Los fires de Sant Narcís

Makes a nice change to not stay at home. We headed to Girona for the weekend this morning, to enjoy the festival of patron Saint Narcís. The town is crowded for the festival, but unlike our awful experience last time we parked very easily in a large free car park on the edge of town. It’s a 20 minute walk from our airBnB, but it doesn’t really matter as we won’t need the car till we leave.

The “flat” is extremely basic, one room with a bathroom in a fairly tatty apartment block with a view into a gloomy internal light well. But it will do! Once settled in, we walked into town, had a wander round and a glass of celebratory cava at one of the bars in the Plaça de la Independencia while the procession of gigantes was setting up. When the giant figures set off, accompanied by a drum and pipe band we followed along for a while — it was loud! Many people had sensibly provided their children with ear defenders, including the little drummer boy in the extra.

Eventually we peeled off to go and meet S’s “language partner”, Quim, assigned to him by the council last summer as part of his Catalan learning efforts, for a drink. We went to a quiet bar where Quim and S chatted merrily in Catalan while I followed most of what they said, interjecting in Spanish from time to time.

From there, S and I headed off for dinner at a restaurant selected by S — he’s spent so much time in Girona that he has favourites. It was excellent - they were doing a special festival menu for 28 euros including three courses, wine, bread, and water. We were the lone diners when we arrived just after eight, but it soon filled up with large groups. We were most impressed by the excellent teamwork of both kitchen and waiting staff, smoothly and efficiently getting everyone served. It was a pleasure to watch.

Afterwards, a little stroll round town, which was buzzing with people eating and drinking on packed outdoor terraces. It’s quite exciting for us to be in a city. And then back to the flat. The end!