I found myself staying in the house of a fervent Catalan nationalist a couple of years ago in the completely walled old town of Montblanc. Carles and Carme, his wife, ran the place as a B&B, and he appreciated the central paradox of this: “Here you’re not in a hotel, and we’re not in our house – it’s a contradiction.”

Carles patiently taught me precisely the way, starting at the corners, to make toast rubbed with garlic and tomato for breakfast.