Holy Prices, Batman!

The next morning we head to our internet café for a bit, and again find it necessary to perform circus-like acrobatics in order to perch in the one square-foot of the café where the wifi actually works. Afterward, Erin and I set out to walk around the town – Erin wants to buy some gifts and I, of course, want to eat. Scott meanwhile has found a bookstore to buy the 2007 Michelin guide as well as a Spanish newspaper so he is taken care of and goes to drink diet cokes and read about the world at a seaside café. The town is incredibly beautiful – with small pebbled beaches, an old stone castle with a long pier stretching out into the azure Mediterranean, all sitting under the stalwart gaze of the looming Pyrenees mountains. Collioure is just 15 -20 miles from the Spanish boarder and the Catalan influence is quite apparent: the café/bar had signs up for the Barcelona football team and many of the signs had Catalan spellings (the road sign welcoming us the town was in French; the one on the way out was in Catalan). Erin and I walk into Les Templiers, a hotel that reportedly had art from Matisse and van Gogh, among other artists who stayed in Collouire at one time or another and would trade artwork for room and board. The walls were covered with art, but nothing that looked like the work of any of the masters. That done we continued our shopping/food expedition, only to realize that everything in the eateries was incredibly overpriced that all we could afford for breakfast were two tiny pots of honey. Lunch was a similar challenge: we finally settled on a creperie that served me a delicious crape for 9 Euros!!! After lunch, it is time to head out to Barcelona. It is here that I also realize that I have left my brand new, super comfortable, super cool $50 shoes in France – well, it was my turn to lose something after all.