Andorra

Andorra is a little country that has always fascinated us, so we decided to take the long way home from Spain to France and visit it.  It really was the scenic route, it took us hours through winding mountain roads to reach Andorra.  There is only one major road through the country, one end of the road borders Spain, the other France, so that's the road we took.  Andorra is high up in the Pyrennees, and the surrounding Spanish and French countryside is what you would expect mountain countryside to be like - sparsely populated, old churches and monastries on the top of mountains, etc.  But Andorra was completely different. The first thing you see is massive new shopping centres, big hotels, and tons of people taking advantage of tax-free shopping.  It is well known as a tax-haven, and from the walking around we did, things seemed pretty cheap, but it was crazy to think of all these people having driven perhaps hundreds of miles to shop there. 
We spent some time in the capital, Andorra-la-Vella.  Surrounded by mountains all around it has incredibly beautiful surroundings, but nearly all the buildings are new-ish and most of the city seemed like a strip mall selling high-end luxury goods tax-free (think of airport terminal shops surrounded by the most stunning scenery).
Apart from the shock with finding such a commercial place hidden in the Pyrennees, there were other strange things.  There was no national museum to find out more about the country (when we went to Tourist Information she suggested we go to the perfume museum (located near the perfume shops). We did see the oldest and smallest parliament in Europe, which also doubles as the country's courthouse and jail.

Andorran parliament