Canapost to the medieval fair at Peratallada

In the first weekend in October, Peratallada - one of the prettiest villages on the Costa Brava - holds a medieval fair with stalls and troubadours and festivities. It is very popular, so rather than try to park at Peratallada, we decided to start from Canapost and take a walk through the woods.

We park in the centre of Canapost just opposite the old church. The village positively glows in the autumn sun with radiant golden stone houses. It's not far to Peratallada - about 2km on a straight path - but we're looking for a walk before the fair. We head out of the village on one of the apparently main roads and follow it until it merges with a river bed and then rough rocks that we need to climb out of to reach the track at the top.

The path takes us along the edge of woods with views towards the Gavarres to our left and not far from the Clots de Sant Julia - the very ancient coloured quarries. Our road though steadily leads away in the wrong direction for Peratallada and it's only when we past the discreet Deixalleria (village rubbish dump) with hundreds of seagulls roosting on its roof, that we find a left hand turn into the sandy woods and back in the direction of Peratallada.

The woods are quite open and the track curves and loops up among the trees with routes marked by yellow and red arrows - probably more for mountain bikers than walkers. We traverse the woods and find ourselves at the top of a small hill with Peratallade down below us. Even from the hill outside the village we can hear the troubadours playing the classic medieval sounding Catalan instruments.

We come down out of the woods and into the village. The car parks are pretty full so it's good we parked away and the village itself is full of stalls and people, at times causing quite a crush through the village streets. Peratallada is one of my favourite Costa Brava villages as it seems to be a place unchanged for hundreds of years like a medieval village in perfect preservation. With the fair and the stalls and decoration on the buildings and the sound of the musicians it's like walking on to a film set for Robin Hood. We also discover there are several groups of musicians - usually with one group playing, and the others taking a break in the bars.

The stalls are mostly stalls of craft produce - so both handmade products like scented cushions, candles and wooden toys, but also traditional foods including cheeses, sausages (embotits) an of course wines from local vineyards.

The people not walking around the village and looking at the stalls are mostly installed in the many small restaurants and bars sitting out on the stone courtyards, or under archways or on the terraces.

We leave and continue back to Canapost, but taking the shorter more direct route out along the path that curves around by fields returning to an empty Canapost which looks as if it hasn't changed for centuries.

Neighbouring walks: Clots de Sant Julia (Vulpellac) - La Bisbal, Vulpellac, Castell d'Emporda, Fonteta - Canapost, Poblet Iberic and Ullastret - Palau-sator and Peratallada - Santa Susanna de Peralta and Sant Climent de Peralta