The train in Spain…

May 21 Yesterday we spent our last full day in our resort town and walked around Collioure and lounged on the beach for awhile in the afternoon, then made our way to the windmill on the hill that gives such a fantastic view of the terraced hillsides of the nearby Pyrenees and it overlooks the old fortress and of course the Mediterranean Sea. It was another leisurely day and evening to prepare us for today’s trip to Barcelona.

We woke early (before 11:00) and it was market day just 100 meters away from our flat.  It is a large affair with vendors selling fruits, vegetables, baking, wine, hand made clothing, and anything that you could want on a Sunday morning. We made our purchases for eating on the train and went for our coffee and sat in the sun to begiin our day on a high note.

We were on the local train for a half hour to Perpignan and then the high speed Renfe picked us up.  It’s a luxurious ride, fast, quiet, smooth, and had video screens above the aisleway. The movie playing was subtitled in French so I didn’t bother to plug in our earphones but just watched.

It was a thriller about a balding, bespectacled middle-aged farmer leading his prized cow down the shoulder of the road. I’m sure it was a real winner in Cannes at the festival. He encounters varies adventures along the way and becomes embroiled in a near riot as some village locals were protesting some slight to their lives and brandishing signs, chanting slogans and generally misbehaving. Our hero can’t avoid them as they are blocking the roadway and the heavy handed gendarmes show up and who gets arrested but poor Claude (clod?) and he’s thrown in jail as a bad apple. He also is separated from his bovine love, Jacqueline,  (she does have those dreamy brown eyes). His story is spread across the national news and he becomes a folk hero to the masses and he’s freed by either union bosses, friends from his local village, or a pack of doofusses (what is the plural of doofus? ) as it gets lost in translation (notice how many cliches get highjacked for movie titles?) but it was one of those groups.  Alas poor Jacqueline has been stolen and it results in a high speed chase as Claude crosses a ditch and steps in front of a tractor pulling a wagon with the poor Jackie inside. The devious  Notorious Norbarth will surely get a tongue lashing from furious Claude and the day is saved!

The happy couple is reunited and the final scene shows them still on the road to who-knows-where with tongue lolling from side to side (hers not his) and in the background you can make out Notorious Norbarth screwing a silencer onto the end of a sniper rifle. Looks like sequel material to me…