Ceret - still shopping.

We woke today to a cold, windy, grey, rainy. sometimes snowy, day. Please note, I am not complaining as we have had a few e-mails indicating that we got out of Canada, southern Ontario in particular, just in time, before a large dump of snow, high winds and flight cancellations. Mum and I did wear gloves and carry an umbrella for the "croissant run" this morning.

From our front door, snow on the hill above the town.

It rained, then sleeted, then snowed but didn't settle on the ground here in Ceret. We decided after breakfast to go to Le Perthus and continue "stocking up", this time in the alcohol department. Le Perthus is a town that appears to be a huge mall that straddles the Spanish/French border in an important pass through the Pyrenees. As it is higher up in the mountains there was more snow up there and we saw snow covered vehicles travelling the road with us. The road to Le Perthus winds up a narrow gorge with steep drops on one side and high cliffs on the other. Unlike the other Pyrenean roads around here, it is nice and wide and the driver can enjoy the route. The toll highway traverses the pass higher up still and there are occasional views of the truck traffic up there.

Reminder of home.

For my scotch drinking friends and family (you know who you are) this is the selection
of 2 litre bottles of scotch.

More bottles of scotch ....

and still more bottles of scotch. I haven't seen this much since Scotland and its cheaper here.

And that just the scotch section! I can't remember if Simon wanted me to bring home...

Anise or

Pastis. ??

We went to two stores and bought 2 bottles of sherry, one of gin, a Rioja, shampoo, hand lotion, cans of calamari in tomato sauce, anchovies, chocolate, canned olives and goat cheese. Its a strange place to shop as alcohol and chocolates dominate but then there are various other items like the canned calamari and canned olives, beans, white asparagus, fresh rabbit and lamb that seem odd in a discount store.
Home to lunch and then I took a walk down through the town as I thought the walking paths would be slippery. The old centre of Ceret was walled and there are arches that remain. Roads in that section are mostly pedestrian and the few that are passable by car are very narrow. Surrounding that core the streets are still narrow, cobblestoned and many are one way as they are one car wide.

One such street with a deeply rounded grade into deep gutters. If there is a car parked a passing car
creeps up onto the narrow sidewalk and the driver watches wing mirrors carefully
 as many show the  scrapes of carelessness.

Further down the hill the houses are more modern, there's more space between them
and there is room for a two lane road. The foothills of the Pyrenees still provide a backdrop.