Give us a tune

Relaxing at the end of a busy day.

We went to Tremp this morning, as G and S had a meeting with a small publisher about potentially publishing their book, Mountain People, in Catalan. I must admit S and I had been highly sceptical beforehand, but after half an hour they emerged wreathed in smiles to say he was going to send them a contract. It will no doubt only be distributed locally, but still, a result!

Tremp is nicer than we thought it was the last time we drove through it without stopping. While G and S had their meeting, A and I went in search of spray mount to protect her drawings for transport. The stationery shop didn’t have any, so we went to a cavern-like chino shop. I don’t think A had seen anything like it before, and she was quite overwhelmed. They had about a hundred different kinds of glue, but none of them were spray mount, so she bought some hairspray instead. And we both bought some cute jam jar labels but somehow managed to avoid buying anything else.

Tremp turned out to have a very nice tree-lined pedestrian rambla, so the four of us sat down for coffee and croissants to celebrate the book deal. From there we drove to Gerry de la Sal, because S had seen a poster for an exhibition of photos of masked folk rituals in Europe in the salt museum. We didn’t bother with the museum, but went straight to the very nice exhibition space on the top floor. It was an interesting exhibition — a sample in extras. There was also an exhibition about women’s reproductive health in popular culture, which was rather unusual.

Lunchtime by now: I drove us to Sort. It was heaving, and I was getting a bit desperate in my search for a parking space until one magically appeared right outside Les Brases, the restaurant we’d chosen. It’s a big place, maybe 150 covers, and they do a three-course lunch for 22 euros, including drinks, coffee, and an unannounced apero of pa amb tomaquet and salami. There’s a lot of choice for each course and the menu consists of a large sheet with pictures of all the food. Normally a red flag, but this is very good value. I carefully selected the plates with the least food: jamón and asparagus, hake a la plancha, lemon mousse, and was glad I did when I saw the size of everyone else’s helpings. As there were four of us, the waitress just served us a bottle of rosé rather than individual glasses.

Well satisfied, we stopped in at Día for a bit of shopping and drove home. A few tunes on the melodeon from A, repeatedly throwing a ball for Jack the mongrel, and light snacks plus a bottle of cava in the evening. Another good day.