LA BISBAL GIRONA

La Bisbal is best known as the centre of the Catalan ceramics industry. Its most abiding image and the only one that many visitors see is of the dozens of pottery shops lining Carrer de l'Aigueta on the Girona road. There are good bargains to be had if you shop around, from simple glazed terracotta pots to innovative local designs. A twin arched bridge, Pont Veil, leads over the River Daro into the centre of the old town, which comes alive each Friday with one of the region's busiest markets. Wander the narrow lanes and you keep coming across little surprises a Gothic archway here, a fountain there, a shop selling hand-crafted wooden chairs or a shrine to the Virgin of Montserrat set high into a wall. The Romanesque bishops' palace, on the old town square, is a reminder that this quiet county town was once the seat of the bishops of Girona.