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Costa Brava Villas : El Moli de la Vila

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----- Original Message -----
From: PETER EAMES
To: Charlie Williams
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 11:56 AM
Subject: El Moli, late May 2006

Charlie,

Thanks for your reply.
Jenni and I adore El Moli and very much want to return. Our son has expressed an interest in trying a different villa. Do you have any other property that is as secluded and rustic as El Moli. We can have a look at it before making the final decision. However as I am paying the bill I feel Jenni and I have the right to pick where we go. I am pretty sure we will end up booking El Moli, but for peace of mind we will look at any of your suggestions.

Regards
Peter


----- Original Message -----
From: Liz Craigmyle
To: villasbarcelona
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: El Moli, 11 to 18 July

Hello Charlie - we are home. We had a most relaxing charming and very nature orientated holiday. It was perfect for our week and with us and two young teenagers we found plenty to see and do. We loved the horses and the dogs and the dragonflies and frogs - we even saw a black scorpion on the steps on day one. I was alone in swimming in the reservoir with the fishes, frogs, water boatmen and petals but we all enjoyed the other lovely pool and diving swallows. Ana and Joaquin were friendly and not intrusive and our busy lives were transferred in part back to the 12th century, cherry wood floors and outdoor living - we used the BBQ every evening trout, chicken, pork and the local fresh produce was lovely. We liked Olot especially Bar Sportif for tapas and chat and internet to keep in touch once in a while with our businesses. We said to Ana and Joaquin we would love to return one day and we will fingers crossed.

We never knew that Pyrenean mountain dogs were on of the few breeds with dew claws attached their rear legs - Trotski was a big loveable boy and his older companion a lady dog warmed to us. We travelled around using your book which is invaluable and we visited the northern coast, Girona and other places - thank you for the second successful holiday since finding your website and we will keep in touch. The weather in Bonnie Scotland is believe it or not as warm as at El Moli at present !

Liz


----- Original Message -----
From: "Christine Storck"
To: "villasbarcelona"
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: El Moli de la Vila, July 21 to August 4

Hi Charlie,

I was very pleased to hear from you. As you asked me, here are my feelings about our last stay at El Moly de la Villa and to be more precise, if you don't mind, I will express myself in French.

Notre séjour à El Moly de la Villa nous a laissé un souvenir des plus agréables.

Tout d'abord le site splendide pour les amateurs de beau paysage, bloti ou perdu au fond de la vallée, au calme, pas de route, juste le bruit des cheveaux, des oiseaux, du ruisseau.
Ensuite le charme fou du vieux moulin et de la petite maison annexe, leur rusticité dans l'esthétique mais avec tout le confort moderne et décoré avec goût.
Nos deux adolescentes, pourtant très critiques, ont adoré leurs vacances en Espagne.

Je préciserais que l'endroit n'est pas adapté pour les familles avec des enfants en bas âge (en dessous de 10 ans).Ceci à cause du plan d'eau par lequel ils seront attirés et pour les plus petits à cause des marches. Pour les personnes plutôt agées qui ont des difficultés avec les marches hautes, je pense qu'elles doivent y réfléchir.
A part cela tout n'est qu'enchantement.

La petite ville d'Olot est pleine de charme (magasins de vêtements, traiteurs, le marché, les cafés de la place, quelques musées...). Barcelone n'est pas trop loin et quel plaisir, après la turbulance de la ville de retrouver le moulin et de faire un plongeon dans la piscine ultra disign de nos hôtes dont la gentillesse ajoute encore au plaisr de retrouver le moulin.

Il y a aussi de nombreux sites historiques intéressants dans les environs et plus loin sur la côte les petites villes touristiques et leur plages.

L'accueil a été agréable partout.
Voilà, nos impressions sur nos vacances en Espagne.
Nous vous remercions vous aussi Charlie pour votre aimable correspondance et pour la qualité de votre site.
Je pense que vous nous retrouverz sûrement dans quelques temps pour de nouvelles vacances.
Très cordialement,
Christine Storck.



----- Original Message -----
From: charlotte baere
To: "'villasbarcelona'"
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: Capsec de la vila, July 9 to 16

Dear Charlie

You are right, no news are good news.

We enjoyed the house,the family, the horses, the suroundings, the good restaurants in the neighbourhood, the great marked in Olot and and.... One of us is a star chef. He served us serveral excelent dinners under the threes in garden, made of all the lockal food.

