Brihuega

Brihuega sits in the Tajuña valley, in the part of Guadalajara known as the Alcarria. Its calling card is lavender: more than 1,000 hectares around the town, reckoned at roughly a tenth of world production, which bloom in July and draw crowds to a two-day field festival staged among the rows at sunset. The town itself has been a National Historic-Artistic Site since 1973, with an Arab wall close to two kilometres long and well-kept gates like the Arco de Cozagón. The Real Fábrica de Paños, a circular royal cloth factory founded in 1750, is the other landmark, with Baroque doorways, gardens laid out in the French manner, and a viewpoint over the valley. Outside the lavender weeks it's a calm Castilian town worth a half-day.