Good news since the cancellation the appartment has been filled with lots of short stays...more work,! And I am still en famille, nice not having to think about meals though. All the recent 3 weekers are going this weekend. It means the loss of the professional guitarist, it was really lovely sitting in tne garden and hearing him play... even if he was only practising his scales! But I did have 3 days off last week, so took the opportunity to head for the beach, so I queued for 40 mins to get my train ticket and headed off, Collioure is a bit St Ives idh, lots of artist studios, a pretty little place, nice warm sea but rubbish sand... then found the 1 € bus runs every hour in the summer, typical. Stopped over in Perpignan to get an early start for the yellow train, the next day, and was very grateful for the aircon in the hotel... don't need it up the valley. The train was exactly as described, wooden bench seats, 4 small coaches and an open air one. The train was about 3/4 full I suppose, not the most comfortable ride, but spectacular views of the gorges on the way up, then it opened out into fields...hay cutting time there, and ski station in the winter. The weather actually seemed better at the top, and there is some sort of solar station there, but I didn't investigate. Amazing number of butterfly's flitting about, big ones but they all seemed to be white or dark brown. The 1 € bus also covers this route, but takes even longer than the train... 8 appartments to clean the next 3 days so better save my energy.