Sitting today thinking 10 month back, I remember the long marbel table (heavy) under the thees with a white cloth, good wine and excelent food, good friends... & if I ask the children, they will say the pool, the view from the pool, the play in the pool - they lost a thin freesbee in the crack of the poolside and they spend a lot ofgood time trying to get it out, it was very good fun.

Everything was "just" OK

KIndly regards
Charlotte


----- Original Message -----
From: Barron, Thomasina
To: Charles Williams (E-mail)
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 5:44 PM

Hi Charles, I have been meaning to send you a message since we returned from Catalunya to say how much we enjoyed our stay. El Moli was wonderful and we all loved it, the girls loved the dogs and horses and spent hours catching (and releasing!) little fish from the reservoir and stream. Our hosts were very pleasant and we greatly enjoyed their beautiful pool. Maybe some day we will be able to return!

Best wishes, Thomasina.


----- Original Message -----
From: john armstrong
To: tourism@catalonia.net
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 12:20 PM
Subject: el Moli

Hi Charlie

Just to let you know we had a wonderful time at el Moli. The house was great and Anna was lovely.

Sorry it's taken a while to send this but I have had several business trips since getting back. We have recommended the house to people and would definitely stay there again.

Thank you for all your help.
Bye for now Kate & John Armstrong


----- Original Message -----
From: Celia Cozens (U.K.)
To: tourism@catalonia.net
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2001 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Re: El Moli de la Vila

Dear Charlie

El Moli was in a breathtakingly beautiful setting - we marvelled at the views from the house every day. Ana was extremely helpful and charming but not the slightest bit intrusive. We were all impressed by the unspoilt nature of the region and loved the fact that we hardly heard an English voice. Olot is a lovely, working town with no tourist pretensions but full of character and has a great, cheap restaurant - Can Guix - where you can eat and drink as much as you like for about 1,000pts a head.

The house itself was unusual and very attractive but a few pointers for future visitors: the pool/reservoir is lovely and bigger than we expected - great for swimming but only if you don't mind sharing it with fish. We actually managed to catch a few crayfish in a net but we didn't cook them, we put them back. The house also had a lot of wildlife inside and out - lizards, toads, squirrels, bats etc. This is either a plus or a minus depending on your point of view. Also - the floating armchairs mentioned in previous comments were nowhere to be found.

The master bedroom is absolutely lovely, the house is comfortable and well-equipped but the main attraction is being outside, revelling in the scenery and the peace and quiet and the acres of space to play or just lounge about in.

We would recommend trips to Besalu, Lake Banyoles, Camprodon and the beach at Rosamar. Gerona was also well worth a visit and the waterpark - Aquadiver - was a great day out for the kids.

The directions to the house were fine and the regional info was very helpful.
Thanks for a great website and an excellent holiday.
Celia Cozens


----- Original Message -----
From: Belinda Chan
To: Charles K. Williams
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: el Moli and Cal Rajoler
Hi Charlie,

We had a wonderful time at both the houses we stayed at--El Moli and Cal Rajoler.

El Moli is located in a beautiful quiet area of the foothills of the Pyrennees and we were just very relaxed reading in the private yard. The house is decorated beautifully and simple which was just to our tastes. She had everything we needed, including some English language books to read after we finished the ones we brought. The kitchen is not big but had everything we needed, including a complimentary bottle of cava-which was really nice because it got us hooked on the Spanish cavas (we drank cava almost every night). We really enjoyed the fireplace, too, as we were there when the weather was still a bit cool. The house was nice for the two of us and the baby and even though it's not really baby proof (with two open stairways) we were able to block the stairways off with the couch and had no problem with our 1 year old very mobile baby. The only baby problem we had at El Moli was that I wasn't aware that the fences were electrified when the horses were out and that I needed to keep the baby away from it.

We just really like the house, had a great time and would definitely recommend it. You were right when you told us to have the in-laws come to the other house. El Moli I think is better with 4 or fewer people.

We took a bunch of hikes in the area and especially liked the hikes in Camprodon. We ate at a wonderful and inexpensive restaurant called Pont 9 at the edge of the river in Camprodon. We even went back a second time since it was so good.

