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"The Villa"
Also, see these pages from our week at the VIlla:
Saturday, September 24, 2016, we picked up our trusty Leon and drove to our home for the next week in an area near the wine districts of Montsant and Priorat.
There we met up with our good friends, Skip and Josie, Greg and Kelly, and John and Jan.
The photos below are mostly in and around the Villa. Click on th elinks below for our side trips:
On the way we stopped at the big Carrefour in Rues, a large town a few kilometers north of where we were staying. They had everything you could imagine, including a huge display of jamón. We stocked up on essentials and a couple dinners and headed to the villa.
The photos below were taken on two different days but they give you and idea of the extent and character of this place.
We called it "The Villa" but the owners call it "Casa Soulere", Soulere being the family name.
This is the inscription above the front door and it is believed to have been built around that time.
The house has never been sold.
It has been passed down through the generations to its present owner, Francesca Soulere.
It is attached to an ancient church on one end
The minuscule town of Les Voltes winds up this street
Note the Catalan Flags.
Riudecols is the name of the small town 2 or 3 kilometers down N420, the main highway nearby.
Further up the only street in Les Voltes
Signs of life
The inscription above the church door - 1794
The swimming pool is on the other side of this wall on the left and the villa is down and to the right.
"Sunci" I'm guessing is how you spell her name, the caretaker, and Kelly, our interpreter of the Castilian dialect.
Go through this door to get to the pool
Who knows how old these urns are or where they came from?
The wood-burning BBQ in the pool area
The pool area. You can see the top of the church on the other side
The pool wasn't heated but that didn't stop a certain Canadian from plunging in.
The ceiling of the barn-like structure that led to the pool area.
We never did figure out how to get to the roof top. Look like some sort of deck up there.
The property covered around ten acres, I'm guessing.
It was park-like
This is Josie in the back yard
Part of the pool area
More of the property
The tennis court
We had a little rain the night before we arrived
Water trough
The entry foyer
The dining room - getting ready for Greg's birthday dinner
Lorri's and my room
The top of our armoire
The central hall on the second level. Five en suite bedrooms access this area.
An ancestor of Francesca
The tennis court again
This is a nearby historical marker about Les Voltes. The third paragraph refers to our villa. The foundations apparently date to Roman times.
Heading into Riudecols
Some information about Riudecols. The village has been around since at least 1158!
We needed a beer stop to energize us for the hike back
We'll get to Tarragona soon!
Another incredible dinner at the villa
Mmmm, beans!
Appetizers out back
Got to keep the flies at bay
On one hand, we have wine
On the other hand, we still have wine
On our last morning we asked Sunci to take some photos for us posing on the balconies
Here they are. I guess we should have used the telephoto lens.
Except that my iPhone doesn't have one
Lorri and me
Kelly and Greg
again
All of us
All of us closer
It was another great week or eating, drinking, talking and touring with our good friends. We been to Italy, France and now Spain together and we're still going strong. Salud!
While based at the Villa, we did two wine and lunch tours, we visited Tarragona and Cambrils, We checked out the local towns of Falset, Porrera and Siurana. Click below to go to those pages.
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