The Creative Spirit of Olhão
The Goat, the Palm Tree, and the Four-Year Wait
Part 1
A Frenchman who came for three months, a painted goat at the door, and the four years it took for the town to walk in.
Ask almost anyone in Olhão how they came to live here, and you’ll hear some version of the same answer.
It wasn’t the plan.
Stéphane Gaillard came to the Algarve in 2018 to help his aunt open a restaurant in Cabanas de Tavira. Three months, that was the deal. When they were up, he told himself: no. I want to stay.
Then he met Olivier and, as he puts it, another story began.
Everyone in Tavira had a view on Olhão. Don’t go. It’s strange. It’s fisherman country. Stéphane couldn’t make sense of the warning, so he went to see for himself.
It took him two words. Oh, wow.
Today he is the creative lead at Zé e Maria, our favourite interiors shop, and just three minutes’ walk from Casa Fuzetta’s front door. For the third episode of the second season of The House of Stories, Tara and Kate sat down with him there, under a palm tree, surrounded by goats.
Some explanation may be required.
The Long Way In
Zé e Maria opened at the end of 2018 in a very small shop in an out-of-the-way corner of town, and has outgrown two homes since then. Stéphane’s view of the current one: it’s already too small.
But what he really wants to talk about is the wait.
For the first four years, the customers were French, British and German. Not Portuguese. Then the neighbours began drifting in, curious to see what on earth this was. They found their own country on the shelves: Portuguese makers, Portuguese brands, old crafts in contemporary hands.
Zé e Maria was among the first to stock Casa Cubista, whose founders, Aaron and David, lived a minute and a half from both of us while on sabbatical from Canada. Their ceramics now sell across France, Spain and beyond, and every piece is still painted by hand at a three-generation family pottery in the Alentejo. They could have moved production somewhere cheaper. They haven’t.
To us, the whole shop is an ode to Portugal and the beautiful Algarve which we have made our home. But we all agree on what comes first: respect for the town, and for the Olhanenses who keep it humming all year round. You discover your place here, but you earn it through love and friendship.
Respect comes first. The rest takes time.
To learn more about the Goat at the door, stay tuned for part 2.
Links from the article:
Spotify - Casa Fuzetta - House of Stories - The Creative Spirit of Olhão
About Casa Fuzetta
Casa Fuzetta is an exclusive-use retreat venue in Olhão, a colourful fishing town in Portugal’s eastern Algarve, 15 minutes from Faro Airport. Hire the house and all of it is yours: quiet luxury for up to 22 guests, with a yoga deck, a meditation room and a rooftop pool terrace looking out over the Ria Formosa nature reserve. Condé Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure have both named it among the best yoga retreats in the world.
Teachers bring their groups here for yoga, Pilates, meditation, breathwork and wellness retreats. Leadership teams come for corporate retreats and executive offsites; artists and writers for painting, life drawing and creative retreats; families for multigenerational holidays and celebrations in a private villa with its own pool. If you’re planning a retreat in Portugal for 2027 or 2028, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach us at casafuzetta@gmail.com
If you would like to deep dive into the Casa Fuzetta - House of Stories podcast. We invite you to explore the current two series via the links below.