My group of Spanish friends are now offering their villas in Rural Andalusia for rent. I have stayed in two of those listed personally and visited the region a dozen or more times, as well as making 3 trips across to northern Morocco. The village of Gracelema is a truly wonderful place in the mountains in a national park with fantastic walking ,wildlife and plants. Corinne de LHoneux is a Belgian living in Jerez de la Fronterra. She has set up the website called www.lesmaisonsdecorinne.com . The website is currently only in french, but her husband Heve speaks perfect english so can handle any U.K. enquiries. It is a wonderful area of traditional wine growing, pig and bull rearing, fields of wheat and sunflowers, cork oaks and an unspoiled atlantic coastline. My friend Alphonso Osborne who owns two of the cottages, is a keen anglo-phile- visiting us most years. This is not suprising as his mother is a Gordon , her branch left the Aberdeen area of Scotland as Catholics at the time of the covenanters/english civil war. His father’s side are ’Osborne’ s, who left Exeter at the same time to send Sherry back to England from the little port of Puerto Santa Maria, where the family remain (in abundance!) today. His 1st cousin Ignacion is the M.D. of the family wine company which as well as sherry and rioja, is the largest brandy producer in Spain , thier symbol is the famous black bull, seen on hillsides across the country, devised by Alphonso’s father and recently the cause of a row with the Sabatero government , who claim their logo as a national emblem. Over the centuaries ,each generation used to come back to England to be educated at Eton, up until the Franco era, in the same way as the ‘port families’ continue to ‘remain english’ . Alfonso’s grandfather, the late Count Thomas Osborne , was the last to do so. Amusingly my best man , Gerald Osborne, also traces his roots back to Exeter, and so they affectionately regard each other as fellow kinsmen, and we’ve all enjoyed going back and forth to each others homes for 20+ years. I would recommend anyone to visit this unique and charming area of real Spain. Will Friend , April 2010
Alphonso and Danuxia Osborne
Anglo Belgio Spanish Trip to Marocco , Jan 09 for Alphonso's birthday