The San Oliver fish market in Palma

A cool and rainy start to the day in Palma did not stop work on the nets

Many of the boats in the fishing fleet in Palma are quite small and this is gratifying because you know that where the boats are small stocks of fish generally remain good and there is little evidence of over fishing. As the months pass and Spring bids farewell to Winter the catch changes as different fish migrate through the Mediterranean. The Winter typically yields a catch of monkfish, hake, bream and sea bass with a number of varieties of squid. Yesterday, I saw a small local fishing boat dock and unload a big catch of sardines. The boxes on the dock were stacked to the brim with glistening silver and black sardines; the freshness of this catch was detectable not only in the perfect condition of the sardine's skin but in the lack of smell that all to often accompanies these oil rich fish once they have finally reached our kitchens.

Sardines at the market

I was not surprised to discover that the San Oliver fish market today in Palma was selling a good quantity of locally landed sardines but I also spotted the first bonito I had seen of the season, which more than suggests that the bonito have ventured into the Mediteranean in their seasonal chase of the vast shoals of sardine. In the same migration chasing the sardine shoals, one would expect to find shoals of mackerel, and while not in great numbers, there were a few stalls selling beautifully coloured and fresh mackerel. One fishmonger was filleting mackerel for customers. His sharp knife sliced through the metallic skin revealing the opalescent pink flesh. With another easy sweep of his blade this superb fillet was released from the bone and presented to the customer in the palm of his hand.

A selection of various fresh fish

Brujos - beautiful translucent small flatfish

An early start at Bar del Peix, Palma

One of my favourite places to eat in Palma is the Bar del Peix at one end of the San Oliver fish market. The fish, sepias [cuttlefish], pulpo [octopus] and other produce do not have to travel far from the nearby stalls to be prepared and cooked in the confined space behind the counter. From early morning until mid afternoon this bar is more often than not very busy, and the counter and walkway around the bar become very crowded with shoppers, family groups, and local people who chose to take a brief break during their day, or drop in for a bite to eat and a chat. Plates of fried fish, octopus, calamars or shellfish are devoured with great relish accompanied by a glass of wine or beer.

calamari

This is a lively place and does not lack character. On one occasion I recall an elderly man, known to many at the bar (or maybe not), being jeered and becoming a great source of amusement for the staff and other patrons because he chose to order a glass of water with his fried anchovies; it was before 9 a.m. and clearly there are strict standards to be adhered to here when the fish is so fresh. This is a great little eatery, and from your perch at the counter all the life, colour and goings on of the fish market can be experienced while enjoying your food, This combination of hustle and bustle and the proximity of the wonderful fresh fish is an atmosphere which no exclusive Conran restaurant could ever recreate.

New purple artichokes

No trip to the San Oliver market is ever complete without an amble through the fruit and vegetable stalls. The strawberry harvest begins very early in Spain and mounds of bright red strawberries leave a noticeable scent in the air. My eye was drawn to other new season arrivals such as the purple artichokes and the distinctive and vibrantly coloured blood oranges.

Market day at Soller, Mallorca

The railway station at Soller

During any visit to Palma I try and treat myself to a little escape to Soller and Porto Soller. The train is the nicest way to travel north and traverse the mountains. As the old train rattles its way north at a sedate speed you pass through fields of olive trees and almond trees tended by small flocks of sheep.

The town of Soller is almost totally surrounded by mountains which rise steeply and tower above the small town. The air is often still in the town and area enclosed by the mountains, and last weekend was no exception. Thermals gradually developed during the day and small fires burning branches and trimmings from the seasonal pruning of the trees wafted their smoke around the hillsides.

Saturday is market day in Soller and there is a distinctive rural air to the small covered market market. Locally produced olive oils, honey and cured meats can be found along the streets and in the covered market the freshly picked wild asparagus caught my eye; water-filled buckets contained bunches of these long thin green spears. The wild asparagus can be picked by anybody and while out for a walk quite often you can see people emerging from woods with bags of asparagus, or simply picking the spears growing in the undergrowth by the pavement or road.

Buckets of wild asparagus in the covered market at Soller

The locally cured meats are very distinctive and known as sobrasada. They come in all shapes and sizes but typically the ground spiced pork is preserved in a pigs stomach, and other intestinal passages. I would not discourage you from using your imagination at this point but merely consider the fact that the full length of the intestinal tract is used. Personally, I enjoy a plate of sobrasada with an old manchego or a cheese from Mahon. Thesae along with some locally baked bread, which is practically salt free, liberally dipped in olive oil the combination of flavours come alive. The tastes while being quite different do complement each other.

A stall selling a variety of sobrasada on the street in Soller

Soller has the distinction of being situated not far from a port, which can be reached by tram. This means that there is a source of locally landed fish, and the covered market had two small stalls selling fresh fish. I drew confidence from the fact that not too many varieties of fish were available; the lack of waxen sides of tuna and swordfish and other less seasonal varieties meant the sellers were not supplementing their stock from other markets. A lively trade was taking place at these stalls and people were busy making their choices and discussing special requests for the specimens they were purchasing.