At El Moli the owner gave us a tour of the main house--it's absolutely amazing. The house has been in the family for hundreds of years and has a huge fireplace area for cooking and a chapel inside. Since we live in an old house we thought it was realy neat to see their house. The main house at Cal Rajoler is also pretty neat. Both houses have antique furniture that was probably made year and years ago when they built the houses.

Hope this information helps. Let me know if you need any more specifics.

Belinda

----- Original Message -----
From: Ian McKee
To: Charles K. Williams
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: Holiday Rental

Hi Charlie

Just writing to let you know how we got on at el Moli near Olot. This was the first time we had booked accommodation over the internet and we found it a very straightforward experience. Your website was very informative and interesting. Although we found the directions from Toulouse to el Moli easy to follow, we have to say that after driving for 2 days from England we could have done without the scenic route over the mountains at the end of our second day, and because there appears to be a new bit of road between Ripoll and Olot we were a bit confused but once we saw Cal Enric we knew we were on the right road.

El Moli was lovely, just as we had imagined. It was very rustic and had a real 'log cabin' feel about it. The children loved their bedroom with the old stone mill still in place, although personally I do not like to sleep in a room without any windows.

The owners, Joaquin and Anna, were very helpful and kind enough to show us around their beautiful home before we left.

On reflection, we felt the Spanish way of eating did not suit us as a family. I'm afraid our children of 5 and 7 like to eat around 12.00 noon and 5.00 pm, and when we did venture to eat out it seemed you had to make reservations so we ended up at the supermarket and back to el Moli, not quite my idea of a break for mum! Saying that, being at el Moli was no hardship. The views were lovely and one of the biggest decisions of the day was where to sit and which view to look at. The children enjoyed the wildlife, we had a family of rata equirolera living in the house! We also saw bats, hedgehogs, crayfish and fish in the pond, and enjoyed meeting Anna's horses and dogs.

We did lots of sightseeing and particularly enjoyed a day out in Barcelona which whetted our appetite to see more of this lovely city.

All in all a very different kind of holiday for us as a family, which is what we wanted!

Regards, Helen and Ian McKee

----- Original Message -----
From: Ann & Dougal Crowe (Hawaii)
To: tourism@catalonia.net
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2001 12:20 AM
Subject: Bueno!

Dear Charlie,

We have great memories of our wonderful, beautiful and peaceful stay at El Moli. It was another world from the one today and we wish we were back there.

Our sincere thanks for your help and guidance in choosing the perfect place for our week in Catalonia. Ana and Kim were wonderful and helpful hosts. They know how much we loved an appeciated the unique charm of El Moli. If this is to be read by others I don't want to give away the happy suprise of the setting and comforts. Even the dogs were welcoming!

Thank you, Charlie. Please give our alohas to Ana and Kim and tell them we still hope they will come to Hawaii someday. That goes for you also. We will not change our way of life...so are off to Sicily on Wed. Hope Osama et al and the Basques are not stopping your bookings!

Best of luck and much aloha, Ann & Dougal Crowe


----- Original Message -----
From: Jacqueline Steeman (Holland)
To: 'Charles K. Williams'
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 10:32 AM
Subject: RE: el Moli de la Vila

Hi charles,

We were already in Spain when this mail arrived. We are now already 3 days at home in Amsterdam.

I must say we had a pleasant time in the old mill. It is a very beautiful place with a lot of privacy. The 'pool' is beautiful and it felt as a big luxury to jump into the water in the morning as we wake up. Also the horses, which have their little routine everyday, around the house give a big sense of freedom and closeness to the nature.

The first week of our holiday we stayed also in a house via your office; We stayed in La Torre de d'Alt which is communicated by mr.P. Sijtsma. The big house was an ideal house and a beautiful place for a big group. We had a pleasant time as well.

thank you for the good service, and hopefully till next year.

regards,
jacqueline steeman

-----Original Message-----
De: Esben Ørberg (Denmark)
Para: tourism@catalonia.net
Fecha: domingo 19 de diciembre de 1999 18:15
Asunto: for your cataloque

Dear Charles
El Moli is exactly as exotic as we were told from the web-site. Almost hidden by the hillside, picturesque and well equipped, the two cottages are the perfect bases for touring in the northern Catalonian area. Located between the Pyreneans and the Mediterranean.  And when too hot, the pool is always near. A real scoop! And not to mention the perfect new mowed playgrounds. We have all the best memories for the summer vacation of the year 1999.
    Yours  Esben
Go back to el Molí listingGo back to el Molí

