There was rice cooked in half a kilo of saffron. There was rabbit, chicken, goat's cheese, pears, walnuts, smoked bacon the like of which I have barely dreamed of. There was sun. There was Marina Alta - a local white that sails close to Alsace but tastes less like a packet of Refreshers and strangely evaporates in the glass so you need to order another. There were butter beans that tasted of real butter. There was a pool. There was a giant spider, binoculars hanging from the wall and a walking stick dangling from the window bars. There was a cortado coffee that I swore had chocolate in it but did not. Even the small glass it came in was perfect.

And yet, something was missing.

Ahhh...


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