Gruissan - North Spain and Southern France

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I went up to Gruissan twice to visit some family friends - and did some stops on the way. First time I went with my dad - he rented a car and we left Friday after work. Really beautiful route - we decided to get off the high way.

We went to visit his friends who had their boat Inuuk there, named after their new grandchild. They were ready with dinner and after some wine we went to bed. I slept like a baby on the boat. After this we went for a sail the day after. Really nice conditions, BUT freezing cold water and of course the two old men had to jump in the water for a dive, with only one bottle of air to look for a ship wreck that I to this day still do not believe exist. They gave up after a cold short dive and we went back to shore.

Then we went up to his sons house in the mountains, it is a hughe old building that they and their friends are renovation - they do it via workaway.com so if you want to go there it is very much worth a visit. They provide lodging and food and you give a hand around the house. You can borrow their bikes and go for a ride in the beautiful forrests and take a dip in their nice but chilly lagoon in their back yard - the plan is to build a sauna next to it - the outdoor kitchen has already been built.

I am sure this place will become gorgeeeeous when theyre done with it. They are playing with the idea of opening a luxury resort there with just a few rooms and then a spa in the basement which used to be an old winery - they will reuse the hughe barrels and create a spa there. Something to keep an eye on if youre planning a vacation in this area anytime soon!

On the first trip up there we had a lovely dinner and made it in time for one of the guys birthday, we made Danish sno brød on the bonfire which was really weird with so many people gathered from different countries but also really nice.

The next day we went for a quick walk in the small city there in the mountains - which it's filled with cute little houses, streets, rivers running through etc.

Second time I went up there with a friend - on the way we stopped in Figueras for lunch, hometown of Salvador Dali - I went back later to visit the museum of Dali which was a very intense world to enter but super intreaguing - definitely worth a visit. Then we spent another night on the boat of my parents friends and the day after went for another sailtrip. It was a bit more windy this day but we were lucky we had the sun shining on us. After doing all the work on the ship, my friend wanted to relax on the deck but as soon as he went to lie down he got really seasick and had to throw up.

We returned to land and he felt better the second we got there. We went up to the sons house in the mountains again, this time I went for a swim in the lagoon! Very cold but very refreshing and a lot of fun jumping from the cliffs - could have used that sauna theyre speaking of building.

This time they were working on stairs up to the outdoors kitchen and terrace, no doubt this place will be really amazing soon.
We had another long evening and dinner in the garden and ended up drinking Gammel Dansk, a Danish liquor which my Italian friend actually liked - I don't. We had this both times I visited and it's really not tasty but then it is really funny seeing it in France.

We had a lovely breakfast with the guys, Troels made different omelettes and they all tasted amazing. Then we drove around the mountains but we never found the waterfall everyone was talking about and almost ran out of gas. We did however find a bunch of nice little spots that looked like pure jungle and we found some hughe Donkeys that I think were on steroids.

If youre interested in helping out at the mountain house - check out their workaway site: http://www.workaway.info/182679168479-en.html

On the way back we stopped by Carcassonne to see the old medieval castle which was very nice. We stopped by several cities on the coast, here amoung Perpignan- but the most stunning place we stopped by was Cadaques on the Spanish side of the boarder - definitely worth a visit - I will be back there to spend more than just a few hours - check out the pics!

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