The ice cream of the crop!

 Hello!

 As regular readers of this blog will well know, I am a huge ice cream enthusiast. One thing I tried to do in every town or city I visited on my year abroad was to sample the local ice cream offering.

 From France to Spain to Monaco to Italy, I enjoyed cones, tubs and sundaes, whether relaxing, exploring or on the go. Here I will share with you my thoughts on ice creams galore, from the flavour to the texture to the toppings.

 I hope you enjoy it!

 We'll start our tour in France.

Perpignan

 Although I lived in Perpignan for the longest period of time, I didn't actually eat that much ice cream - partly because crème catalane is the main dessert in the city and partly because Picard, my local frozen food shop, did great sorbets which I tended to choose when I fancied something cold.

 However, based on how well Perpignan does sweet treats generally, and how hot it is there, I'm sure ice cream is both plentiful and delicious. 

 The photo above was taken in the beautiful Old Town on the day of the amazing Sanch Procession. I don't know whether I actually ever bought ice cream from that shop, but it looks pretty good!

Collioure

 In gorgeous seaside town Collioure, on the other hand, I enjoyed at least three ice creams. I had one every time I went there: in autumn, just to visit, in winter for the Christmas Market and in spring with my mother for my 21st birthday.

 I think my frequent consumption of Collioure ice cream may be linked to the fact that I felt like a tourist there and eating ice cream is one of the ultimate touristy things to do, whereas in Perpignan, where I worked, I felt more like a resident.

 Collioure has a wide range of ice cream flavours but the crowning glory is the huge amount of whipped cream they squirt on top. 

Le Grau-du-Roi

 A very different town, le Grau-du-Rois, sits between salt-lakes in the raw and mysterious Camargue and hides many small but functional ice cream shops in its labyrinth of narrow paved streets. 

 For me the Camargue is one of the most incredible and underrated places in the world, so why not enjoy it with an ice cream?

Antibes

 While undertaking my French language course in Antibes I made the most of the local ice cream which has a definite Italian influence. 

The big tourist scene means that on the one hand there is a lot of choice with many competing shops and cafés, but on the other there can be noisy people near you and much poorer service - I found one waiter borderline rude. 

 However, overall Antibes is one of the best places for food I have ever visited and I can't wait to return some day.

Juan-les-Pins

 Juan-les-Pins is the residential neighbourhood where I stayed while attending school in Antibes. I found it quite cosy; however it was annoyingly hard to access the beach with various very posh restaurants seeming to own every chunk of it.

 I allowed myself one meal at a posh seafront restaurant, enjoying a Reine pizza (ham and mushroom) and the above sundae, which was gloriously chocolatey and delicious.

Monaco

 My trip to Monaco felt chaotic from start to finish: the tour bus I had intended to take never showed up, leaving me to wander the place at random. However, I did enjoy soaking in the vibes from the pre-Grand Prix party that was going at full swing.

 My ice cream experience felt chaotic, too. I saw a nice-looking ice cream place close to the party and anticipated that it would soon be pounced on by overexcited people, so I shot in and out picking fairly random flavours (normally I put a lot of thought into my flavours!) 

 From the picture I appear to have chosen chocolate and toffee, with cream and a little wafery thing. I think it was nice - it looks it - but with so much going on that day it wasn't that memorable. In fact, I'd forgotten until seeing the photos that I bought an ice cream in Monaco!

Ventimiglia

 Annoyingly I don't have any photos of my Ventimiglia ice cream as my camera was stolen. However, stereotypical as it is to say Italian ice cream is the best, in this case it really was. 

 That banana and stracciacella cone was mind-blowing. The banana was so genuinely banana-y, not like the artificial banana taste you often get. It was luscious.

Girona

 I ate at least two ice creams in the two days I spent in Girona with my mother! I was pleased to see crème catalane ice cream (or crema catalana as it was there) and I felt sorry for the Smurfs that were apparently the source of the blue flavour!

 The pictured ice cream place was small and very posh. The ice cream, however, was totally worth the expense.

