A little-known nation: Andorra la Vella

We ended up in Andorra by chance. We had to go back to Lloret, and so after a couple of days of a technical stop in France and a few days in Switzerland we thought we'd explore this small mountain state. The characteristic of this little state, a bit bigger than San Marino, besides being in the mountains among little streams and waterfalls (you could hear the continuous flow of water from our hotel), is that it adopted (at the time) both the French franc and the Spanish peseta, that it has no excise duty on alcohol, cigarettes and perfumes (prices are very low and everyone throws themselves headlong into shopping, though you have to be careful of customs, which is very attentive and thorough), and that it mainly speaks Catalan. For a couple of days it was lovely to stroll among the shops, try on lots of perfumes and go shopping while breathing mountain air.

A shame about the chilly, slightly rainy weather. All in all, an experience to repeat!