Laura Ponts: "When I couldn't afford to enjoy the town, friends, and family, I didn't value it as much"

When I speak with Laura Ponts, digital content creator, gastronomic stylist, and cook, she is eating an ice cream by the pool in her village, in Ponts, where she says there are barely four other people and it's wonderful. She admits that if she had to name a beautiful place she has been to two or three times, she would choose Monells: “I love it! It's beautiful, day and night, to walk through those alleys, the cobblestones, the medieval center, the arcades… Taüll, despite being very different and being in the mountains, is also ideal, but my favorite place is Ponts”. In this town in La Noguera, which has around 2,000 inhabitants, you can walk along the banks of the river Segre, visit the castle of Sant Pere and enjoy the gastronomic offer. It has about thirty restaurants, it is a usual stop for gastronomic tourism on the Barcelona-Andorra route. “Although on winter afternoons everything is empty, for breakfast or lunch there is movement, especially at the roundabout where there are four restaurants. As they say, Ponts, a place to stop and eat”, she comments.When I lived in Ponts, when I couldn't afford to enjoy the town, friendships, and family, I didn't value it as much. I was used to always working – morning, afternoon, and weekends – at Cansaladeria Vilalta, the family business for four generations. It was many hours of hard work, making our own cured meats and cooking countless prepared dishes: “I didn't have much time. Instead, now I can have breakfast at the bar, sit on the terrace, talk with the neighbors and people passing by, those of us who have known each other all our lives.” The days I am in town, I take the opportunity to disconnect from the city, be in relax mode, with a quiet life: “I am aware that having free time is a luxury. Used to being almost 24 hours connected, I appreciate this rest, being able to stop, and having nothing specific to do.” Many friends from her group have moved to other cities, but she always looks for something to do, she likes each day to be different and to find new challenges. In the evenings, she takes the opportunity to do some sport, walk by the river, or go out for a drink. It is also the occasion to spend time with her mother, who from time to time asks her to visit her: “Yesterday we went to the market, to a friends' garden, where we cooked a ratatouille with the vegetables we had harvested, and then we had lunch together.” She says she loves the city, but she feels fortunate to be able to return to Ponts whenever she wants. “It’s only an hour and a half from Barcelona, and among many other things, I can be in a pool where there is almost total silence. Now I do like Ponts,” she admits.