This house is situated a kilometer from the road that runs between the A-7 highway at Sils and Santa Coloma de Farners up to Olot. This is an area known for its concentration of good restaurants, and Santa Coloma has an important Spa with very reasonable fees for day-guests. The dirt track to the house is in good condition. The house is surrounded by kilometers and kilometers of hilly fields and the wide sweep of the views of distant mountains on three sides is very impressive. The drive leads to the front of the house, where there is plenty of parking space. Directly in front of the house there is an old functional well with a little fish pond, and on the other side of that, some gardens, the pool area, and a small vegetable patch. Around the right side of the house is a little apartment the owner keeps for herself and uses when the house is not rented, now that her children are grown up, and she divides her time between Barcelona and Cal Micos, the house in which four generations of her family grew up.

The house
The early 18th C building has been completely remodeled, and most of the common rooms are on the elongated ground floor, each of which seems to have a convenient separate entrance from the lawn area in front. The main entrance opens onto a small vestibule, which separates the traffic: to the right for the hallway to the large kitchen and dining area, straight ahead for the staircase up to the first floor bedrooms, and a couple of steps up to the left leads to the main living room. (In the photos, this main living room is identified by the very tall glass front on the left of the old farmhouse, behind the haystack.)

Let´s start with the living room, which measures well over 45m2, and has three sofas, and dining or game table for 10 or 12, a small cast-iron chimney, a TV, and a good-sized radio/cassette/CD player. The sloping ceiling is high, and the room is bright and very spacious. Across the vestibule from the living room and on your way to the kitchen there is a small room with a small round dining table (the one with the fireplace in the photos) - maybe a good separate game room for the kids. From this room there is a hallway to the three downstairs bedrooms, each with a small private bathroom: two rooms with two single beds and one room with a double bed.

Next down the hall on the right is the kitchen, a large modern chrome restaurant-style kitchen, and beyond that, an L-shaped area which consists of the large dining room with three tables with six chairs each, and another sitting area with wicker chairs and a TV. So, so far we have encounter four different indoor sitting areas: the living room, the small round card table, the 18-seat dining room, and this second TV room with the wicker seating. Not bad. Upstairs there are four bedrooms, two on each side of the landing: each room with two single beds and small private bathroom with one of those small half-bathtubs that are really to only to use for showers. The rooms are somewhat sparely decorated with not much closet space, but at least the rooms are of a good size, and the views from the upstairs rooms is delightful.

All told, this house has a great deal going for it. A great location, plenty of room indoors and out, a private pool, and perhaps most especially, a very reasonable rental rate for what you get. Carmen, the owner, has arranged to cook meals for some of her past guests, and I have had rare reviews of her paella done on the outdoor barbecue. That doesn´t mean she always arranges to cook a meal for guests, and some guests wouldn´t want her to. But it gives you some idea of the sort of hospitality you can expect at Cal Micos. She charges basically the cost of the meal, about 12 Euros for adults including wine, and about 9 Euros for kids under 12. If you can get her to cook for you (she´s very busy with her job as medical archivist for local hospitals) I´m sure you won´t be disappointed. A quick anecdote: I fondly remember the first year I started working with Carmen, we had a bicycling group of aboout 12 who rented Cal Micos and did the Costa Brava for 10 days in September by moutain bikes. Carmen met them at the Girona airport and they peddled behind her car all the way to Cal Micos.

• 5 kms from the Spa towns of Caldes de Maravella and Santa Coloma
• a short walk from a quality horseback riding club
• near several Golf courses
• 6 km to municipal pool and tennis
• excellent restaurants nearby
• 4 kms to commuter train (1 hour) and buses into Barcelona in Sils

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