A typical display from a stall in the fish market at Soller

No trip to Soller is complete without a trip down to Porto Soller. As I have noted above, you can catch the tram or indeed undertake the trip on foot. The walk takes about 45 minutes but at this time of year you can admire the colourful orange and lemon groves as you go, and the colours can be breathtaking.

A rich and verdant orange grove between Soller and Porto Soller

By early afternoon my body was beginning to make a few reasonable demands and a relaxing lunch seemed to be the answer to most of them. Furthermore, the warm sunshine needed to be counteracted and so a little chilled rose wine and some freshly cooked calamars were devoured with great satisfaction.

Calamars a la plancha

Highlights from a short trip to Carcassonne

The northern walls of the walled city at Carcassonne are built upon the remains of the Roman enceinte

Corinne had been asking me for some time to go on a short break to the south of France. A combination of tight budgeting and finding flights at the right price brought us to Carcassonne.

The fortified walled city has a long and convoluted history from Roman times, when the site was known as Julia Carcasum. Surviving the medieval period and the Albigensian crusades in 1209 and sieges during the 14th century, it was restored and rebuilt during the late 19th century. Of particular interest to me were the remnants of the Roman fortifications on a portion of the northern wall. The mix of stonework and brick strata in the walls is a characteristic of Roman building and its survival is a testament to the strength of this construction technique. The fact that the Romans were required to fortify the site is suggestive of the cautious approach they adopted with nearby tribes and the not unreasonable belief of the these tribes bellicose nature.

Market day at Place Carnot, Carcassonne

Today Carcassonne is a sleepy town situated on the Aude river valley, the source of which is not too far away in the Pyrenees. Its culture still springs from the fact that it was once the principal town of the then border province of Languedoc, and yearns somewhat for the Cathar people whose hilltop strongholds and villages populated the region. Unfortunately, the Cathars were targeted during the Albignesian crusade in the early 13th century. Condemned as heretics by Pope Urban II, a crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III in 1196. The Cathars were essentially eradicated when the last remaining strongholds of Montsegur and Queribus were sacked in 1244 and 1255 respectively.

Early asparagus crop from the Aude

Carcassonne comes alive on Saturdays when the market takes over Place Carnot. Early March is an interesting time in the marketplace because some local produce is available. We found a stall selling the first asparagus from the Aude valley. Typically, the Aude asparagus would not be harvested until late march and asparagus of Spanish origin, mainly Navarre, will supplement the early demands before the arrival of the French crop. Other foreign visitors to the market were a variety of artichokes from Murcia in Spain, a number of which took up some valuable space in my bag on the way home.

Artichokes from Murcia

Bettaraves cuits au four

Decoratively topped jars of vegetable pates

Everywhere I go I find a little something which I would not normally expect, and Carcassonne was in no way different. Many stalls in the market sold dishevelled and unappetising looking beetroot which had been slowly cooked. Some of the beetroots displayed signs of being cooked in a wood fired oven, being charred, sooty and shrunken. Looks are deceiving and once the blackened skin has been cut open a sweet delicious gem is revealed inside. These were most likely the fruits of winter produce or stores. Elsewhere preserves, jams and vegetable pates were to be found in colourful abundance.

Towns at the foot of and throughout the Pyrenees have always had an attraction for me. The Pyrenees themselves dictate the way and pace of life, providing for and imprisoning the mountain villages at various times during the year. The conditions do not deter the people who live there and I could easily see why one would not want to live anywhere else.

The Roman amphitheatre at Beziers

A View of Beziers from the ramparts looking west

Two years ago I passed Beziers on the train en route from Marseilles to Bordeaux. As the train pulled out of Beziers I saw for the first time the town's walls, citadel and cathedral perched high on a hillside. While on a short break to Carcassonne, I suggested to Corinne that we might consider a short excursion to either Beziers, Narbonne or Toulouse, which were within easy reach. We settled on Beziers and Corinne had yet again chosen to stand by and look at me roaming around gazing at another pile of stones, followed by an enjoyable, amiable and lengthy lunch at Restaurant Cote Sud, 19 rue Viennet.

The Romans founded a colony on the site of the modern town of Beziers, naming it Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum, on or about 36 - 35 B.C. Given the strong strategic qualities of the topography of this hilltop site and the proximity of the river Orb at the foot of the hill of St Nazaire to the west, it is not difficult to argue with their choice. The Romans were not the first to chose this site as archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of habitation dating to the 6th Century B.C.

