As France empties for the month of August, Central Portugal swells with the amount of visitors coming home for a month in the ‘mother land’. (I read that there are more Portuguese in France then there is in Portugal….is this possible?). The squares are full of French cars, the main language heard in the cafés is French and a cheery ‘Bonjour’ instead of ‘Bon Dia’ will see you right in the morning. With all these extra people to entertain, we enter party season – or festa season. Portuguese festas are a funny thing, speakers go up in the villages and the quiet is ruined with pimba music being piped through the speakers from 10am (hear the horror of this below). The lights go up on the church. The stage goes up ready for someone to come and sing along to a backing track and the huts go up to serve the beers and pork rolls. It’s pretty much the same ...