-----Original Message-----
De: Dan Grew (U.K.)
Para: Charles Williams
Fecha: martes 13 de julio de 1999 19:27
Asunto: Thanks

Dear Charlie,
Just a quick note to say thanks for arranging our holiday. Everything went smoothly and we all had a fabulous time. El Moli surpassed our expectations - it really is a fantastic place. It was nice to meet Anna at last and despite the language barrier she helped us out wherever she could. We had some great days out around the region with some good food along the way. Your guide book proved useful and makes a good read. One constructive comment from my friend Jane is that it would benefit from some photographs, but we realise that it's still in draft form and printed from your PC.
I will be recommending El Moli to friends and who knows, I may even pay a return visit!
Thanks again Charlie.
Kind regards,
Dan Grew.
-----Original Message-----
De: Zak Raley (U.S.A)
Para: Charles Williams
Fecha: lunes 29 de noviembre de 1999 23:59
Asunto: RE: Villa in the Costa Brava area

Charlie:
The Mill was wonderful; we just ramped up the fire and drank red wine until the wee hours of the morning.
I am in Hong Kong/China this week, but would like to get you a review/thanks type message later in the week.
Ana was wonderful, and the dogs (Great Pyrenees?) which my wife loves, were great.
More later, and I could not recommend the place strongly enough.
Zak
-----Original Message-----
De: Philip Kirk (Hong Kong)
Para: williams.charles@wanadoo.es
Fecha: lunes 29 de noviembre de 1999 3:33
Asunto: el moli

Dear Charles,
Our stay at el Moli was the best part of our trip to Europe last summer. It is a delightful little hide-away, in a secluded part of a beautiful valley. We still talk about sitting on the steps in the sun (with the geckos), listening to the cow-bells, with a bottle of wine ... or two. We did have a look at some of the "sights" too, and particularly enjoyed the forest walks in the National Park, and strolls in some of the old villages. We even found out what fesols were at Santa Pau! We were pleasantly surprised by the very good restaurants in the area - especially Cal Enric(I think?), only a few minutes down the road from el Moli.
We really like the old mill house, which has been modernised to some degree - but still has its much of its orginal style. Perhaps it is not modern enough for some people. The Domingo's are very relaxed, friendly and helpful. More like neighbours than landlords. Ana shouldn't worry about her English - we had no trouble communicating with her.
Kind Regards
Philip and Katy
Philip Kirk
Hong Kong Geological Survey
-----Original Message-----
Go back to el Molí listingGo back to el Molí
De: Oonagh O'Brien (Ireland)
Para: Charles Williams
Fecha: lunes 11 de octubre de 1999 23:42
Asunto: RE holidays in El Moli

Dear Charles,
just to let you know that we had a wonderful week in El Moli. You were right, it really is magical, and we were in and out of the mill pond all day long.  I would get out of bed in the morning and fling myself in it before breakfast outside. Wonderful!  Ana and her husband were very nice and I was particularly excited that the Domingo family are descendants of Josep de la Trinxeria. The bed he was born in is in the house.   You probably know all this, but in case you dont he was a 16th century tax evader, who led a band of young men who refused to recognise French rule/i.e. taxes, and is credited in French Catalonia (where I was doing my anthropology fieldwork) with early Catalan Nationalism.  In fact I wrote an article saying some of this stuff!
We also saw the festa at Olot, and our little boy was very excited at the giants! We talked to Ana about reserving the house for the same week next year. The only thing I have to think about is how the pool will work with the baby as he will be two by then and it may be a bit dangerous.  But in principle I would like to reserve it just now and I will put my mind to the safety issue.
Hope all your other folks are pleased with their holidays. Car hire also worked out excellently.
Thats all for now, hope you got some holidays yourself,
Fins aviat,
Oonagh (and Antoni and Daniel)
----- Original Message -----
From: Grethe (Norway)
To: tourism@catalonia.net
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 3:19 PM
Subject: Back from El Moli de la Vila!

Hello Charles,

We're safely home again, have been for a week now (at least most of us).

