Capsec, farmhouse for rent in the Costa Brava's pre-Pyrenees.

The new pool at Capsec de la vila was awarded Spain´s highest architectural awards for an outdoor structure. But unlike so much modern architecture, this work is in fact practical and user-friendly, especially for kids and old-folks, who like the easy wade-in ramp on a gradually sloping non-slip concrete incline, like at the beach, and where the pool is deepest at the furtherest end, below the water fall, you have a widened deep end where you can swim some short laps. The stone and cast-iron shell of the pool is designed to blend in to the landscape, and the sound of cascade, when it is turned on, also blends in nicely with the birdsong that fills the air here. Important note: this pool is not for the private use of guests at Capsec de la Vila. This is the owner´s pool where guests at both Capsec and El Moli are welcome to swim. And while the owners don´t impose any rules as such, everyone should use the pool with the proper regard for others...

Location:
I´ve written a lot about this valley for El Molí de la Vila and other houses I offer in the Vall de Bianya, and if you are thinking of renting in this area I urge you to read the travel info in the link above. I try to avoid hyperbole so let me put it this way: if I had a few million to spend on buying and restoring an old house, I´d want to do it here in La Vall de Bianya - or somewhere very similar. The countryside is gorgeous, all the houses are gems, the microclimate is good, and there are many excellent restaurants in and around the old villages.

The house:
The main entrance opens on to a sort of ante room followed by the kitchen, with seating on your left, tucked under the stairway heading the main floor and backed by the huge fireplace. The kitchen is well appointed and has four top burner, oven, double sink, dishwasher, microwave, mixer, toaster, juicer, electric coffee machine as well as the typical Spanish twist top expresso, etc.. and plenty of marble counterspace, and a window looking out over the pool area, but still it isn´t a huge kitchen. I would imagine in the summer months most of the cooking and food-prep will take place outdoors.

Just off the kitchen is a hallway leading to the two downstairs bedrooms separated by a full bathroom. One bedroom (1) with double bed looks out back over the pool, while the other bedroom (2) with two single beds looks out over the front of the house. These two rooms and private bath make for a nice little family wing, very separate from the rest of the rooms upstairs.

The main living quarters upstairs is L-shaped with a bathroom with shower at the top of the staircase (the "L's" corner), and a hallway leading into the larger wing consisting of a very large cental sitting room (45m2) with three good-sized and quite elegant white sofas around a large coffee table, and a separate area with a writing desk, along with the usual TV with DVD player, stereo, and small library. Flanking the living room on the pool-side of the house are two good-sized bedrooms (gives you an idea of how big that living room really is) - and one bedroom (3) has a 150x2m double bed, and the other bedroom (4) has three single beds. In the hallway there is a another bedroom (5) with an antique double bed which has no window to the outdoors, just windows to the hallway itself - not ideal. Like at all the properties I offer there are reading lights on the bedside tables for every bed.

The other shorter wing on the L consists a bathroom at the top of the steps with walk-in shower, and across the hall another bedroom (6) with two single beds. After that, there is a nicely decorated utility room with the washing machine, handwash basin, iron and board, and lots of old kniknacks affixed to the wall. At the very end of this wing is the second bathroom, also with a walk-in glass shower.

Though not as rustic as El Molí (many of you will say thank god for that!) this old converted barn is a more solid and spacious house, perhaps better suited for those travelling with kids. It is a shame most of the ceiling beams on the second floor are covered by a smooth ceiling, but Ana, the owner, has a marked talent for furnishing, painting, and decoration, and the house is full of color and is tastefully done. In front of the house there is a wide lawn with an outdoor seating area with 16 chairs and two tables, more than enough for outdoor meals, and the brick BBQ is just across from the entrance to the kitchen. There is a covered parking space nearby - where remnants of the threshing floor remain - and the ruins of another barn next door, now used as a tool shed, serves as reminder of this now-inactive farm's seven hundred-year history. The owners occasionally keep farm animals such as horses and cows and chickens, but these are at a safe distance so that you don't get the smells or flies.
a bedroom

The pool has about 8 lounge chairs and plenty of rooms to run around, and pleasant walks in unspoilt countryside may be enjoyed from your doorstep. Oh, and there´s a outbuilding converted into a large playroom with ping pong and some toys for the tots.

All in all, a fine house in a very, very lovely corner of the world. The owners, Ana and Joaquim, live in a huge mansion nearby, and will probably use the pool now and then. But they are both very charming and discreet and educated and well-travelled and ... not to be avoided.

Charlie adds: the new pool at Capsec is really something special. We have just returned from a weekend at Capsec, and although we all spent a lot of time at and in the pool, I still wouldn´t know how to describe it. It is a designer pool. In fact the architect´s who did the pool won last year´s prestigious FAD designer award, and have done other important works in the area, such as the conceptual interior of a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of Olot called La Deu, which now has a Michelin star and I´m told it is an absolute must. (But with so many good restaurants in the area, it is hard to eat poorly in any of them, and La Deu is a bit pricey for me.) Ana, the owner, has suggested I not try to describe the pool, and leave it as a pleasant surprise for those who stay here...
Capsec and el Moli are both full of pleasant surprises!

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