Costa Brava

The villages

Begur sits on a hill above the sea, with a ruined castle at the top and the colonial houses of men who came back rich from Cuba below it. Pals, ten minutes inland, is a walled medieval village above rice fields. Between them and the coast are pine woods, dry-stone terraces and masos, the stone farmhouses of the Empordà, many of them restored in the last twenty years.

Our Costa Brava office is on Passeig del Mar in Begur. Most of the homes we sell here are masos, villas on the slopes above the coves and village houses in Begur itself. Begur’s old centre is a knot of steep lanes around the church, and prices on the sea side of the hill are higher than inland, mostly because of the view.

The coves

Sa Riera, Aiguablava, Fornells and Sa Tuna are small coves cut into the rock below Begur. Sa Riera is the widest, with a sandy beach and a row of fishermen’s houses. Aiguablava has white sand and water clear enough to see the bottom at ten metres. Sa Tuna is a few houses and a jetty, and in winter it is almost empty. The camí de ronda, the old coast path, links them all.

The light

The tramuntana, the north wind, clears the sky for days at a time in winter, and the light afterwards is sharp enough to see the Pyrenees from the ridge. It also decides how much of the year a terrace can be used, so we note which ones are sheltered from it.

In summer the best hours are early. By eleven the sun is high and the water throws it back at the rocks. Most people here swim before ten and again after six, and spend the middle of the day indoors behind closed shutters.