Oh dear!!
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Think a âcatalogueâ might be more apposite (logos)
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It would be a catastrophe if I tried it.
It was interesting to see and hear the similarities between French and Catalan.
âSi us plauâ for please. âBon dia and bona nitâ. Even so, like Portuguese, I found it a very difficult language to try and follow orally. The written language is easier to understand.
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I think the first phrase anyone learns is âdilluns tancatâ 
It does sound a bit like pumice stones in a drying machine, even when Catalanophones from the French side are speaking. I find Brazilian Portuguese approx a million times easier to understand than Portuguese Portuguese.
I lived in Brazil 5 years and gave presentations to management in Portuguese. Opened the door one evening to a neighbour from Portugal who began to gabble at me. I barely understood a word. 
Portuguese is a lovely language. 
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I took a mountain pass from FR into ES. Opposite where the border post had been, painted on the rock wall was â< 360kms ES - FR 70kms >â
Painted on a huge rock the size of a house, off the AP, was âFree Cataloniaâ. Underneath that was painted âWhy?â
Valenciano is a dialect of Catalan. All the info posters in the bus stops are in Valenciano with no Castilliano versions. Anyone applying for a teaching job in a Valenciano school must speak Valenciano. Well qualified Brits with fluent Castillano have run foul of this.
I recall a stop for fuel after I had crossed from FR into ES on the Catalan side. I was thankful that the person taking my card opened with âBon diaâ so that I didnât get off to a bad start by saying âbuenas diasâ. The Catalans can be very touchy about their language vizâŚ
A woman serving on a coffee stand by the main steps into Valenciaâs magnificent Mercado Central told me that when she came to Spain after the collapse of the Argentine economy some years ago, trying to make a go of it in Barcelona became impossible because when the locals heard her Argentine accent they refused to speak to her in anything other than Catalan. She had no such trouble in VLC.
Anyone with a grasp of FR will be able to decipher Catalan. eg 'lundi/dilluns/lunes = Monday.
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Captain Endeavour
My friend who used to live in Valencia tells me that when she last visited there the Mercado was no more. Gone. Good bye. Etc.
Were you aware of this, seems such a shame. Wonder what the reason was to do away with it?
Anyone know?
Just checked, and thankfully, it seems your friend might be mistaken:-
Thatâs strange but thanks for the information. I will tell her when next I see her. She lived in Valencia for years and especially liked the oranges from that region. When buying in the UK she examines the label to see where the oranges have come from.
We used to buy great oranges when living in the USA from the Farmers Markets, well we did live in Orange County! Ă part of Southern California. There were distinctions between varieties depending on what use they were intended for as in squeezing for orange juice or eating