Barcelona

 La Rambla in Barcelona is bursting with stalls selling sweet treats. It can be hit and miss: I had a rather disappointing and artificial-tasting crèpe from one of them. However, the ice cream above was lovely (those poor Smurfs, though, do they get no respite?).

Salamanca

 Ice cream in the day...

 ...ice cream at night. There's never a bad time for ice cream in Salamanca, especially during a heatwave. 

 My whole Spanish summer felt a bit surreal, what with the bizarre series of weather phenomena we had to endure, the fact that due to the heat we could only really function at night, and the way Salamanca seemed like a model city - so clean, so shiny, so frozen in time.

 At least we could eat ice cream! That was a reassuring constant. 

 As with Barcelona - as with any big tourist city, I guess - the ice cream was hit and miss; however, I did find one really excellent shop on the Rua Mayor. They had a limited range of flavours but you got good quality and a lot of ice cream for your money.

 There was also the famous Van Dyck distict - or perhaps infamous is a better word. Everyone in Salamanca has heard of it and its culinary kudos but no-one seems to know where it actually is. 

 I found it eventually and tried some ice cream, which you can see above: again, a limited choice of flavours but very tasty.

Ávila

 I found our Ávila excursion rather regimented. After a day of being relentlessly marched from place to place by our guides, we were finally given some free time. What did I do? Get an ice cream, of course - and then chill! 

 The sun was setting and it was nice to just be able to appreciate the ancient city without all the rushing around.

Segovia

 I can't talk about Spain and ice cream without mentioning Smöoy, the frozen yogurt giant whose very pink shops seem to pop up wherever you look. 

 Whether their yogurty desserts count as ice cream, I don't know, but those I had were certainly sweet and refreshing. You also have plenty of control over what you get: you pick the flavour of yogurt, sauce and toppings from a really huge variety.

 There I am in the photo above, relaxing with my Smöoy next to the aqueduct in Segovia during a much better organised excursion than the Ávila one.

Zamora

 There was more Smöoy in Zamora, on another very pleasant trip. Peanut butter and granola, as pictured, is my favourite Smöoy, and it made the perfect little treat for exploring a very nice town.

***

 I think the message of this post is that firstly, I love ice cream, and secondly, you can tell a lot about a place by the quality, variety and value of its ice cream. And thirdly, I love ice cream.

 I hope you have found this post informative and that you have many great ice creamy or generally food-y adventures.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

My birthday in Perpignan

 Salut!

 Between the last post, on Céret, and this one, you might notice a subtle change. Someone turned the sun on! Spring arrived seemingly overnight and transformed Perpignan and Canet from grey, cold and mysterious to bright and beautiful and full of life and hope.

 I moved from Cabestany to Perpignan proper at the beginning of February. That was a busy time, and soon after, it was half-term, which I spent at home in the UK. So the next real occasion I had to relax, do some exploring and take some photos was early March.

 My 21st birthday came around and my mother flew in to visit me for a few days. The last time she visited it was autumn and I myself was still quite new to the area. This time it was sunny and I was able to properly show her around.

 She arrived on the afternoon of my birthday and I met her at the station. We walked back into town together and I took her to Columbus, the favourite coffee shop of the assistants which is in the Place de la Loge, my favourite square in Perpignan.

 She enjoyed a strawberry milkshake and a slice of flan and I had a hot chocolate and one of Columbus's ever-famous Nutella muffins. It was lovely to sit and chat in the lively Place, with people coming and going and the elegant Venus statue opposite us.

 Several of the other assistants including music video director Toby and my favourite Galician, Loreto, appeared and said hello. Overall was had a really nice, peaceful afternoon.

 We hopped on the bus to my apartment, dumped my mother's luggage and went out again to Picard, pretty much the French version of Iceland, to find a birthday cake. We chose a chocolate fondant.

 Back at the apartment I opened the cards and presents my mother had brought. They were wonderful. And I'm not too old to wear a "21" badge!