The views commanded from the ramparts today further underline the importance of the site; the town stands at a point where the valley is almost at its broadest providing uninterrupted views to the north, west and south, most importantly up the valley towards Narbonne and beyond. Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum was also chosen because of the fact it stood on the Via Domitia. This was an overland route constructed by the Romans in 118 B.C. initially linking Italy to the colonia Narbo Martius [Narbonne], but as time went on and expansion continued the route was extended into Spain.

Medieval buildings along Rue des Arenes the curve of which was dictated by the amphitheatre

I initially wanted to find the Roman amphitheatre which I understood to be south east of the cathedral of St Nazaire. Finding Rue des Arenes in the quiet residential Quartier of St-Jacques, where some of the streets in the area were clearly following an ellipse, I knew the amphitheatre could not have been too far away, but we could not catch a glimpse of any opening or space that would reveal the remains of the amphitheatre.

Detail from a street sign

Getting desperate we asked an old man where we might find the amphitheatre, and he pointed us in the opposite direction where we found locked steal gates preventing entry and a view of the site. I was initially disappointed but climbed the barrier to get a better view. My disappointment continued as I always thought there would be more obvious visible signs of the amphitheatre's remains. A clearance where a part of the central area of the original arena had originally been was now roughly preserved as a garden or park with a number of surrounding buildings backing onto it, and others built across an area to the south where the amphitheatre had been dismantled.

View of the amphitheatre site looking north

The amphitheater at this particular site was in no way similar to the amphitheatres I had seen at Arles and Nimes. The scale of the amphitheatre at Beziers was never going to rival those structures; the structure at Beziers is estimated to have measured approximately 108.3 metres by 88.6 metres and reported to be capable of seating 13,700 people. However, as I gazed at the site an impression of the amphitheatre was slowly being built in my mind as I pondered the levels of occupation, some built directly on top of the supporting arches of the amphitheatre. I gradually felt quite fortunate to be viewing an amphitheatre from another perspective i.e. beneath more recent levels of occupation which had their own merit. In the case of the amphitheatre at Arles over 200 buildings were cleared from the structure and the areas around the amphitheatre during the 1820s in an attempt to restore and preserve the amphitheatre. Thus today at Beziers you can get a real idea of how a Roman amphitheatre impacts on a modern street plan and development of a town following its demise.

View to the north-west showing the top edge of an area where spectators possibly the media cavea would have been seated and structures to support further seating below

The amphitheatre is reported to date to the third quarter of the 1st century A.D. placing it in the great period of amphitheatre building under the Flavian emperors. The topography of the hill of St-Jacques lends itself well to the building of an amphitheatre as the south and west sides are built into the hillside. The amphitheatre in situ was built with stone like many of the other Roman amphitheatres built at this time; there is no evidence of brick in the visible remains of the substructures, arches and supports of the amphitheatre at Beziers.

A sketch or impression of the amphitheatre at Beziers dating to circa 1627 has been discovered, and this gives us an idea of the dilapidated state of the structure during the early 17th Century. It clearly illustrates the fact that not all of the structure had been reduced as a section of the elliptical exterior wall remains [page 131 of the PDF]. The sketch appears to have been made from a vantage point or building close to the aptly named Place du Cirque to the North of the amphitheatre. Still visible today is an elliptical wall of the arena in the sketch which appears in the photograph below.

View of the amphitheatre remains looking south

The thought that I was exploring the Roman amphitheatre after it had become inhabited and absorbed by the swelling population of the town following the demise of the amphitheatre from the end of the 3rd century A.D. was becoming more attractive to me. However, the fact that I could only do this from a distance, and at that from selected perches on top of various fences was not so attractive.

The stonework taken from the amphitheatre at Beziers was said to be used in the construction of the town's walls. This may be correct as the Roman provinces of Gaul were gradually destabilised and plunged into turmoil. Beziers would not have escaped the notice of invading Visigoths and Franks and was devastated by being sacked on numerous occasions over the last 2000 years; the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 being one of the most infamous. One might have thought there would have been little or no evidence on this site to be found of the Roman occupation, and in particular decorative material. However, in April 1844 10 statuary busts dating to the Julio-Claudian period were discovered in a cellar of a house on what is now called Boulevard Paul Riquet. The busts are now in the Musee Saint-Raymond in Toulouse.

As the Cathedral of St Nazaire at Beziers rolled into my line of sight as I sat on the train two years ago, the view was quite alluring and clearly echoed an ancient past. In reality the town of Beziers is a little disappointing. The lack of a map at the gare SNCF signals a general lack of interest. I may be biased but the Mairie or town council does not go out of its way to make the amphitheatre a landmark or accessible, and this is most unfortunate for the town. A few viewing platforms in locations, possibly in places where I was forced to climb fences, with informative displays (vandal proof if required) would not interfere or have a negative impact on the ambiance of the residential area, or indeed turn it into a tourist trap. Beziers clearly needs a boost to rise above the dull mediocrity and in many places the filth. This could be a start!