How it began…
It has been 18 years since we experienced our first diving holiday at the Costa Brava and we fell in love at an instance. De gorgeous coast, small bays, the beautiful marine life and so much more.
From that moment on, every summer, we searched for houses at the Catalan coast. Every year again, we found a different place that amazed us, from the French border to the mouth of the Ebro in Southern Catalonia. Together with our two children, we discovered lovely villages, idyllic bays, waterfalls, … . Although this places were amazing, the L’Empordá kept attracting us like a magnet.
In 2008, we opened a store in Belgium, which was linked to Spain as well. We imported Spanish delicacies and wines, with most of it originating from Catalonia. This is how our passion for the Catalan cuisine started growing. De purity of the products is what we loved. The smaller companies who made their products with so much passion. “For the time we can’t make Spain our home, we’ll bring Spain to Belgium.”, we said to each other and everyone who wanted to know.
We dreamed of living in the L’Empordá since we first discovered it. You search for years, but you don’t find what you’re looking for…. So we bought a small holiday home in L’Estartit, to enjoy the region as often as possible and that’s what we did. We renovated the house to a second home and enjoyed it whenever we were here.
Just at the moment we want to postpone our search for a perfect place to move to Spain permanently, we fell in love again as we suddenly found a ‘masia’ in Sobrestany. Then everything went incredible fast. In a matter of days we decided to go with it and to buy the farm. The property was a part of a former zoo that was closed in 2009. A rough diamond, full of history.
We are going to try to transform this brute diamond into a cosy Bed & Breakfast, no nonsense, where everybody feels home and can enjoy our passion that we crave: the beautiful region, a place to rest, the Catalan cuisine and so much more.
Francis & Sylvia