"Leaving the assaulted road, turning right, you reach Tordera in 5 minutes. It stands out for its size, in fact, it is the largest town in the Maresme region, the capital is Mataró. It is located on the border, next to the river Tordera and on the border with the region of La Selva and the province of Girona. Tordera is closer to Girona than to Barcelona. The old centre of the capital of Girona can be reached in 30 minutes by car. Recommended places and shops: In the church square we find Cal Terrassa (tel. 937640052, www.facebook.com/cal.terrassa), where we can have an aperitif in a pleasant and picturesque setting. You can also have lunch or dinner any other day of the week. It is an informal place but with very good service and its small dishes are very well cared for, with top-quality local products: black pudding, sausages, salads... The establishment has always had a reputation for good cuisine. A few years ago, the small bar inside was connected to another room, which was entered through the door of the side alley, which is under a very characteristic arch that supports a building with balconies where rooms could be rented in the past. Nowadays, this service is no longer offered, but the young people who currently run the operational part of the bar-restaurant (3rd generation), have managed to maintain the essence of the place, its good taste, some recipes inherited from their grandmother, Mrs. Teresa, an extraordinary person and great chef, always renowned for her hospitality, good service and traditional cuisine. In the absence of restaurants of reference, Tordera has several take-away establishments of traditional and homemade cuisine. Of particular note are Rostisseria la Mullera and Tocs de Cuina. Both establishments offer a variety of traditional dishes, roast chickens, sausages, well cooked and seasoned Carrillo and codillos, rice dishes and fideuás (noodles). Within this line of food we also recommend Ca l'Andreu. They have prepared dishes and very good roast chickens as well as other grilled or baked meats. But it stands out especially for its fresh meats and sausages made in-house. The sausages to be grilled over a wood fire or charcoal are very popular; but also the veal, pork, lamb and any other variety of meat. They also have a variety of sausages and hamburgers, to which they add mushrooms, spinach, fuá or mustard. Can Feixas is also a butcher's shop of extraordinary quality with excellent sausages, among which the paltruc or white bull stands out, which is really excellent. Both butcher's shops are located in the centre of the village, very close to each other. Halfway between them is the fishmonger's Peixos Canals-Carbo, where we can find a wide range of fresh fish, mostly from the fish market in Blanes, a neighbouring municipality, the first on the Costa Brava, which has a considerable fishing fleet. Just at the entrance to the town, coming in the same way we came in, is the most traditional and mythical establishment in Tordera: the Agricultural Cooperative. A unique building that houses the headquarters of the Tordera Farmers' Cooperative. In the past, the farmers used to sell their produce here and buy from their suppliers through the cooperative, which always obtained the best buying and selling prices. Nowadays, there are few farmers who are still involved, but the Union has an agro-shop where we can find fresh products km0. Products such as honey, vinegar or gantxet beans, of Torderenc origin, with Santa Coloma de Farners. A place not to be missed. Right in the square next door is the Churrería Tordera. This is a third generation of specialised xurreros who make each product retail with quality results. The churros and porras are highly recommended, as are the home-made chips. Excellent. A bit of history: the market A little more than 50 years ago, Tordera was a municipality full of farmhouses with a lot of activity. Most of the people worked in the fields, in agriculture and stockbreeding, especially in the production of cow's milk. The flat area, next to rivers and torrents, enjoys a land that is favourable to cultivation. As we move away from the river, we find forests until we reach the highest part, the Montnegre, which is about 400 m2 high; between the forests and the plain, we find a large number of farmhouses, some with their own wells and water mines, less abundant but sufficient. In this case, from underground streams from the Montseny or even from the Pyrenees. Wine growing also proliferated in this area. The old town of Tordera is reduced to the square of the church of San Esteban, which has a remarkable Romanesque bell tower and streets that, in one way or another, reach it. From C / Creus, C / Santa Llucia, long and narrow. It has always been famous for its Sunday market. A few years ago, the market was especially for animals and farm products, but began to arrive street vendors of clothing and hardware. Nowadays all the shops are open on Sunday mornings until 14:00. The market has always been very successful, welcoming people from nearby towns and villages as well as from Barcelona and Girona. There are also buses to make the journey easier. In the past, the Tordera market was an obligatory stop for tourist agencies that offered it as a show for foreigners, especially in the 1970s, when livestock was still exhibited and sold. Today things have changed; the animal stalls are not numerous, laying hens and some other breeding or domestic animals such as canaries or parakeets are sold. Most of the stalls sell textiles at good prices, as well as ironmongery, perfumery and a little more. The market is located between the streets of the centre of Tordera, but a large part of it runs along the road to Fogars and Hostalric. Most shops such as butchers are still open on market days, although the local trade has decreased. The peasants would come down from the farmhouses to sell their produce, stock up for the week, go to church and visit the inns or restaurants for breakfast. It was a long-awaited moment to chat with acquaintances, exchange ideas and share the week's adventures: inclement weather, plagues, illnesses.... Breakfast was always washed down with liqueurs and wines. The Torderencs watched the visitors carefully, with great curiosity, as their burnt white skin looked very different to them and together they commented on it. And so they happily spent their Sunday mornings at the market. Not until after midday did the peasants return home in their carriages, later in cars, tractors, bicycles or motorbikes, all loaded with provisions for the week. Some outsiders still stayed in the restaurants to eat and other foreigners went back to the hotel and to the beach. Then, the village is empty, the sellers picking up the stalls, those who barely made it to their Sunday table, or shouts from the municipal team doing the general cleaning of the streets after the trace left by the market all over Tordera. Nowadays everything is quite different, but the market is still a good plan for a Sunday morning. The fruit and vegetable stalls are extraordinary and with local products of very good quality. Normally the fruit comes from other regions, even from Lleida. Strolling through the streets and examining the produce, rummaging around until you find exactly what you're looking for. It is advisable to visit all the stalls, from the most outlying ones to those in the very centre of the town. Beyond the church of San Esteban, which has a Romanesque bell tower that does not conform to the central nave of the temple, which was finished on the day of San Bartolomé in 1817, in a neoclassical style, and a baroque façade. Tordera has several hermitages, the oldest of which is that of Sant Viçens, which can be found leaving Masbell, in the direction of Tordera, next to the asphalted road less than 200m away, on the right. It is a hermitage from the 10th century and bears the name of our neighbourhood. It should be noted that this road, along which we pass today, was part of the Roman Via Augusta, which ran from Cadiz to the French border with La Junquera, bordering, as far as possible, the Mediterranean".