Portbou, more rarely and unofficially also Port Bou, is a municipality with 1374 inhabitants (2006) in the comarca of Alt Empordà in Catalonia. It is located on the Costa Brava directly on the Spanish-French border. Portbou is located at the western end of the Golfe du Lion, between the mountains on the "Bay of the Rats", and has a small beach and a marina. Alongside Irun on the Atlantic coast, Portbou is the most important border station between Spain and France with the transition from French standard gauge to Spanish broad gauge, which basically requires people to change trains or freight to be reloaded. Only over the short section between Portbou and the French border station Cerbère run tracks in both gauges. There is a gauge change facility in Portbou for Talgo trains with specially adapted running gear. However, with the planned opening of the LGV Perpignan-Figueres high-speed line further west in summer 2010, the importance of Portbous for rail traffic is likely to decline considerably. In the years 1934 to 1944, Portbou was a gathering point for German and French emigrants,