Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We left Granollers and the industrial zone of Valles Oriental behind us and headed north to Sant Hilary Sacalm

Sant Hilary Sacalm is known as the town with a hundred fountains. Two generations ago it was visited annually by hundreds of Catalans who came to taste the natural spring waters. There were hotels and restaurants and a busy Casino in the town centre. People came for two or three months in the summer with their whole families. Every year they would stay in the same hotel, walk the familiar pathes which lead to the different fountains, drink the various waters which were known to heal different parts of the body. They would meet the same friends every year and the annual ritual seemed as if it would never change

But now the town is quiet. Many of the hotels have closed down – one has even been knocked down to create a new plaça with a covered market. The Casino and the cinema have disappeared. Habits change and people stopped making this regular pilgrimage to drink the waters

But the fountains are still there

We visited the Font Ferro which heals the eyes

And the Font de Cirers which has the sweetest waters

And the Font del Pic which was not so popular

Font Vella is now the centre of a vast bottled water industry – presently owned by Danone!

That one was surrounded by signs saying ‘No Dogs’. Funny how big businesses go daft!

A lovely town with fresh clear air. I slept all the way home – drugged by cleanliness


“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” 

Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad