AND HERE IS THE NEWS…

….a quick glance at the latest local news with Caroline Manson

Angry agriculturers cause traffic chaos

tractor

We have all become accustomed to traffic jams between France and Spain but the last few days have proved exceptional.  Farmers, angry at the cheap imports which affect their livelihood have been protesting throughout France, and and this has caused particular chaos in this region.  Friday and Saturday appeared to be the worst days (so far) starting with slow-moving tractors blocking several main roads as they approached Perpignan and the motor-way toll booths.  The A9 was completely closed, from Spain to the Aude, in both directions and as a result the Le Perthus road was full of lorries.  The farmers also targeted the Auchan roundabout, and several large supermarkets, lighting fires of pallets and tyres to block the entrances.  A dead sanglier was deposited in front of the Préfecture in Place Arago in the centre of Perpignan.

Heatwave in January

temperature

A high temperature of 26° was recorded in Céret on Thursday – unprecedented for January.  Weather experts are very concerned about these anomalies and the fact that we are experiencing the same temperatures as Morocco.  Even at altitude, the temperatures are much higher than usual, with the ski-slopes of Formiguères hitting 20°; a ‘normal’ temperature for June, but not January.

Thieves blow-up cash machine

atm

In the early hours of Wednesday morning residents of Saint-Féliu-d’Avall were woken by the sound of two loud bangs.  Would-be thieves had used explosives to break into the Crédit Agricole cash machine on Général Barboteu Square.  Security forces arrived quickly but did not find much cash in the machine so think only damage was done rather than robbery, however they called the Montpellier bomb squad to secure the area.  There were no security cameras in the area so police are struggling with their investigation.

Perpignan to be twinned with Palma and Valencia

Valencia

For cities, twinning is a way of cooperating with another municipality on various themes such as culture, heritage or tourism, and the Mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, is currently in the process of twinning (or tripleting?) the city with Palma de Majorca and Valencia.  He explains that while he has sometimes been accused of being anti-Catalan, he respects history and tradition and feels that our Roussillonais roots will marry well with that of the Majorcans and Valencians.  He had also been approached by municipalities in South Korea, South Africa and Italy, but did not name the specific towns.  His predecessor, Jean-Marc Pujol, had previously twinned Perpignan with Hanover (Germany) and Sarasota (US) but the links had now evaporated, sadly.



Local entrepreneur to appear on tv show

Jean-Pierre NADIR, Kelly MASSOL, Tont PARKER, Stéphanie DELESTRE et Anthony BOURBON

30 year old Joachim from Sainte-Marie-La-Mer is shortly to present his business idea in front of investors on the tv programme Qui veut etre mon associé – the French version of Dragon’s Den.  He has come up with the idea of “My SMS Book” – a printed version of a collection of text messages.  The concept began when his girlfriend was suffering from cancer and spent much time in hospital so they exchanged hundreds of text messages, which he wanted to preserve in book form rather than just on his telephone.  Several people loved the idea and asked him to produce books for them – and already he has sold more than 30,000 books in 68 countries.  He will be asking investors for 100,000€ for a 10% stake in his company. 

And finally…

On Monday morning, Catalan police received a phone call from a high-end car rental company reporting that one of their cars had not been returned.  The police carried out a quick investigation and headed directly to the head-quarters of a demolition company in Vilanova des Vallès, north of Barcelona.  When the Mossos police arrived, they saw no trace of the car, but stopped a large truck that was leaving the site and heading for the port of Barcelona.  Inside the trailer they found the stolen car, covered in mattresses and tyres in an attempt to hide it.  The 39 year old driver of the truck was arrested for car theft and was no doubt shocked by the efficacy of the police in tracking him down so quickly – a job made much easier for them by the fact that he had not disabled the cars GPS tracking system….



Caroline Manson is an independent Property Consultant – for advice on buying, selling, renting or renovating, don’t hesitate to contact her at caroline@perpignan-properties.com

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