VISITING

Accommodation-wise, apart from the rather primitive camping pitches, there’s an albergue for use of the members of the Catalan Naturist Association, and there are plans to build an 80-room rural hotel. For now, the best bet is to stay in Sensualitat, Amor, Natura, Amistat, or any one of the other charmingly-named rustic houses and studio-apartments. Built from local stone, the grey-fawn façades blend in perfectly against the greenness of the countryside. Cool and airy in the summer and with a wood stove for colder nights, the houses come equipped for self-catering. Visitors will be searching in vain for a fridge, however. Instead, there’s a giant cooler box and ice cubes are fetched from the freezer in the main kitchen.

For people who like the sound of El Fonoll as a place to visit, but have reservations about being naked anywhere other than their bedrooms, bathrooms and possibly on a beach, it is possible to try a small dose first, by going along on a Sunday for the highlight of the week: Vives’s gourmet vegetarian paella.

Scores of visitors come from miles around to take part in this munificent naturist experience. Everyone lends a hand chopping sacks of onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, red peppers, green peppers, courgettes, artichokes, green beans, and enough garlic to see off a pack of vampires. Golden olive oil coats a paella pan the size of a small flying saucer. In go the vegetables. Snap, crackle, sizzle. Then the rice. Smoky, garlicky flavours fill the air. Vives and one or two helpers stoke the fire, stirring the ingredients with a spoon that looks like it would serve as a pole vault. In goes the stock. Spatter, bubble, glup. Slow food at its slowest best. Until, at last, diners sit down at long tables to piles of roasted pepper and aubergine salad, porrones filled with thick red wine and one of the tastiest paellas to be sampled anywhere—with or without clothes on.

The community spirit is an essential part of the El Fonoll ethos, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the Sunday meal. El Fonoll is quite a unique way to pass a weekend. For those who think that back-to-nature buffness in a gorgeous and secluded rural setting could be just the ticket, they are not likely to find a better place for it.

Emili Vives –Man with a mission

There is no mayor in El Fonoll, but if there were, make no mistake, his name would be Emili Vives, a man of vision, tenacity and plenty of seny (sense), who has battled to fulfil his dream of restoring the abandoned village. “When I bought this place in 1998,” he said, “there wasn’t a tile in place; it was a total ruin. I thought it would be beautiful to bring a village back to life.” Unfortunately, not everyone in the surrounding area felt the same and every time he tries to push forward with new projects he meets with what he describes as, “persecution from right-wing religious cliques.”