Saturday 26 September - Border Towns

[Photos: Supermarket wine section, Our loot]

 

Valerie and Lorcan had told us that booze prices were very good just over the border in Spain, so we felt it only sensible that we checked this out. We were indeed running a little low on essentials anyway.

 

Off we went by GPS. It isn't very far to the border, under 20km or about the same as Nelson to Richmond. The roads are very good, though some of the intersections are pretty curly. We'd hate to be doing this by map. There would be many roundabouts you took several circuits on while the navigator sorted out which of the many exits was correct. Found our way to the border and shot straight through it, much the same as the France/Italy border. Again just a set of dying and empty buildings where the border control used to take place.

 

The first Spanish town is La Jonquera. It is appalling. Just a series of gas stations, booze barns, supermarkets and tacky shops selling low quality rubbish. The French come in by tour bus, to be dropped at the bigger barns to stock up on grog. The southern French favourite aperitif is 45% proof anis, which is sold in these barns in packs of up to six 1.5 litre bottles, and there were plenty of takers. The French hop off the bus, have a meal in one of the many cheap buffets, then commandeer a shopping trolley which they stuff full of booze to take back home. Most would have had a full carton of spirits, many two cartons.

 

I shouldn't be rude about them, we were just the same, though at least we had the excuse we were stocking up in anticipation of Sandy & Lynette arriving. We got a reasonable selection of anis, limoncello, wine, beer, and more mundane things like milk, cheese and yoghurt. Yes, prices were good. A bottle of anis was around 7-10€/litre depending on the brand, Ricard then 51 topping the list. These are the two brands which all the bars stock. A very depressing experience. It is a tired sleazy place.

 

Back we went across the border into the French town of Le Pertus, which is a slightly better version of the Spanish town, but not a lot better. Fluked a park on the main road close by and bought a few bits for lunch, had a look around the shops then mercifully escaped back towards home. There were some good cheap vege shops beside the road, and we managed to restock with pineapple, melons and the normal tomatoes and eggplant. One of the shops had perhaps twenty giant barrels of port, sherry and all manner of other forms of grog, all sold at the same low price into BYO plastic containers.

 

Afternoon by the pool, though the odd cloud causing problems. It's a tough life.