Flats, old people and beaucoup markets

A busy few days here in France with a mix of adventures. The flat was on the car - we haven't had a flat tyre for years, but of course we had one here! Which would have been fine except we were missing the "all important tyre key" which unlocked the tyre nuts. So after floundering for some time we had to call in the local mechanic; who of course said we didn't need the so called "all important tyre key" and changed the tyre no problem (while the whole time shaking his head at the incompetence of the foreigners). The old people came in two forms - one older than the other! The oldest (450,000 yrs old to be exact) was Tautavel Man (discovered in the caves above Tautavel) who we visited on Thursday (well, we saw his bones at least), followed by a visit to the impressive Chateau Peyreperteuse. The second old people - but in much better shape - were Lance's parents who arrived to stay with us yesterday (Saturday) after their tour of Italy. We've had a couple of great days with them so far - including visiting two markets; the very pretty Ceret market (everything you can imagine) and our own Villelongue dels Monts "Vide Greniers" (literally "empty attic") where the locals basically do just that. Highlight for Amy was buying a pink handbag, which she hasn't taken off since. The weather has also come to the party with lovely spring weather. Today we returned to Collioure to show Mum and Dad around. Kids got into the spirit by joining in with some local folk dancing (some shots on Flickr).