"In my adult life, I've managed to recreate my childhood vacations."

BarcelonaWhen she's on vacation, Clara Ferrando Quer, a cheesemaker from Surp (Pallars Sobirà), seeks out nature, although the last two summers she followed Bruce Springsteen on his European tour: "I'm a huge Bruce fan. We've adapted our vacations to be tourists where he performed concerts, in Stockholm and Dublin." Along the way, she takes the opportunity to visit national parks; she says she finds the cities all similar, with the same shops and people around and below.

"As an adult, I've managed to recreate my childhood vacations; it's a privilege," she says. She lives in the mountains, surrounded by nature, swimming in the river in the summer and skiing in the winter. Her job allows her to live the way she did when she was a child and went on vacation. It's been more than 20 years since she left Canovelles and her cheese factory in an industrial estate to settle in Casa Mateu, in Surp. "I've always had that enchantment with nature; I don't think I'll ever tire of it," she says, convinced. Winner of several awards for her revival of a traditional dry cheese, Sierra de oveja, she is also pleased with her work.

Of all his childhood summers, the most special was 1988, when he was 10 years old: "I touched every territory: the countryside, the beach, and the mountains, running through the garden, windsurfing, and building cabins in the woods." He lived in a farmhouse in Canovelles, where they had a vegetable garden, a farm with chickens and rabbits, a swimming pool, and fields to run around in. From the first day of vacation, he was in the countryside, with his bike and friends who came to his house to play. In mid-July, he went with his uncles to Hospitalet de l'Infant, where he windsurfed with his cousin. In August, when his parents were on vacation, he went to Menorca, to the apartment another uncle had let them use. And the rest of the days he spent in Cerdanya, picking forest strawberries, building cabins, and swimming in the river.

She doesn't take vacations in the summer; it's a busy time. With the fields and animals at their peak, her 18- and 16-year-old children help her at the cheese factory, and they prefer to get away in November or winter. Her work is linked to the land, in a tourist area where everything is saturated: "We try to spend the summer quickly and hidden away. I don't mind postponing vacations; I like it; I think places are too crowded now." When it's time to disconnect, she escapes for a few days. Then, she loves to stare into space and not decide. She says that as a self-employed woman, she spends all day deciding things and being decisive, which is why she likes to be surprised during vacations: "Whatever it is, I appreciate spontaneity."