Other great places

Portbou

Portbou

Jcb-caz-11, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Portbou is a pleasantly sleepy border town and port and is the first place you'll come to when coming from France if you have taken the Paris - Cerbere sleeper, or not come on the high-speed trainline.

The town was a hive of activity in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries with the coming of the railways and in particular, the incompatibility of Spanish and French railway tracks. The different gauges meant that people had time to wait at the station, which they used by visiting the town.

Now high-speed trains take a different route into Spain, so this town has been able to kick-back and chill. However, it does have a steady stream of visitors from France who come to stock up on sin-taxed products like cigarettes, alcohol and perfume.

The dominance of local slate gives the town a vague feeling of being in North Wales, except you don't turn blue when you go in the sea.

The mass exodus of people through here at the end of the Spanish Civil War and then the flow of Jewish and other vulnerable people with the fall of France in the Second World War has been commemorated at the border and a poignant memorial to Walter Benjamin is by the graveyard.

Highlights
Station stroll ideas

Tourist info have provided a map of Portbou here and links to walks here - mostly in Catalan.

...and here's a link to a google map that I've made which you can use on your phone.

Guided tours

I'm not aware of anyone offering guided tours. Let me know if you find anyone...

Luggage

I'm not aware of anywhere in Portbou where you could drop your bags, but you could try checking the nannybag app or asking local hotels.

If you'd like to find out more about the place, I've made a video below.

Crossing the border
Useful links

Map

Tourist infomation

Here's a link to tourist information: Tourist info website

Plan your own trip

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