"The village of the parents is the antithesis of Barcelona"

Since always, Carme Gasull, a journalist specializing in food and gastronomy, spends her summers in Rocafort de Queralt, in Conca de Barberà, her parents' village and her favorite place in Catalonia. There she has her roots, part of the family, direct and indirect, and the group that continues to spend summers in the village, which has fewer than 250 inhabitants in winter, although it grows a lot during holidays.

“Cal Forner was my aunt and uncle's house, the last bakers in the village. I remember the smell of bread, the people, my aunt at the counter and my uncle baking, floured with a white empire t-shirt,” she explains. When strangers arrived, and they had to double the bread, my aunt remembered perfectly what she had sold to each one, and if at any time there was no bread, she would go to someone's house to get some. Her cousin, who when he was young and returned from a party went straight to work, inherited the house and the bakery, and has kept the ancient oven's hole, some shovels, the scales and the three chairs where people sat waiting their turn. Small shops were where life was concentrated, and preserving this space is a recognition of what this meeting point represented.

Practically the three months without school, Carme stayed in Conca: “My father was a waiter, he always worked on weekends and usual holidays”. The summer she was sixteen was special, she was chosen as 'pubilla' (village's best representative) at La Nit del Cava, for Sant Roc, and among other excursions in the region during the rest of the year, she represented the village by going to the grape harvest festival in Espluga de Francolí. Now that the parents are old and no longer go to the village, Carme spends fifteen days there with her family: "We are their eyes, the link with their village. For us it is paradise, our son adores Rocafort, even though he doesn't have many friends there, he loves it". Besides family roots, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are a large family, they form a tribe, the municipal swimming pool is wonderful and is next to the sports court, you can walk everywhere, there are no traffic lights or noise, they have a vegetable garden and chickens… “It is the antithesis of what we experience in Barcelona. There everything is fine for him, the tractor, playing, going to hunt roe deer. He forgets about technology and is like me when I was little", she explains. Except for shopping, as there are no shops, she finds that everything is easy. Carme's parents don't have a house in the village, so when they go there they stay at their cousin's house: “Privacy disappears, but we don't care, I gladly pay the pledge,” she admits. She comments that they seem Sicilian, there's no way to do anything alone, they have to request an audience because, if not, someone always joins in. tato. They call each other tata and tato: “We are a tribe, it doesn't matter if we are first cousins or second cousins”. She explains that when they leave, they miss it a lot and don't like to go on weekends because they pass too quickly. "We like to settle in, set up camp, unpack the suitcase, hang the clothes and know that we will be there without rushing,” she says, smiling.