I was so looking forward to our week in Collioure.
We rented the ground floor apartment in this pinky coloured building with the grape vine near the door - that is our living room window on the lower level next to the entry.
This is the view from the kitchen window which is at first floor level and looks down the narrow, winding street. The apartment was 50 metres from the sea - just to the left in this picture.
A little further down the street are loads of shops, restaurants, cafes, art galleries, ice cream sellers and musicians. Our first walk around the town was quite late in the afternoon, so these photos lack the gentle light of afternoon.
Long shadows are creeping across the beach. People are packing up and heading home or to the cafe.
The cafes are filling up for after-beach coffees or pre-dinner drinks.
There is still a bit of sun to be had along the edges.
The ancient fort with steps in front - great for watching everything that is going on - and eating your ice-cream. I think they sell more ice-crean in Collioure than they do in Naples!
The shadow was quite heavy on the eastern rocky beach by the time I finished my walk.
Paul never misses his daily swim. The Vibram 5 Finger shoes come in handy on the pebble beaches.
Then disaster struck.
Because the old mediaeval village centre is pedestrian-only, cars must be parked outside the village in either large car parks or, if you're lucky, street parking. We were lucky - Paul backed the car into a diagonal space against a stone wall in a local residential street. But he left just one item in the car - a suitcase with all our warm clothes, coats, jumpers and shoes, including the souvenirs and gifts we had bought and our future supplies of my medication, shampoos, make-up, etc. The driver side window was smashed and the whole suitcase pulled out through the window. They never even opened the door, it was still locked. Our printer went, too.
The robbery occurred Sunday night. We spent Monday afternoon making police reports, not in the hope of having anything returned, but for insurance purposes. Then we took the car to the insurance repairer, CarGlass in Perpignan, about 25 km away, where they fitted a temporary plastic window and ordered a replacement. Back in Collioure, Paul had to negotiate with a local garage to keep the car inside overnight as it couldn't be locked. At 8.00 am Tuesday morning, after picking up the car from the garage and while looking for a car park, he was stopped by the gendarmes, who recognised the bright yellow car with the red registration plates, and was told that some of our belongings had been found and could be retrieved from the local police station. So after a fortifying coffee we toddled off to collect one small, sad, black plastic bag with a white name-tag - all that remained of our large suitcase.
On the bright side, I got my medication back as well as two pairs of red shoes, and Paul got two pairs of shoes plus a pair of track pants. So much for the coats, jackets and pullovers for Autumn on the Atlantic coast. Tuesday afternoon saw us back in Perpignan to buy a new suitcase and to have the new window fitted. Back in Collioure that night, we again got a car park in the residential street (next to the local doctor's car). Wednesday - checked the car three times - all OK. Phew!
Wednesday night was very hot, so I left the kitchen window on the first floor open. Paul came to bed at 12.30 am. At 2.00 am I got up to go to the toilet and saw that we had been robbed.
Window of opportunity - 90 minutes! They had 'walked' up the wall underneath the kitchen window - there were footprints on the wall.
I lost my iPhone, iPad and new camera together with my Kindle charger. Paul lost his wallet (cash, VISA, licence, etc) and an old camera bag, together with the spare camera and every electrical gadget, gizmo and lead that you need for 6 months in Europe - and then some! They missed Paul's iPhone and chose not to take the two Macbook Pros.
All we could do was count our blessings that we still had a phone and a computer with which to cancel credit cards and notify insurers. That took most of Thursday morning - then it was off to the Gendarmerie again for another police/insurance report. They felt rather sorry for us and assured us that if we got robbed a third time - their report writing assistance would be free! Nice joke, guys!
So our time in Collioure was very sad. I have no photos of the racey yellow car all smashed up or getting fixed because the photos were in my stolen iPhone. I installed 'Find My iPhone' and set it to 'ERASE'. So as soon as the iPhone or iPad is connected to WiFi or the internet it will be erased. Five days after the robbery the iPad was erased, but the iPhone still has not been connected to the Internet.
If you would like to see some good photos of Collioure in happier times, which really is one of the nicest places on the Mediterranean, I've included two links to the blog for my 2011 trip called 'A Proper Busride'. Just click the links below.
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