AND HERE IS THE NEWS…
….a quick glance at the latest local news with Caroline Manson
Traffic Jams on A9
Traffic jams on the A9 are a regular occurrence during July and August, particularly during the weekends when holiday-makers arrive and depart, but the one that happened last Friday was far from normal. A bus broke down, blocking one of the three traffic lanes near the Le Boulou péage, causing a 15 kilometre jam for traffic heading to France from Spain, starting at La Jonquera. Drivers trying to avoid the motorway also found themselves in jams on the D900 and N-11 connecting La Jonquera to Le Perthus. The news website Actu Perpignan has checked out some of the traffic advice systems (ie Waze, Google Maps, Vinci Autoroutes) and apparently the best time to travel from France to Spain is at 8am in the morning, or a Wednesday, but they don’t specify which date!
Two people drowned over the weekend
At around 6pm on Sunday evening a 35 year old man was pulled unconscious from the sea at Canet-en-Roussillon. Despite the best efforts of rescuers on site, the victim could not be revived and died at the scene. Witnesses mentioned having seen the man with a child earlier, so a search operation involving the helicopter and divers and rescuers was mobilised for nearly three hours, but no other body was found. A second tragedy occurred at around 6.45pm at the Gorges de Gouleyrous in Tautavel, when a 4 year old girl was rescued from the water in an inanimate condition. Witnesses performed heart massage on the girl before the emergency services arrived to take over, but despite everyones best efforts she was declared dead in Perpignan Hospital Centre.
Huge fire in Saint-André
Last Monday, during a day of extraordinarily strong winds and high temperatures, a fire ravaged 500 hectares of vegetation and caused significant damage. It travelled quickly, between Sorède, Saint-André and Argeles-sur-Mer, destroying at least 50 mobile homes and causing four campsites to be evacuated. In an interview with journalists, the Mayor of Saint-André has expressed his dismay and fury that the fire was able to travel so quickly because so much land had been left overgrown. He stated that he had sent out 300 letters in March, ordering owners to clear their land as it represented a fire risk, and only half of them complied. He is considering taking legal action against the others.
Hiker missing in mountains is safe
25 year old Juliette from Reims had planned to cross the Pyrenees from Banyuls-sur-Mer to Hendaye via the GR10. She had made one or two detours from the route, one of which was last Wednesday when she left the main road to venture onto the Pic du Carlit, and sent a message to a friend at 2.30pm saying that she was sheltering from a sudden storm, but since then, nothing had been heard from her. A huge search and rescue operation took place, ending only on Sunday afternoon at 7pm when the girl herself called them. She had lost mobile phone signal and it was only when she crossed over into Andorra and picked up another network that she was able to call her mother, and discovered how worried people had been about her.
The storks are back – but just passing through
As well as the regular arrival of pale and frazzled holiday-makers in their overly-laden cars and enormous camper-vans, we also welcome the sight of the returning storks. Every summer we see them arrive in the region to make a stopover before continuing on to the Iberian Peninsula and Africa where they spend the winter. We are located on one of the main European stork migration corridors as they avoid flying over the Mediterranean and also avoid the Pyrenees as they are too high, so they prefer to travel via the Côte Vermeille or the Le Perthus pass. They seek high perches and can often be seen on the spotlights of stadiums or on the roof of churches – but sadly this habit can cost them their lives as last week 6 of these birds were found lifeless at the foot of a large electric pylon in Pollestres. There is a project underway to build large masts on the Roussillon plain for them to land on rather than risking their lives on the pylons.
Heatwave alert
49 departments throughout France are on orange alert for high temperatures – and of course we are one of the departments affected. Temperatures are set to soar this week to around 40°C during the daytime, but the nights are expected to be extremely stuffy with temperatures remaining in the high twenties. Hospitals and emergency services are gearing up to cope with increased numbers of patients, and the government has set up a hotline (no pun intended) where elderly or fragile people can register and be contacted regularly for health updates. Temperatures are expected to start dropping a little from Thursday.
People smugglers arrested
Police at Le Boulou Péage were suspicious when they spotted a little white van so overloaded that the chassis was practically touching the ground. Inside they discovered 14 men, all Pakistani and without papers, crowded inside. A police investigation traced that the vehicle had been hired in Toulouse the previous day, and maps and phone numbers on the drivers mobile phone enabled them to track down the address of a man named Yasir, who together with an accomplice called Wasi, ran a network that transported illegal immigrants from Italy to Spain, and then Portugal, for the sum of 200€ each. Wasi was already under a suspended sentence for similar facts so was sent directly to prison, Yasir disappeared before reaching court.
And finally…
Passengers waiting to board a Renfe train from Tortosa to Barcelona may not have been particularly surprised by the announcement that departure was delayed by 30 minutes, but they would have been extremely surprised had they learned the truth behind the delay. Apparently when the train driver arrived in the cab to start the journey, he discovered one of the train guards in the throes of passion with a woman on the dashboard. The driver reported the incident to his superiors and refused to drive in that particular cab, which was then changed at his request and the train was able to depart just 30 minutes late.
