Easter in Breb, Maramures

I was with my brother. He had a posh, powerful but low-riding car. The roads were extremely bad. We didn't take the risk.

A year or two later, he called me victoriously saying: Let me tell you something, I made it to Breb. It's just fantastic!

Much has changed since then. Most of the small local roads in Maramures have either been repaired or paved and it is a pleasure to drive along. But Breb, thanks God, has not changed. It is still the same old beautiful village with many wooden houses rescued and conserved.

Poor infrastructure in the past kept the village in isolation, therefore sparing a good deal of what was most valuable.

Rooster Crest, a mountain ridge above Breb

Now, however, to a greater extent than in other Maramureș villages, the growing awareness of the importance of inherited rural heritage has led to a proliferation of guesthouses without destroying the local specificity.

This process of awareness and the village's fame is also due to some dedicated English people who have made an admirable effort to save and to restore the houses in the village.

In Breb, nowadays, there is nothing more common than "walking up to Penny's" - a spirited Englishwoman from Hampshire who settled in the village - or taking a stroll down the little lane with the "Prince's Houses". Charles, Prince of Wales, passed through the village in 2004. He has become King since, but surely the conservative villagers of Breb would still be talking about The Prince when they take pride in the few houses bought and restored in Breb by the Mihai Eminescu Trust. Sponsored by Prince Charles, this foundation is much more involved in the restoration of Transylvania's Saxon heritage.

Breb's charm rests with its people

But Breb's fame and charm rests with its people - warm, chatty and curious.

The village is scattered around. While I was with some American tourists, I once lost our way. Some locals told us to cut straight through their garden and the next-door neighbour's garden to get to the lane we were trying to find.

My American tourists, folks with a strong sense of land property rights, were kind of scared: How could we go across someone's yard like that?

The locals insisted: No problem! They halted us for a palinca - the local strong brandy - to cheer us up. We got up the guts and made it to the neighbor's backyard.

Did you stage it for us?

The owner, an old lady closing her 80s, was busy gardening. She happily welcomed us - a warm and friendly reception. The tourists couldn't believe it. We had trespassed on her property, and she was inviting us in for cookies and, again, the brandy - "a medicine" as she called the palinca.

Did you stage it for us? one tourist asked me thinking it was a kind of play.

No, I told her. We really did stray off the trail and we really had to cut through the gardens to get back on our way faster. But such are the people of Breb: open, friendly and hospitable.

I would be happy to guide you and discover them together.

Time travel machine: 7-day tour to discover MARAMURES and the SAXON HEARTLAND of Transylvania

The beautiful faces of Maramures: Ileana, the hard working lady of Sârbi village