Dispatch from the Frontier: Les is More!

"Jack, you gotta stop le voiture and let me take a shot of that sign with the Kodak. Les will love it." I hit the brakes and pulled the roadster over to the side so Dolly-girl could get the shot.

"You know, I could use some gas and I've been noticing that the Spaniards charge a lot less for a liter of the stuff than the Frenchies do. And neither of them can touch the Andorrans, but didn't need any when we were there. There's a station now."


The station and associated mall happened to be the Boya, right at the town of Les on the border of France and Spain. I suspect it sprung up once the EU came to be when no one was checking what you might be carrying across the border. The parking lot of the Boya had more F license plates than Costco in Portland has Washington plates when the 'Couvs are avoiding sales tax by shopping in Stumptown. Seems a little strange, doesn't it? Complaining about Stumptown's income tax, but driving over to avoid the sales tax? Republican logic.

Need any garlic?




I was in Les to tell you that if you need a ham, a wall of sausage, some wine, or liquor, this was your stop. I guess different EU countries have different taxes, because the store was packed and people were buying a lot. There were aisles of liquor and wine, including this old friend that was retailing for less than it costs in the US. Go figure the carbon footprint on that!

Wine was €1.63 if you had your own bottle. I guess we should have bought some bottled water (on sale, by the way) and dumped it out to buy some cheaper wine.







But one thing I've never seen, except in Les, is a 3 liter bottle of Jack Daniels. Les is More! Well, maybe I've never seen a ham for sale with the trotter still attached too.







But all this pales in comparison to what is coming in Lourdes...