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Andorra
Life in a tiny dual Principality nestled in the Pyrenees between France and Spain
For those who’ve never heard of Andorra before, it’s a small country located in the Pyrenees nestled between France and Spain. It’s the world’s only dual Principality, nominally controlled by the French President and a Spanish bishop but in reality governed by a small group of politicians who until 2012 met in the dining room of a private home. Nowadays they have an actual government building in which to hold their convocations.
Andorra has a population of approximately 78,000 people, of whom half live clustered around Andorra la Vella, the principle city usually known simply as ALV. The primary language is Catalan, but most people also speak Castilian Spanish and quite a few can get by in French, at least for day-to-day needs. A lot of tourists visit Andorra in winter for skiing and snowboarding, while in the more clement months it’s a favorite place for serious bicyclists to train on its many hills.
If you go for a relatively short period, it’s easy to be captivated by the natural beauty. Although Andorra is tiny, it abounds in modestly-sized mountains and if you like hiking you’ll be able to find enough trails to permit a different hike every day for at least a month. And there are enough restaurants to ensure you won’t go hungry post-hike.
