ClardeBosc, Albanyà Holiday Rentals & B&B

Description for B&B:

Magnificent farm-house of the 17th century, in a wild and untouched region of the Girona Pyrenees, a dream for all those who enjoy hiking or mountain-biking in the wild. Surrounded by woods and silence for many miles around, at night we can't see a light other than the moon and the stars. The house is on a mountain pass, which offers spectacular views of two valleys. We enjoy more than 300 sunny days a year.

We rent out two guest-rooms on the first floor of the beautifully refurbished house where we live, and an independent apartment on the ground floor.
The biggest room, with a private bathroom, is furnished with a double bed and a double futon sofa-bed; and the other, with two individual beds. We also have a dining room with a wood-stove reserved for our guests. The apartment
consists of a big luminous hall, with high vaulted ceilings, with an American kitchen, the fireplace, the big dining table and a comfortable living area including a sofa-bed; a sleeping room with a double bed and a set of bunch-beds; a spacious bathroom; and a cosy garden terrace under stone vaults, with a barbecue.
The house is practically self-sufficient: the heating is worked by the central fireplace, and electricity is produced by solar panels. We make our own bread, pasta, game sausages, marmalades and jams (from our fruit trees and from wild berries and nuts), and we grow our own organic vegetables. We breed chicken and ducks.
We also offer half-board and full-board service, using our organic products, as well as those of other local farmers, to cook our specialities.

We are on a privileged middle-mountain area, from 600 to 1,500 metres above sea level, a superb balcony over the luminous plane of Empordà running in silver-greens towards the sea. This is Alta Garrotxa, a rough, solitary middle-mountain region that offers a rich and contrasting landscape: with Mediterranean dry forest (holly oaks, oaks and pine trees) on the sunny slopes and lush humid vegetation (chestnut trees, beeches, black poplars) on the shady ones; deep ravines with gurgling mountain streams, gorges, cascades and with alpine meadows, sheer rock walls, karstic formations. A region historically scarcely populated, yet dotted with scattered farm-houses and Romanesque chapels on impossible spots. One is far more likely to bump into a deer, a wild pig, a hare or a fox rather than into another human being. Silence is filled with birds galore. No electricity nor telephone cables, nor any asphalt stain this region 32.865 hectares wide. Here you can forget your daily strife and immerse yourself in Nature, wander under the enchanted shade of the chestnut forest and doze on a hammock under an oak tree. Our house is 15 minutes from the river Muga (meaning "border" in Basque, for it runs along the French-Catalan border) where, in the summer, it’s a heavenly pleasure to dive in its natural pools of crystal-clear icy water. Autumn is the season to hunt for mushrooms, chestnuts, figs and blackberries; in spring you will find wild strawberries, cherries and asparagus, and more mushrooms yet. And then, in winter, one enjoys a slightly whitened landscape under a blue sky, without the severe cold of the higher mountain.

We offer guided hiking tours, as well as horse-back tours, to discover some of the best views of this region unparalleled for its rugged terrain (which accounts for its isolation in spite of its being not so high), the variety of landscapes, the over 40 Romanesque (10th to 12th centuries) chapels from a time when these were the southernmost Christian lands and the net of winding trails which bespeaks its historically strategic importance for those who had to cross the Pyrenees on foot.
There are also several marked mountain-bike routes for serious mountain-bikers crossing this region.