majorca spain
Majorca’s Growing Style Majorca may be notorious for its crowded beaches and high-rise resorts, but, as Bob Morris discovers, a new generation of style setters is finding inspiration in this Spanish island.
On a late-summer afternoon in the tiny village of Deià, a donkey brays and sheep bells clang. Nightingales dart through palms and yuccas and pines. The soft sunlight is reflected off the limestone houses, and violet morning glories cover everything, spilling from grape trellises and gates. On the terraced hillsides above town, olive trees grow under the craggy Tramuntana Mountains. This could be any ancient place, far from today, blissfully peaceful. Then, from one modest house, a song by Moby fills the air. A euphonious language can be heard from inside another house, and it most definitely isn’t Catalan. It’s English, the Queen’s English. A cell phone rings, competing with the singing birds. And on the narrow streets, there are soft footsteps, not of local schoolchildren or matrons, but of sleek blonde women in Hermès loafers. With its semitropical climate, Majorca, the largest island of the Balearics, has been drawing visitors from colder climes ever since George Sand wrote the dyspeptic Winter in Majorca about her 1839 sojourn here with Frédéric Chopin. “Majorca is the painter’s El Dorado,” she noted. In 1871, Archduke Ludwig Salvator abandoned the Austro-Hungarian Empire (where he was third in line to the throne) and lingered here
for years, working to preserve ancient olive trees and create walking paths in the mountains. He was embraced by the locals, who appreciated his reverence for their remote world. Sixty years later, Robert Graves, the English poet and novelist, settled in Deià, just inland from the northwest Majorca coast. “I found everything I wanted as a writer: sun, sea, mountains, spring-water, shady trees, no politics, and a few civilized luxuries such as electric light,” Graves wrote about his adopted home. “I wanted to go where town was still town; and country, country.” This year, the house where Graves lived will be opened to the public as a museum. “So now,” says Tomás Graves, the poet’s 51-year-old son, “my father’s legacy can be seen as something besides a tombstone.” Actually, Graves’s legacy can also be seen as the cause of the transformation of the quiet Deià of the early 20th century into today’s less quiet colony for privileged visitors. It was he who brought attention to Deià by inviting as his guests all manner of attention getters— Ava Gardner, Alec Guinness, and Peter Ustinov among them. And around the time he was entertaining his world-famous friends, Winston Churchill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Charlie Chaplin were staying at the
newly built Hotel Formentor. Just as the Arabs and Romans left their mark on the island in earlier times, so have the latter-day globe-trotters. Accessible by quick flight from most of Europe into a vast, modern airport, Majorca attracts more than 8 million visitors a year; one out of every four people on Majorca is a foreigner. Beaches have become as crowded with sunbathers as Coney Island. And in the summer, Tomás Graves can hardly find a moment to himself. Graves, a musician and author of Bread and Oil—a book about the island’s staple cuisine and traditional culture—darts around on all kinds of social calls. One night he’ll be at La Fonda, the Deià bar frequented by hipster kids with pierced noses and dowagers with aristocratic ones, drinking with a tabla player who has just given an impromptu concert in a nearby barn. The following weekend he’ll be overseeing a celebration of his father’s poetry. The socializing is endless. “In August, it’s like being in St.-Tropez,” says Jesse McKinley, a New York Times reporter whose family owns a cottage in Deià, near where Michael Douglas and Andrew Lloyd Webber have vacation houses. “And whenever someone famous arrives, everyone always
Marina De
the Balearic archipelago, hosts
thanks to the heterogeneous
ing its structure and facilities,
some of the most important
landscape, which also deliev-
Majorca has more than 42
yacht clubs of the island, while
ers one of the most diverse
marinas with all services and
the bay of Portals Vells enjoys
and internationally prestig-
respect for the environment.
international renown. The
ious offers, regarding nautical
The island has several marine
entire coastline is a treasure,
tourism. Constantly improv-
reserves such as Mitjorn, the
Illa del Toro and Cala Ratjada. Sports activities are
e Majorca
Majorca is a major internation- ful rocky coves that are only
Mediterranean climate. Tem-
al tourist destination, espe-
accessible from the sea, so it
peratures rarely fall below 5 Âş
cially for those in love with
is an interesting counterpoint
C and in summer can reach 30
the sea. To the northwest, The
to the sandy beaches of the
°. Also, Tramuntana reduces
Serra de Tramuntana creates
rest of the coast, which can
the winds from the north. The
stunning cliffs and delight-
be enjoyed thanks to splendid
Bay of Palma, the capital of
popular throughout the year thanks to the races that take
Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever. Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of
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he wineries in the centre of the island, where local raditions are as strong as ever. Majorca, the largest sland in the Balearics, may make you think of beach esorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both ts coastline and the interior – particularly in auumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the emperature is more suitable for outdoor activities.
One idea would be to spena week exploring the Serra de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, unning down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in ecognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its teep slopes over the cenuries. Or you could visit a ew of the wineries in the centre of the island, where ocal traditions are as trong as ever. Majorca, the argest island in the Balearcs, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways o enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particuarly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities.
One idea would be to pend a week exploring he Serra de Tramuntana on foot de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, wineries n the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever.
Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de
Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever. down the
west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever.