The Pyrenees Mountains of Spain

On our third day, we made a mad dash for a small island of land, surrounded by France, called Llívia

The municipality of Llívia has a population of 1,600, and is separated from the rest of Spain by a corridor about 2 km wide.  The Esteve Pharmacy is a medieval pharmacy, one of the oldest in Europe, founded at the beginning of the 15th century. Unfortunately, it was not open the Sunday we were there, and we missed seeing inside.  However, it keeps albarelos, a medieval type of ceramic pots used in pharmacies, as well as antique drugs, and one of the most important collections of prescription books in Europe.

Now this was one of our real adventures.  The Esteve Pharmacy was on a hill in town.  To see it, we parked the car in a parking lot behind the church.   

Disappointed we couldn’t see the pharmacy, we headed back to the car.  The route out of the parking lot took us down a VERY NARROW street, at the end of which was a very narrow 90 degree turn to the left.  There was no way we could navigate that turn in the car.  I got out of the car and walked around the corner only to find a second NARROWER 90 degree turn to the right which tapered down to a goat path!
So Doug, being the expert driver he is, put the car in reverse and worked his way back up the hill – backwards!  By the time he was able to maneuver the Peugeot back to the top, the clutch was burning something horrible. And STINK!!!  We used the brakes from there down the hill another way to cool the clutch!  Glad we were returning the car to a rental company rather than do that to our own car!! LOL!
So as Wikipedia states, the reason it is an island in France and not part of France is for the following reason:  In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees ceded the comarques of Roussillon, Conflent, Capcir, Vallespir, and northern Cerdanya ("Cerdagne") to the French crown. Llívia did not become part of the French kingdom as the treaty stipulated that only villages were to be ceded to France, and Llívia was considered a city and not a village due to its status as the ancient capital of Cerdanya.
In 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, there was some discussion of Llívia remaining a free territory of the defeated Republican government, but this was never carried out.

So there you have our trip to the Pyrenees.  We returned to El Masnou Sunday afternoon after 3 excellent days of travel.  We were there two more days and Renne’ and I had to head for Sevilla for three more days of exploration.  We hated to say goodbye to Doug and Barb, but as the old saying goes:  “Visitors and fish both begin to stink after three days”!  We wanted to leave while they still wanted us to remain!