At 10.00am on a beautifully clear day, we assembled at the col de Creu between Matermale and Sansa for the second of our winter snowshoe walks.
Our previous walk in the valley of Planès had been a great success so this time we had planned a bbq at the unguarded refuge les Estagnols, on the slopes of the Madres peak.

Catalans are rarely backwards in coming forwards where the honour of Catalonia is at stake, and the new name of the administrative region has ruffled more than a few feathers!

While you can most certainly get by with a British phone in France if you don’t use it very often, setting up a French mobile phone will make communication in France cheaper and easier over the long run. What’s more, having a French phone number is often a requirement for various other administrative procedures in France, such as setting up electricity in France, so it is well worth it for conveniency and practicality purposes.

In 1898 the Gompel brothers founded the ‘Paris-France’ company to direct their growing chain of department stores ‘Aux Dames de France’. The chain was a great success in several large towns in France.