We left France and Europe, without leaving the continent.  Andorra is a strange but beautiful place.  I know little about it except that the President of France is always automatically it's Prince and that you have to speak Catalan or few people with understand you (or at least pretend not to).  I also know it's very high and the temperature plummets as you rise. 

Pas de la Case;  The go to address of alcoholics, smokers and, so I'm told, the Russian Maffia. An unattractive Duty Free Wonderland set in breathtaking mountains.  It seems to perch there, untethered and temporary,  between the peaks; an avalanche would flatten the weird, multicoloured lego-like constructions and destroy the chalet style super mercats.  The wrath of a vengeful god.

It's also cold.  Snow lies deep on the mountain side and flakes fall silently as I walk Bernie between massive boulders up a steep slope in my crocs. The altitude is high and the air, dry as a bone, piques your eyes and your nose.  

The mercats are full of treasures: slabs of Spanish nougat, jars of banderillas and sweet peppers, five litre tins of virgin olive oil, Irish and Scottish single malts, beautiful bottles of London gin, bag-in-the-box Jamaican rum (50%).  Cartons of cigarettes come with bottles of Ricard sellotaped to them.  And everything at a fraction of the cost across the border in France. 

At the border a man in high vis pulled us over with a smile and a salute.  He explained that he was carrying out a survey and asked us what we'd bought and the savings we'd made. He took an email address and told us that we were in a lottery draw and had a good chance of winning two nights in a 5 star hotel in Andorra la Vieja and a spa day.  The vengeful avalanche god was no where to be seen; the god of plenty was smiling down at us. 

At Merens we drove off the main road and headed for the heights.  We walked a steep, rocky path and found the natural thermal pool.  The perfume testers I'd sampled in Pas de la Case were replaced by the beautiful smell of sulpher.   The god of plenty was truly here.