Susana Lourenço in Tavira
POSTCARDS FROM…
Take a trip to Tavira in the Eastern Algarve - the whitewashed, time-old fishing town known for having more churches than any other in Portugal - with Susana Lourenço, Art Director & Head of Communications at one of the country’s favourite Design Escapes, São Lourenço do Barrocal.
Heading South each summer to holiday in her homeland, Susana returns year on year to feel free, unburdened & content. To drift between the sweet miasma of burgeoning orange groves, the heady scent of the vines & vineyards, the smoky aroma of sardines roasting on coals, & the sharp tang of the fish markets down by the sprawling salt flats.
Postcards from…is a series of love letters to Portugal & a collection of insider guides from our Design Escapes muses; locals & visitors that travel with their eyes open, led always by a quiet & authentic beauty.
Images by Susana Lourenço.
Where are we waking up?
It’s a slow wake-up in Tavira, a beautiful historical city in the eastern part of the Algarve, filled with traditional houses with ornate platbands bordered by salt pans & touched by the sea breeze which comes in from the coastal lagoons of Ria Formosa. We have a house here, & it’s a place we keep coming back to for our holidays & weekend breaks year after year.
How are we spending the morning?
We’re taking a boat from Fuseta to one of the Ria Formosa’s white-sand beaches & walking around its dunes & salt marshes, taking a peek at its birds, from Azure-winged magpies to dunlins & even flamingos.
It's time for lunch, what & where are we eating?
We’re tucking into some small, typical Algarivan dishes: clams, oysters, or other local shellfish, definitely too, some tuna ‘muxama’ with fresh goat cheese & octopus salad with tasty tomatoes & diced peppers. I love the restaurants in Fuseta or Santa Luzia along the fishing ports.
Time for our afternoon plans, where are we going?
To walk off our lunch, we’re visiting a couple of nearby charming towns to enjoy some of its views, small museums & craft shops: I love Loulé especially on a Saturday after the market, São Brás de Alportel (which has a flea market on every third Sunday of the month or Olhão where getting lost in the labyrinth of streets is one of my favourite ways to while away an afternoon.
Where are we going for sunset…?
Let’s head to Praia Verde with a bottle of wine, to watch the whole bay from above from the guardhouse of one of the oldest defensive ramparts of the region.
How about dinner...talk us through it.
Tonight we're eating at home, cooking some fresh fish & veggies bought at Tavira market, ending the meal with a local fig & almond cake.
…& after dark?
Oh, definitely staying in & reading a book.
It's home time, what souvenirs are we taking with us?
Certainly some salt (I love Sal Marim for the purest flor de sal ethically farmed nearby), some homemade bread, & white wine from the Algarve, possibly a Morgado do Quintão Claret, one of my favourite vineyards in the region. Of course, we’re also taking home a traditional cane basket.
What are we listening to on our journey?
We’re listening to so many different things: Toumani Diabaté, Mayra Andrade, Branko, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, Nina Simone, Kamasi Washington are all on my holiday playlists.
Where is home?
Home is where I can feel comfortable, at ease, unplugged, in the company of my husband & friends. That’s all there is to life!