Candela Figueras feels at home in a corner of Cerdanya

Being from Montblanc, the Pyrenees that communicator Candela Figueras first knew, and that she likes, are those of Pallars Jussà and Sobirà. But she has ended up in Cerdanya. “For me, Cerdanya was the Pyrenees of the people from Barcelona, with the Cadí tunnel giving access. And perhaps, I even underestimated it a little, but now that I know it, I know it is a privileged, authentic and well-connected place. And I feel fortunate to be able to enjoy it”. Furthermore, one of the sports she has always liked is skiing, because it combines nature, adrenaline and can be done in a group. She is also fascinated by the stone villages, finding genuine local people there, hearing the cows moo and the bells ring, and seeing people working the fields. Having grown up between Lilla and Montblanc, Candela likes village life, its different houses clinging to each other, people greeting each other in the streets and chatting in bars, seeing the worked fields, the livestock grazing and hearing the hours strike on the church bell tower. “They give me peace and calm. And I find that in Cerdanya, although I admit that many weekends we move around the region fleeing the crowds that are there,” she explains. She has the theory that village people understand each other, as if they had a special DNA: “You have to win them over little by little and then they give you everything, like farm cats, which are distrustful at first, but then they are close and generous. I feel at home here.”For the last four or five years, whenever he can he escapes there on weekends and in the summer: “I am lucky and privileged to be able to be here and disconnect, in an apartment that my in-laws bought many years ago”. He enjoys walking with the dogs on a clearing near home, from where he sees Tosa and Cadí. When they walk in winter, he is amazed by the cold mist that comes out first thing in the morning. “Small details that I didn’t need before, but now I think I wish I could live here for a season”. He believes that everyone has various favorite places depending on their life stage, and now his calls for Saga: “I like to see Gus and Leia running freely on the paths and without strident noises, so different from Barcelona”. He comments that their energy changes when they are there, and he loves to see them so relaxed and calm.If he doesn't go skiing, he prefers to get up calmly, let the sheets stick a little, make a coffee, go for a walk in the mountains, perhaps reach Ger, dip in the pool, talk to Izaskun from the beach bar, return home, do a little work and go to a bar to chat: “At David’s in Alp I meet people who are like family, I like to meet Isidru or Keke and chat for a while. I'm happy having a vermouth with them”. When he is in Cerdanya, he takes the opportunity to rest and disconnect. It seems curious to him that when he lived in Montblanc he needed the freedom that Barcelona offered him. And now he needs the village life, the calm of the mountain, the dip in the pool, and the relaxed hours.