Villafamés announces itself from a long way off: a village of white and ochre houses stacked up a hill of reddish rock, with the remains of a castle crowning the top. It stands a little inland from the coast of Castellón, roughly between Borriol, Cabanes and the beach town of Benicàssim, close enough to the sea that you can smell salt on a westerly breeze turning, yet already in that rumpled hill country that leads up into the Maestrat.
The castle has Islamic origins and was taken during the Christian conquest of the kingdom of Valencia in the thirteenth century, later passing through the hands of military orders. What survives is a round tower and fragments of wall perched on the rock, and the climb up through the old streets is half the pleasure. The village itself has a reputation that is unusual for a place of under two thousand people: since the 1970s it has housed a museum of contemporary art in a Gothic palace, and the narrow lanes are dotted with sculptures and small galleries. It is also one of those places listed among the prettiest villages in Spain, and on a weekend you will not be alone.
For a rider, Villafamés is a compact, satisfying stop rather than a long one. The roads in from Borriol or from the coast are a mix of brisk open bends through almond and olive terraces and tighter work as you climb. Inland from here the CV roads toward Les Useres, Sant Joan de Moró and beyond get properly twisty, and you can stitch together a loop that never touches a main road. Leave the bike at the edge of the old town; the upper streets are steep, cobbled in places and not built for anything wider than a mule.
There are bars and restaurants in the village, and the light in the late afternoon, when the rock and the walls glow orange, is the best reason to time your arrival. For fuel, the bigger towns along the coast are the safe bet: Benicàssim is about thirteen kilometres away and Borriol is closer still. In summer it gets seriously hot by midday, so an early ride up and a long lunch in the shade is the local way of doing things.