castles in Spain en · NOUN
Etymology
Calque of French châteaux en Espagne, recorded in the Roman de la Rose in the 13th century and translated into English around 1365.
Meanings
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(plural, plural-only) Synonym of castle in the air.
Glittering castles in Spain were shaping themselves out of the mists and rainbows of her lively fancy; adventures wonderful and enthralling were happening to her in cloudland—adventures that always turned out triumphantly and never involved her in scrapes like those of actual life.
1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter XXX, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC:The show must go on / And time slipped away / Before you could build any castles in Spain / The chance had gone by
1977, “Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)”, in I Robot, performed by The Alan Parsons Project: