Summer is well and truly here and if you’re finding the heat too much, why not celebrate her arrival in higher altitudes and picnic on the slopes of a conjuratory?

Constructed in locally mined marble, with 15 bedrooms, chapel, billiard room and swimming pool, you would think that Chateau d’Aubiry, the magnificent building on your right half way between Le Boulou and Céret, would have been snapped up by now.

Empúries, (coming from the Greek “Emporion” meaning market place or shopping centre) lies midway between the Costa Brava town of L’Escala and the tiny village of Sant Martí. Archeology fans will be in ruins heaven!