Spring Sakura: Spring in the Principality of Andorra
25/03/2019
Spring is here – along with some rain and snow – and timidly too, for the cherry-tree’s flowers, which wonderfully tear the capital’s skyline and provide us with a special sakura amidst the Pyrenees.
A burst of colour that also adorns the meadows and the country’s green mountains, filling them with the first grandalles and jonquilles.
The grandalla, a popular name for daffodils in Andorra, was prized in olden times as it was very connected with the world of poetry and Greek mythology (Narcissus poeticus), and one of the distinctive traits of our autochthonous plant life, which boasts over 1,530 species.
The grandalla coexists with forests of different tree-species, such as red or black pine, downy white oak and holm oaks.
But let us leave the mountain valleys for a moment, and cast our gaze upon the valley’s floor. That is where the cherry trees remind us that Spring has arrived.
Sakura is the name with which ornamental cherry trees are known in Japan, and in turn, the cherry blossom.
For many years, Japanese society, a pioneer in the art of delighting in life’s everyday small wonders, has celebrated the fleeting blossoming of the cherry tree, a world-renowned social occasion named Hanami, which is also nowadays, an event of great tourism appeal.
In Andorra, the trees surrounding the Parc Central –the capital’s green lungs– sense the good weather’s return before we become aware of it, and the pink colour of the cherry trees floods the Valira River on either side of its path through the capital.
A path full of splendour, condensed into very short distance. Poetry requires but a few verses in conveying its essence to those receptive.
Flowers that may be admired from the windows of some properties, available to our most exclusive clients at Andorra Sotheby’s International Realty, especially conceived for lovers of the ephemeral wonder of the cherry-tree’s blossom, and who do not wish to forego the pragmatism of enjoying one of the most central and peaceful avenues of Andorra la Vella.
During the rest of the year, visits to the Parc Central are a comprehensive experience for those familiar with the different species that live there, filling the year’s four seasons with magnificent beauty: American oaks, poplars, alder, native willows and cypresses, are just a few examples.
Andorra’s trees and flowers, invite you to take a walk and become aware that in today’s world, true luxury is the ability to simply enjoy the passage of time.