AND HERE IS THE NEWS…
….a quick glance at the latest local news with Caroline Manson
Bank Holiday weekend traffic chaos
With Ascension day bank holiday falling on a Thursday it appears that everybody decided to take Friday off as well and set off to Spain to make a long weekend of it, but as usual they were thwarted by traffic problems. By 10am a 5 kilometre tail-back was underway between Maureillas-las-Illas and Le Perthus, which became 10 kilometres long by midday. The A9 motorway had its usual problems, with the addition of a fatal accident just after Le Boulou where a man (said to be a break-down truck operator) was hit by a bus. The return journey this Sunday afternoon proved equally painful for motorists who encountered 15 kilometres of jams (in no way helped by the ‘funnel’ effect of the Le Boulou Péage) and those who decided to take the secondary road (D900) also experienced long queues as La Jonquera and Le Perthus were said to be ‘saturated’. I stayed at home and did some gardening.
Vandals block road near Corneilla-La-Rivière
In a message issued by the Town Hall of Corneilla-La-Rivière the Mayor has revealed that ‘acts of incivility’ have been multiplying for several nights on the D614, the road which connects the town to Péilla-la-Rivière. Branches had been voluntarily deposited on the road in order to hinder traffic and endanger motorists. Luckily so far no accidents had been reported and the Mayor had asked all residents to be vigilant. The gendarmes and road agencies have been informed.
Record drugs stash found on a motorbike
Le Boulou customs officers were checking a motorcyclist who had just crossed the border as part of their random checks. The biker said he was Spanish and on his way to Nice but when he pulled out a Serbian identity document the agents became suspicious and decided to search the motorbike. In the panniers and top case they discovered many bricks of cocaine, weighing a total of 71.5kg. The man was arrested and later sentenced to five years in prison, a ban on entering France for ten years and a customs fine of 3,575,000 euros.
Serious accident between Toulouges and Thuir
In the early hours of Friday 15th May a motorcycle and a car collided at the intersection between the D612B and the D37 between Thuir and Toulouges. The motorcyclist, a man in his forties, suffered serous leg injuries and was evacuated to hospital by the Samu 66 helicopter. The driver of the car was said to be very shocked by the incident, the causes of which remain to be investigated, but did not require medical treatment.
Police find drugs stash near kindergarten
In an effort to stamp out drug dealing in the notorious Champ de Mars area of Perpignan the police carried out one of their surprise ‘controls’ last Tuesday. During the operation, which lasted several hours, police questioned around 20 people. They managed to arrest two ‘look-outs’ and also questioned a buyer and a seller – the former was taken into custody and the latter received an instant fine. They were also supported by a sniffer dog who managed to track down man bags of cannabis grass and resin hidden in multiple hiding places. One of the caches was near the local kindergarten and luckily the police were able to see the goods just before a young man got his hands on them. The police are hoping that they will be able to permanently close the Champ de Mars deal point within a year.
Sorède is recognised as a Tourist Resort
Good news (I think,) for the residents of Sorède as this commune of 3,500 inhabitants has just been classified as a Tourist Resort by the Prefecture of the Pyrénées-Oriéntales. Sorède is the 15th Tourist Resort in the department, the others being Amelie-les-Bains-Palada, Les Angles, Argelès-sur-Mer, Banyuls-sur-Mer, Le Barcarès, Le Boulou, Canet-en-Roussillon, Collioure, Font-Romeu, Perpignan, Port-Vendres, Saint-Cyprien, Torreilles and Vernet-les-Bains. To become a Tourist Resort a town must offer a wide choice of accommodation, free access to the internet, presence of a Category 1 tourist office or tourist information office and local shops (banking services, food shops, restaurants etc.
And finally……
When their family dog escaped the Bravo family were quick to post an alert on Facebook, and were delighted when the post went viral with 1000 shares and 160,000 views resulting in lots of people searching the scrubland around Pezilla-La-Rivière for the lost dog. One person who contacted the family was Alexia Ligney who described herself as a ‘specialist in intuitive animal communication’ and said that she could communicate with the lost dog by telepathy. Despite thinking this was a load of rubbish the family were desperate so gave Alexia a picture of the dog and some information about him. She concentrated for a while and then said that the dog was saying that he was scared, that he had come from a refuge and had a bad master before (which was true), that he had a sore paw and mentioned a concrete structure near a river, fields and houses. The family started to search around all the local bridges and finally the dog was found, stuck under a concrete bridge with an injury to his paw.
(TURNED INTO A STRANGE CARTOON BY AI)
