Somewhere in the 1960’s the champagne region of France decided to own the word “champagne”. Declaring that; from then on only grapes grown in the French region of “Champagne” can be made into the bubbly and called “Champagne”. Thus giving Spain the opportunity to call their bubbly “Cava”. The Cava district is approx. 1 hour northwest of Barcelona located in the town of Santa Sadurni Anoia. It’s a lovely drive; we passed fields of bright red poppies and buttercups and greens of every shade. The Spanish are proud of their Cava and like the French have decided to own their own word “Cava”. When we drink Cava in the US, it is from Spain, very close to the town of Sadurni Anoia. To get a feel for the place we went on a tour of the Cordornui vineyards and caves. And by caves, I don’t mean any sissy caves, 18 miles of underground caves. I told our guide, “you could run a marathon down here!” Cordornui is the oldest vineyard in Spain and also the oldest business. The Cordornui family purchased this land around the same time Columbus was hiking around in the new world. They painted their house the same time Michel Angelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. The architecture of the older cellars and production houses have a relation to Gaudi; under his influence and or an apprentice; they are quite special and defiantly have some “Gaudi going on”.

The second treat of the day was to attend a fashion show in the main square of Sadurni Anoia; I say fashion show in a very local way. It consisted of beautiful clothing, hair-do’s, hats, shoes, bags, glitz modeled by the local gentry. The whole town showed up and we all clapped for the outfits, and for the models who were everyone to the mayor, police chief. Grandma and Grandpa. Great fun!