Cerdanya, Home

I’ve been thinking about the word ‘home’ lately. Since we left Park City, a few times Hazel has said “I want to go home”. On each occasion we were elsewhere in Europe and she meant Bellver de Cerdanya. I love this definition: “Home is … the place we feel most comfortable, loved and protected ... Home is many things to many people. It’s the place you live, and the places you love … “ (from vocabulary dot com).

I have deeply loved four places in my life: Wales, Norway (did an internship there after my third year of university), Sproat Lake and now Cerdanya. All are deeply beautiful to me. Stunning. Magical to me. Kind people. Not busy. Not ostentatious in any way. Justin wrote in Strava “That stretch between Puigcerdà and La Seu d’Urgell has left an indelible mark on my soul”. I took a deep breath when I read that. It’s a marvel how much it has touched each of us. Part of me wants to learn Catalan and come back and get to know this place even deeper. Regardless, I’m coming back.

In our final days, we seem to be hugging this place we’ve called home and it’s hugging us right back. Sensational weather. Doing all our favorite things. Serendipity firing on all cylinders: (i) the pizza patio is open mid-day with views that just don’t quit (hard to explain this is so rare) and I take both kids, our first time there, we each get our own wood-fired pizza … divine (ii) the couple that runs our beloved creperie in Meranges are both outside when I stop for crepes and goodies on a bike ride, they remember me and we chat about the awesomeness of Cerdanya and (iii) another rarely open local restaurant celebrates it’s one-year anniversary, complete with a DJ spinning tunes at noon and the owner personally invites us to evening tapas + champagne. We leave with bellies full and Catalonian kisses on our cheeks. There is beauty everywhere.

Beauty while riding local trails, with a peek of Meranges in the far, far distance (first photo):

Beauty on my bike ride to Meranges:

Beauty in town (that cat was snoozing in a planter):

Beauty in the evening, at the Terra Ferma one-year celebration:

The placemats at the pizza joint said “1,000 ways to love Cerdanya” ❤️ in Catalan of course. I’m sharing it in English here, courtesy of Google Translate which is so fantastic. Menu translation anyone? It works for real-time conversations too. How perfect is it that the closing statement on the placemat is “Loving Cerdanya means feeling at home and acting as if you were at home”. Speechless. Yes.