe with sweet syrup water inside, this, along with the fruit picking, seemed to help, but as I discovered later, the fly problem had nothing to do with the fruit or the Vendage: an old, feral, cat had died at the back of the garden. When I told my neighbour, Mickail, that I had found the source of the flies, he immediately denied any part in poisioning it!! Stephane tells me that when he was young, neighbours routinely did away with feral cats and stray kittens. I thought of the multitude of cats, foxes & squirrels that cross my back garden in London, relatively safe and secure. Within a matter of days, the garden became free of Les Mouches, but we have only just begun to enjoy the plum jam from Louisa.

Taking Public Transport?

Public transport from Perpignan to Port Vendres is easy and cheap: roundtrip/return=19.80 euros in total for bus and train (approx £12.00). ON ARRIVAL: Take bus (the Navette) waiting outside arrivals at airport to train station- 10 minute bus trip. Train to Port Vendres leaves at 5:25pm and at 7:18pm. WHAT TO DO TO FOR 2 HOURS IN PERPIGNAN? Lots of boutiques, restaurants and cafes in old town to while away your time, have an aperitif etc. Allow 30 minutes to walk there and back - don't want to miss your train, there may not be another one that night! TRAIN stops: Perpignan-Elne-Argeles-Collioure-PORT VENDRES (25 mins). Apartment is 10-15 mins walk away (use map I will send you). RETURNING: Double check train/bus times. Train to Perpignan leaves Port Vendres approx 12:40pm. Navette from outside Perpignan train station leaves for airport approx 4pm.

Photos of living room

Photos of bedrooms

Photos of bathroom

Photos of the Kitchen

A Video of the Region (Pyrenees Oriental)

http://www.panosphere.org/cdt66/film2

Availabilty

See availability chart

More garden views

This is a 'before' picture of the top terrace on the garden - adjacent to the wooden terrace. This is how it use to look. Now we tend to dine on this terrace, and it is framed by a pergola with grapevine. More pictures to come...

Garden Views

Next door to our home is a little primary school which bears the legend "Liberté, égalité, fraternité". This view is taking from the garden steps, just after you pass under the cherry tree, looking west to the school and the low mountains beyond.

There are so many roses in the garden and something is always in bloom. On Christmas Day 2003 it was 70f and I was clipping the white roses to take to dinner.

Roses, Oleanders, Olives, Cherry, Plum, Lemons, Figs, Grapes, Apples, Apricots, Mulberry & Pears

This is a photo from 2002. When I started work on the garden it already had a large established plum tree (that produces both yellow and purple plums in July/August), an ancient but very sweet fig tree (August/September), and a cherry tree whose fruit gets eaten by the birds in May. There was also an espaliad pear, lots of apples, a mulberry and as we later discovered, a fabulous apricot tree.

Since then I've added an olive and two lemons trees and lots of herbs. A grape self seeded in a perfect spot for a pergola, and produces plentiful bunches of sweet black grapes.

May and June gets very few visitors to the garden, which is a shame because so much is in bloom and the weather is brilliant. It also means the garden doesn't get watered at a key time of the year, so we are devising a solar watering system (since sun is dependable here) to keep everything thriving.

I can only garden here intermittently, so somethings give up the ghost and shrivel away, while others fail to thrive. But in the main, the garden is full of plants that can survive a bit of drought, wind, and strong sunshine, and fertile but shallow soil over rock.

Succulents

All kinds of succulents and cacti grow and flower in the garden.

Entrance from the square below:

The garden apartment is on the third floor of a traditional 'bourgeois' Catalan house on a square, 2 streets above the harbour. Built directly into the rock in the late 1890s, only our top floor apartment has a garden. In fact we have two gardens! There is a large wooden terrace surrounded by flowers, herbs, roses & large plum tree directly in front of the french doors/entrance to the apartment (not shown in this photo). We also own the strip of terraced garden that runs adjacent to the apartment and the house, shown here in this photo. You enter via our garden gate in the square, and climb up through our terraced garden to the top level, pass across the wooden terrace and from there into the apartment.

This is one of the very few apartments in this area, so close to the sea, with such a large outdoor area. When its hot you want to be outside. But yes, there are a lot of stairs. In fact the whole town is full of steps and stairs - one of the reason everyone looks so healthy here - they regularly get a good workout!

Where is Port Vendres?

Port-Vendres (the Roman Portus Veneris), is the 3rd deepest port in France, lying in a sheltered inlet it is both a seaside resort as well as a fishing and commercial port with a Harbor which is now also used by pleasure boats. In the 17th C it was fortified by Vauban as a naval port, and still preserves the Fort du Fanal. To the east of the town Cap Béar reaches out to sea.

Welcome

Hello, this blog is about our garden apartment in the south of France. The apartment is in the Catalan town of Port Vendres, a fishing port adjacent to Collioure, about 30 minutes from the Spanish border. It is a picturesque place, still largely unspoiled, where the Pyrenees dip into the Mediterranean.

In the foreground of this photo is a traditional Catalan 'Barque' from across the harbour, looking towards the apartment: