Begur in the off season

From June to September Begur has several times its winter population. Then, in the second week of September, the town empties in a few days, and the people who live here all year get it back.

What stays open

More than you might think. The bakeries on the main square, two butchers, the weekly market, a pharmacy, the primary school and around a dozen restaurants open all year. Palafrugell, ten minutes away, has a covered market, the supermarkets and the medical centre. What closes is mostly the beach bars and the shops that sell straw hats. The doctor’s surgery in Begur opens on weekday mornings, and a school bus runs to the secondary schools in Palafrugell.

The pace changes more than the services. Shops close at one and open again at five, and on Sunday afternoon the town is silent. Newcomers notice it in the first winter and stop noticing it by the second.

In winter people here eat at home or at friends’ houses, walk the camí de ronda between the coves and drive to Girona for anything bigger. It is a different life from August, and the people who buy here for good usually prefer it.

The light from October to March

This is the best time to see a house on this coast. The sun is low, so it reaches deep into rooms that are in shade all summer, and after a day of tramuntana the air is clear enough to see the Medes Islands from the castle. Sunrise over the sea comes at a civilised hour, around eight in December, and you can watch it from bed.

Rain comes in a few heavy days in autumn and spring, not in long grey weeks. Between them most winter days are clear, and on terraces that face south people eat outside in January. Trees matter too: pines keep their needles, so a house in the woods stays shaded all year, while the oaks inland lose their leaves and let the winter sun through.

It is also the time to see a house’s faults. A terrace facing north-west, pleasant in July, takes the wind all winter. A garden on the land side of the hill can lose the sun at three. We take buyers out in January for exactly that reason.

Buying here for the whole year

If you plan to live here rather than visit, three things matter more than the view: heating that works without a log fire, a road that does not need a four-wheel drive after rain, and an internet connection that someone has tested rather than promised. Most of the newer houses have all three. Many older masos have none, and their prices reflect it. Check the water as well: some still rely on a well that can run low in a dry August, and connecting to the mains can take months.

Casa Brugada was designed for the whole year, with a heat pump and its main rooms facing south. Mas Pals is warmer than it looks: walls of stone up to 80 centimetres thick keep the temperature steady in every season, and the restoration added insulation where the old house had none.

Come in November. If you still like it then, you will like it in August.