There is a gate in the middle of Sant Feliu de Guíxols that is about a thousand years old. The Porta Ferrada belongs to a Benedictine monastery whose origins go back to the early Middle Ages, and the Romanesque and later buildings grew around it. Today the monastery complex holds the town's museum and an auditorium that hosts a summer festival, so the old stones are still in use. It is a pleasing fact that a place of about twenty-two thousand people has such a calm, historic centre.
The town earned its living from cork. The forests of the Gavarres and the Ardenya behind it provided the raw material, and for generations the factories here turned bark into stoppers that were exported across Europe. The sea front, with its long promenade and the cafes beneath the old trees, was shaped by the money that came from that trade. You still see cork oaks, with their stripped, rusty trunks, on the hills inland.
Sant Feliu is the northern end of the famous GI-682 stretch, and if you arrive from Tossa you have just come off one of the most twisting stretches of coast road in the region. Heading north you leave the cliffs behind and the road eases through Sant Feliu and on toward S'Agaró and Platja d'Aro. S'Agaró is a curious place, a planned seaside garden estate from the early twentieth century, with a seaside path that is easy to walk once you have parked up. Traffic through the larger towns can be slow in summer, so the sweet spot for riding is early or late in the day, and the shoulder seasons are best of all.
As the biggest town on this stretch, it is where you will find the practical things: fuel stations, supermarkets, bars and restaurants along the front, and enough choice that you will not have to hunt for lunch. The local Catalan kitchen leans toward fish and seafood, rice dishes and the cream custard crema catalana, and a table with a view of the harbour is worth taking if the weather is kind. If you have time, walk a little of the coastal path that starts near the town, the Camí de Ronda, which was once used by coastguards and now offers clear water and rocks to sit on.