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‘The happiest place in Wales’ which traders say is fast being abandoned
Each morning Leanne Armstrong and her mother Kath pass many ideal rural towns and villages where they could have set up their little gift shop on the way to Monmouth from their home in Carmarthenshire[1]. And yet, they plumped for the pretty town on the English border just before Christmas[2] and make the more than three-hour round trip every day because people there, they predict, will spend their money with them. “It’s a nice town, an affluent area,” Leanne said from her shop, called Bon Bon, which she opened on Monmouth’s main Monnow Street in December and which smells divine thanks to the candles and bath bombs on the shelves. “We think there are lots of people that visit here – plenty of tourists,” she grinned. “We take the Brecon[3] route from Carmarthenshire every day and could have gone closer to home, but we think we’ve made the right decision.”