With the French summer holidays in full swing here, there is a massive amount of traffic on both the nearby autoroute and the regional road going to and fro over the border between Spain and France. On the weekends it can be at a virtual standstill for hours. We'd been planning to make the short trip over the border to La Jonquera to visit the Nike outlet store. We do this every year we are here, and I am normally successful in picking up some running shoes I like, at a very good price. On the same trip we typically stock up on groceries in one of the huge supermarkets, where prices can be much cheaper than in France. Add to this a haircut each, and a meal at a local restaurant and it makes for a great day out.
The 30-minute trip today took just under an hour, even though it was a weekday, but the traffic wasn't too bad. First stop was the Nike store, and I managed to find some new models of my running shoes in my size. Next was the grocery shop, which mainly consisted of big rounds of cheese, some of which we will take on the trip to Tuscany.
Once out of the air-conditioned shopping mall, we backtracked a little to the old town part of La Jonquera. We have often had our hair cut here, but unfortunately the hairdresser I've gone to in the past closed a number of years ago. It was only 1pm but most of the shops appeared to be closed, either for lunch (unusually early for Spain) or permanently closed. In fact, the commercial appearance of the main street did not look too flash at all. We found one hairdresser (peluqueria) open. We ducked in, and it was no problem to get a haircut straight away. After a shampoo and cut, the cost came to the grand sum of 14 Euros (NZ$23). I think she did a great cut too. By comparison, the same thing would cost around 40 Euros in Ceret. The saving of around 30 Euros pays for a really enjoyable meal at one of the local restaurants. Our favourite has become Mar i Sol (Sea and Land). A three course set menu costs 16.50E. It's not a flash place by any means, quite the opposite, but the dishes are tasty, generous and include fabulous options for fish and seafood. The photos tell the story ....
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| Our entrées - platters of grilled veges and melon with jambon |
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| We both chose the mixed seafood platter for the main course. |
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| Dessert - profiteroles and crema Catalana |
The meal came complete with chilled water, bread, and a half bottle of wine each. With a café espresso to top the meal off, it wasn't even NZ$30 each. Unbelievable, and a wonderful lunch. Afterwards, we sauntered back to the car in 40-degree heat! Perhaps we were feeling very 'chilled' after the meal and wine, because we didn't mind the heat at all!!
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| The pharmacy in the main street showing a temperature of 40 degrees. |
However, the drive back over the border to France was even hotter. The traffic was very slow for a short portion of the trip through Le Perthus, and, still without air-con, it was just a matter of winding the windows down and going with the flow.
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| An outside temperature of 41 degrees. |
We gave the car a good wash at the carwash in the Industrial Zone just before we arrived back. There is a huge amount of dust (and perhaps smoke particles from forest fires) in the air, and it coats all the vehicles in the public car parks incredibly quickly.
Home at 4:30pm, and we felt we'd had a huge day out. The rest of the day was taken in a horizontal position, with just a few crackers for dinner!
Wednesday dawned bright and sunny. Today we'd decided to hit the beach. We haven't been there so far because it's been too hot to go and sit on sand, but it seemed silly to have been here for weeks before we go to Tuscany, and not even have had a dip in the Mediterranean. Off to an early start to try and beat the heat, and also the holiday hordes, to a carpark. We arrived in good time by 9:30am, but were slightly dismayed to find it was market day. Not to worry, there were still plenty of car parks by the station and we found ourselves lying on the beach by 10am. It was definitely cooler at Collioure than Ceret, and with a slight breeze the temperature of around 32 felt rather nice. We jumped in the water a couple of times to cool off, and swam a good distance. The water temperature was 24 degrees and very pleasant. A large area is roped off to separate bathers from boats and kayaks, and there is plenty of space to get in some good strokes.
Collioure is a very popular tourist town, and because it was August, it was heaving. The number of people, colourful clothes, everyone chilling out over a coffee, meal or swimming, made for a very enjoyable atmosphere. We have taken a number of our friends and family here over the years, including Ben and Iris, Edward and Ella, and Alastair. Everyone finds it a memorable place. The ice-cream is superb too. However Collioure is best avoided at peak season!
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Collioure beach, right in the heart of the town.
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One scoop wasn't enough for lunch!
We got back home again by 1pm, taking a convoluted route to mostly miss clogged traffic lanes in and around the motorway. It looked horrific. Looking on Google traffic at 4pm, it showed all lanes were still bumper to bumper on both the autoroute and the local route, in both directions.
It was clearly time to sit down and have a coffee before the afternoon advanced further. Doing so we picked up the local paper and read some very interesting articles about what is happening in France. There are 18 regions in France that are currently in a state of drought crisis. Recreational use of some rivers and lakes is being stopped, because the water quality or volume is not good enough. This is a major blow to tourist operators who run boating, kayaking ventures and the like. What is more telling, is that changes are becoming evident in the way people are organising their days. There is an increasing trend to follow the example of the Spanish. Residents are getting up earlier, working until about 11am and then having a siesta until resuming work at perhaps 3pm or a few hours later. Some shops aren't reopening at all in the afternoon. It appears that the 'happy hour' of 5pm has moved to 9pm. We have certainly noticed the latter in Ceret. People are not eating their evening meals until much later - they used to start eating at 6pm, now there's nobody there until well after 7pm. With four restaurants in the square below us, in years past, they typically closed their doors at 10pm. Now, probably half the diners are still eating at 10pm, and the restaurants are only closing at 11pm. Daily life is definitely changing to cope with the exceptionally hot summer.
On another note, we've heard that the lava field we visited in Iceland is again heaving out fresh lava and is temporarily off limits to tourists. It had erupted for some months late last year, but we were lucky in being able to get up close and personal to the fresh lava when we were there last month. For all that, John would have loved it to be erupting when we were there!