 The cake was gorgeous - there was no way we could eat it all that night so we put some aside. My mother had brought some DVDs of British TV she had taped such as the Bake Off and People's Strictly and we watched a bit. You can never beat cake and dancing!

 So, that was my birthday. Having it in Perpignan was certainly different, but it was as enjoyable as always.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Villefranche-de-Conflent and Fort Liberia

 Hello!

 Soon after arriving back in Perpignan after Christmas I was invited to join a group excursion with some other assistants to Villefranche-de-Conflent, a walled town close to Vernet-les-Bains, in the mountains. I accepted the invitation as I was keen to see more of the beautiful Pyrenees.

 I met up with Nathan, Toby and Cristina at Perpignan Station (the centre of the universe!). We caught the 1 Euro train, which I hadn't known existed although I had taken the 1 Euro bus. It was a useful discovery!

 We arrived in Villefranche-Vernet Station, which serves both communes. Instead of heading down into Vernet we crossed the river to reach the old town of Villefranche. Before that, however, we spotted the famous Little Yellow Train!

Cristina with the train

Anyone living in Perpignan will be very sick of Maya the Bee. Was it advertised so ridiculously widely in the UK? I don't know.

 The river was truly beautiful - so turquoise and clear and the sun sparkling on it was gorgeous. It felt like we were hiking a trail in Colorado or somewhere similar!

The beautiful old town of Villefranche

Fort Liberia!

 See if you can spot the intrepid cat in this next photo:

 We entered the town. It was still very much Christmas-fied. The narrow streets were very clean and lovely to walk in and the views of the mountains were stunning.

 We found a bakery and some overpriced but delicious-looking galettes des rois! (These are eaten around the epiphany and contain a secret character carved in china - if you find it in your piece you have to bake the galette next year!)

Poor polar bear and deer!

Me!

American Indian shop!

 We were then enchanted by the witch shop...

Don't eat me!

 We finished our tour of the town and somebody suggested climbing the hill to Fort Liberia. I was keen - I knew it would be hard work but the views would surely be spectacular and I didn't want to leave without having seen the Fort, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Fort

 We eventually decided to make the climb. I was excited but slightly daunted by the steep hillside. We set out and though the walk was tough, the scenery was as lovely as I had hoped with the snowy mountain and the green hills around us and the river and yellow trains below.

An underground passage to the Fort - more about that later!

Sublime views

The yellow trains tiny below

Am I the only one who sees a Madonna holding flowers (grass) in this rock?

 We made it to the Fort in one piece! It was most impressive from the outside. I couldn't wait to enter.

 Inside, the Fort was surprisingly quiet. There was just us four and a receptionist/guide for most of the time - a few more visitors came as we were leaving. It was kind of otherworldly - so high up, so still, so silent, so cold and colourful and beautiful.

 There were several pieces of art made with slabs of rock. This one reminded me of the Omnidroid from The Incredibles.

 For me there was something slightly Chinese about the layout, the architecture and the tiling - it reminded me of when I visited the Forbidden City in Beijing.

 We found ourselves in the dungeon where female prisoners were kept. Complete with waxworks and scary artwork on the walls, it was very spooky. I was glad to be out of there.

The lucky cannon has a great view!

 We left as afternoon was turning to evening and were told that instead of walking back over the hillside, as we had come, we had to take the underground tunnel - all 734 steps of it (according to Wikipedia). 

 It was tiny and claustrophobic - I hated it but gritted my teeth and took it a chunk at a time. The others really helped so thanks, guys! There were also windows at intervals to remind us that the real world was still out there and I was always grateful to peer out of one.

 We made it out alive! I was happy and proud of myself. We wandered back through the town and found a café where we ordered waffles with Nutella and whipped cream. After all that, I think we deserved them!

 We got the train back and certain members of the group fell asleep: we were all exhausted after such a long and dramatic day. 

 I was so glad I took this opportunity to spend some time with Cristina, Nathan and Toby and to see a pretty little town and an amazing fort.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x