Just wanted to let you know that everything was absolutely lovely, we had a wonderful stay, and the girls (9 and 10) were having a great time in and out of the water reservoir! My parents had a very relaxing holiday, and it was the perfect place for a group like us.

Ana and Joaquin are great people, which also became evident in a little special way; Irene, our daughter was sick the last week, throwing up several times, and seemingly getting higher fever as the day passed. We didn't like this, and asked Joaquin if he knew a doctor who could possibly come and have a look. He then jumped off his lawn mower, changed clothes, and was outside the mill before we could bring Irene downstairs! He took us to Olot and the emergency reception of the hospital, where he translated everything for us, waited while Irene was examined and treated (it turned out to be the common travel sickness, stomach ache, diarrhoea, throwing up). He then took us back, stopped at the farmacy (we could hardly keep him from paying the medicine!) and the local shop to buy mineral water and lemons for further treatment. This was invaluable help for us!!

All in all - we are very, very happy to have met those two!

I could park my bike in their shed (or barn!), together with the 4WD and the lawn mower. (I wouldn't recommend the dirt track to any other street bike rider, though... I managed when I arrived, and my husband took it out and back later, he's a lot taller and stronger than I am..)

The dogs found their way up to the mill nearly every day, to the kids (and our) great joy. We never had a problem disposing of BBQ leftovers :-) We have a Pyrenean ourselves, so it was very homelike having Anas dogs around!

As for our friends who stayed with Joanna at the apartment house. They are the most indecisive people I know! When they arrived at El Moli, they found out they could afford living at Capsec anyway, and my husband reluctantly asked Ana on their behalf (he speaks a little Spanish) if that was possible... It wasn't, which I think was a good thing. It turned out to be a lucky choice for them, at Joannas place. Beautiful place! They too had a very good time, and didn't want to go home at all after 10 days!

Your booklet was in use frequently, and we dined at Enric's and San Salvador. Both on your recommendation. And we were not disappointed. Marvellous food, very nice people, fantastic experiences. At Enric's the girls got a "childrens menu", which consisted of fillet of beef with french fries, and I don't think I've ever seen (and tasted) such tender meat! Simply unbelievable. It was like cutting soft butter.

The only thing I didn't find in the guide was something about opening hours. Both for shops and restaurants. We Norwegians are unused to the siesta and different opening hours of places to eat, and found ourselves outside locked doors on a few occasions... Perhaps it's not easy to write a general rule, but maybe a little hint? With approximate times?

The booklet offered a lot of valuable information, which we used during all of our stay. Keep up the good work!

You shouldn't be surprised if you hear from us again, for another wonderful stay around Catalonia!

Regards,
Grethe Tausvik, on behalf of the family & friends
letter from Linda Stanley (USA), who stayed at el Molí in September 1999.

El Molí is a wonderful vacation spot and we hope to return one day.

Muchas gracias for providing this guide for our visit to the Garrotxa (the county). Sunday dinner midday at Ca L'Enric was very good. Your comments about the restaurant are true to your word.
A trip to Banyoles on market day and a good walk around the lake gave us a real food apetite which we sated at Can Xabanet/Rancho Grande. Obviously a local favorite and the food was well prepared.
Besalú and Pont Vell Restaurant - an excellent midday meal of duck with pears and baby goat chops was excellent and at a reasonable price.
Hiking in Garrotxa Parc Natural has been a delightful experience. In a week's time we managed 3 very different trails and retracing only a bit of each to creat a new experience. The walk around the lake at Banyoles is well worth it.
Ate one meal at els Cols in La Canya. It was a tuesday night - we has reservations and we were the only guests for the evening. I think they must have opened just for us. The owner was most gracious and said that most of their business was at midday. The chef tried hard but the meal did not stand up to the one we had at Cal L'Enric.... I would try Les Cols again - but at midday.
Go back to el Molí listingGo back to el Molí

Why inland farmhouse rental?

Not only is it simply nicer to stay in an old restored farmhouse, but also …

  • eco-tourism helps preserve traditional ways of life
  • agro-tourism revitalizes depopulated villages
  • sustainable tourism controls the environmental impact (of tourism)
  • package tour operators leave little to nothing in local economy
  • mass tourism is an abomination - just look at so much of our coasts!
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This sign indicates that the Catalan Tourism Authorities regularly inspect and license the property. We have also visited and recommend all the properties we have selected for our listings.