On Friday, Kitty and I left the boys in Barcelona to go off on our own for a night. Michael would stay with his 21 and 19 year old brothers and his 21 year old cousin, while we drove down to spend the night at the Hotel Ferrero in Valencia, where we would dine at Paco Morales, a restaurant I had been looking forward to visiting ever since Paco left Senzone in Madrid two years ago.
We were concerned that the weather forecast called for significant rain, but luckily for us, that didn’ t amount to more than a few showers on the way down and we arrived at the hotel to a sky lovely, but for a few clouds. We were quite pleasantly surprised on the trip by an excellent paella fresh from the grill at a rest stop along the autopista in Valencia, so much so, that we stopped there again on the way back the next day.
Set about an hour from the City of Valencia, which happily our GPS took us through, the Hotel Ferrero is located by the old city of Bocairent, which appears to hang from the edge of a cliff . Driving by it made our jaws drop. We stopped to take a closer look.
From Bocairent, we continued a little further up the road to find the hotel. Small and luxurious, the hotel is an oasis of hedonism. The grounds are beautiful with walks that meander through gardens and orchards filled with produce destined for the restaurant. Our room was simply spectacular with a turreted patio overlooking a waterfall into the lobby of the hotel and the manicured grounds around it. But it was Paco Morales’ restaurant that made our visit the truly over-the-top experience that I hoped it would be (much more to come on this).
Paco Morales
While we were dining on the beautiful and delicious plates prepared by Morales and his team, our boys were cooking their own dinner using the fish and some of the vegetables that we had not been able to eat the night before. Not only had they and the apartment survived, but they had a great meal and the kitchen was actually in good shape upon our return the next day.