“Just keep driving all the way up through the village and it’s the castle at the top”. The castle?? I thought you said we were staying at your mum’s house!
But sure enough, we’re safe and sound in a 12th century fortification as I type….
The entrance archway to El Castell
Romans, barons and revolutionaries have come before us – unlike them, we promised to clean up after ourselves!
Our route from Spain was peppered with rain showers and the Pryenees looked more and more brooding as we navigated the ever-shrinking roads.
The brooding Pryenees
More narrow navigation for Geoff and Charlie Charleston
Not much sun in the flowers
When we finally arrived in Joch, the steep hill was too much for Charlie Charleston and we got stuck half way up. We had to drop back down to the bottom road and come in from a different approach – good job we weren’t trying to invade! If we were, we could have used Alex’s handy map of the area.
Joch invasion map
But finally we arrived! Peering down over the tiny village of Joch (population 146) El Castell has had a mixed and sometimes turbulent history.
Peering down from on high
Battle scars on the inside
Built in the 12th century on the site of a Roman fortress, it became the seat of a succession of barons until the last was un-seated and probably beheaded during the French Revolution. The locals sacked the castle and left it to fall into ruins. More than two hundred years later at the turn of this century, our neighbour Bruno bought up the ruins and began to renovate it, selling off sections to families including Alex’s.
Painted tile highlighting the hills beyond
Sun-drenched in Mediterranean hues
While parts are still a work in progress, El Castell has generated an easy and friendly community feeling and has been a wonderful base from which to explore the lovely Pyrenees Orientales. Bruno even has a donkey he let us pet!
Bruno’s donkey and friend
Once more – big thanks to Alex and his family for their generosity. We’ll be posting some stories from our visits in the coming days, but for now – share our enjoyment of Joch with some additional photographs.
