Woohoo! We are now scooter owners! We’ve been in to
Perpignan for what feels like the 100th time on the €1 bus, this time being a
little more generous and letting ourselves catch the later 9:15 bus rather than
the 7:50. The aim was to buy the scooter we’d seen last weekend, but first
check out AG Motors next door in case there was something better. There sure
was. He had three Piaggio X9 scooters, a top model of the mid-2000s. One was a
250 and a bit pricey, another was cheaper than the Peugeot next door, and the
third must just have come in as it was scruffy. Perfect for what we
wanted. A bit untidy and sun-bleached to
keep the price down, but a quality scooter underneath. Compared to the
next-door model, it was a lot cheaper, more powerful, more features, better
brakes, less efficient, more comfy, with a backrest for Karen. In short a
better match for us to day-trip on. Perhaps we’ll even do the odd multi-day
trip later on. So after a test ride and bit of haggling (helmets and lock
thrown in) we will be the owners of a nice little scooter next Friday, fresh
from a service and with 3 months’ warranty (which just about sees us through
this year in Céret).
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| Our "new" Piaggio scooter! |
We can’t wait to be mobile and to start visiting the little
towns and valleys hereabouts, and the Cathar sites, and go to the beach, and be
able to get to the big stores south of Perpignan more easily. It really
will make a difference to our life here.
After the excitement of the scooter, we went back to
Castorama to see if we could use their rental vans to get tiles, shelving,
heaters and a bit more back to Céret, but it was going to be too pricey and we
will see if we can fit in a flying visit on the day we hire a van for IKEA.
Nevertheless we did manage to lug home a heater, a noticeboard and three window
boxes and holders to plant up for our little balconies.
