Cows, Witches and Culinary Adventures in Benasque

Exploring a hidden jewel in Pyrenees Mountains of Spain

As you read this, I am wearing a bright blue apron that shows a tacky - I mean cute - little Holstein kissing a bull, and they are standing on the word “Benasque.”

You may ask, “Where in the world is Benasque?” And to this I pretend to choke on a sip of wine and say, “You’ve GOT to be kidding! You’ve never heard of Benasque?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me” were my exact words when my husband announced he would be speaking at a two-week science conference at a village in Spain “somewhere in the Pyrenees.”

Visions of us eating paella and drinking cerveza on a glistening Spanish beach appeared, and then disappeared as our plane landed in Barcelona and we boarded a bus headed north into the Pyrenees Mountains, and on to Benasque.

To my surprise, the picturesque ride past small towns and vast fields of yellow swaying sunflowers was quite enjoyable, and it didn’t seem to last the scheduled five hours.You can truly begin to appreciate the geography of Benasque when you hear the bus motoring loudly up the last few miles of narrow, winding roads in the Pyrenees Mountains. Each time the driver uses the brakes, you get the same sense of relief as you would when you jerk to a screeching halt at the end of an antique wooden roller coaster ride.

When you start perceiving yourself as a speck amid 63 summits more than 3,000 m high, that’s when you know you’re getting really close to the village surrounded by the tallest peaks of the Pyrenees.

When we arrived, Benasque was truly an optical illusion, one moment an affluent mountain resort, then with the blink of an eye, a remote village. Our hotel, the San Marsial, was not far from the bus stop, so we walked up the sidewalk along the main street, Avda de Francia, and crossed cobblestone roads all the while trying to distinguish between ancient Romanesque stone buildings and those created by talented architects of today.

This community of 1,200 is so small there isn’t a place you can’t walk to visit. Yet next to the rustic bakeries, butcher shops and groceries there are 11 hotels catering to European tourists, specialty stores gleaming with displays of outdoor sporting gear, and an abundance of gourmet goods including cheeses, chocolates and wine.

But nothing compares to the souvenir shops where you are immersed in a miniature world of ghoulish witches and cartoonish cows. The cows are everywhere-on mugs, totebags, keychains, and aprons. There are thousands of figurines, but no obvious clues as to what they represent.

When we were greeted by the owner of Hotel San Marsial, I noticed the modern amenities. Our room was equipped with modern plumbing, a TV, even a blow dryer. We also found out you can drink the water in Benasque; there is a hospital that will open just for you even in the wee hours of the night; and the village doctor is a knowledgeable young woman known to care for tourists and other patients at no expense.

The owner of our hotel spoke Spanish, French, and German, but not English. Lucky for us he employed an English-speaking tourism student, Guy, who later told us he was also an opera singer. If this wasn’t enough indication of the diversity of people in Benasque, our dining adventure certainly was.

We stood in front of a restaurant with our Spanish-English dictionaries, trying to make sense of anything on the menu, as a smiling waitress asked us something we couldn’t comprehend. We managed to speak enough Spanish to order the special and spent quite some time trying to figure out what animal was sacrificed to make this tasty dish-to which our waitress replied “Oh, that’s rabbit.” in perfect English.

A native of New Zealand who enjoyed reminding us Benasque is a “village” every time we said “town,” she seemed to find amusement in keeping her own travel adventures and language abilities a mystery.

We had a similar experience at another restaurant, but interestingly, we chose to go back to these restaurants over and again. The Hotel Ciria offered the most delicious gourmet cuisine, but the waiter watched me struggle with my Spanish a little too long before he answered “No, we do not have butter.”

We soon gave up asking “Hablas Englais?” and discovered this was truly the way to experience Benasque. We surprised ourselves with quail, venison, escargot, and many versions of flan.

We enjoyed hiking trails marked by signs we couldn’t understand, and marveled at how such a place could have a center for science that hosts workshops for world-renowned scientists, though not a surprising choice when you consider the tranquility Benasque offers.

When you’re done exploring the cuisine, there are opportunities in skiing, mountain climbing, rafting, swimming, hiking, horseback riding and if that’s not enough, France is just a short drive across the mountains.

The last day of our adventure, we noticed a farmer herding his cows across the Avenida and things started to make sense. We had discovered the locals kept their animals in courtyards within their buildings, well-hidden from tourists like us.

“But what about the witches?” I asked.

“They live in the mountains ... a myth, is that how you say?” replied Guy.

We never did find out if the witches were there to protect the village or haunt it, but either way, some adventures taste best when seasoned with a bit of mystery, and Benasque was certainly a village with lots of flavor.

Author: Ozden Mathews