Off the beaten track European summer destinations are still possible to find. You need to look just beyond Europe’s obvious summer hotspots – the Cinque Terre, Côte d’Azur, Italian Lakes and so on – as sometimes Europe’s secret beaches, sleepy cities, quiet towns, and cool...
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We’ve been doing a bit of entertaining the last few days at Lara’s uncle’s house in Bendigo culminating me cooking a five-course meal yesterday for some of our old friends. It got me thinking about entertaining when you’re on holidays, particularly if you’re staying in...
Ceret’s scenic Saturday markets are one of the highlights of a visit to the village – people come from far and wide to browse them – and as last weekend was the first time the place had really experienced fine spring weather, the whole place was...
“That’s not from here, we make Catalan sausage! Catalan sausage is better!” exclaimed the butcher in Ceret when Lara asked for saucisse de Toulouse (Toulouse sausage), an ingredient of the classic Toulouse cassoulet recipe I was using for this series on The Dish. While the man...
Wherever we go on our grand tour we’re focusing on eating, drinking and buying local or regional products as much as possible, and that’s especially the case with wine. The Languedoc-Roussillon wines from the region of the same name are widely available in Ceret and they are...
Ceret may be a popular destination for art tourists, hikers and long-term holidaymakers, but there are no souvenir shops (thankfully) and aside from picking up some art from one of the galleries and buying beautiful Catalan textile products from La Bohème, there’s little to buy...
Located in a picturesque valley of fruit trees, surrounded by hills blanketed in green oak, and watched over by the white peaks of Canigou, it’s easy to understand how arty Ceret, our ‘home’ for two weeks, inspired so many artists to move here and paint its...
Walking is one of the most popular things to do in Ceret, so we asked local guide de pays Christian Piquemal to give us a taste of what makes walking in Ceret so special. The Hills are Alive with Catalan Culture and Cherry Blossoms A French-Catalan...
In the interests of bringing the fine season of Spring on with a rush — after all we’re already a few days into April — I’ve decided that this classic Salade Lyonnaise recipe should be a message to the weather gods. While checking out the markets...
A fashion designer who studied Fine Arts at Goldsmiths and Textile Design at Central St Martins in London, Coralie Scarnato moved to Ceret eight years ago and opened La Boheme, a boutique and atelier where she makes and sells her vibrant striped Catalan cloth products,...
Stroll around Ceret for a while and you’ll start to see stripes – Catalan stripes. These bold colourful lines seem to enliven everything here in the village from screens in bistros to pot-plants on windowsills, and even appear on plastic shopping bags. In boutiques and gift...
It wasn’t on the scale of the festivals we’d just experienced in Perpignan, but we were delighted to return from the city to our little village of Ceret to find the French Catalan community out in full force on Place Picasso doing a folk dance...
