I thought I am doing something different again, showing an old photograph instead of modern and digital work. I’ve been two times in Argeles Sur Mer in the 80`s, and one time by the end of the 90`s. Argeles Sur Mer or Argeles Plage is a place in France near the Perpignan. By the way, “Sur Mer” is French and literally translated it means something like “On Sea”, referring to the fact that the place is near the sea. Argeles Plage means something like “Argeles Beach”. But to be honest, the beach and sea is not the only reason why place is special.

What is special too is that you can see the Pyrenees from the beach, being both a mountain range and the border between France and Spain. And the proximity was not just visible because we knew that the Pyrenees are basically the border, the proximity was also visible because the mediterranean architecture that partly looked pretty Spanish. Not to mention that when the sun got too hot, we just bought a Sombrero that you could find in every corner of Argeles. Due to the close proximity, we did of course also drive over the Pyrenees through Le Perthus to make day trips to Spain.

No matter if on the French side of the border or the Spanish side, it’s such a beautiful area and even if it was a long time ago, we still hold the memories in our heads and often talk about the place. Sometimes I asked Google and it was funny to see how things developed there, because you know, nothing stands still. When I think about Spain, I am thinking about branched and narrow alleys with lots of stairs build on the slopes of hills. When I think about France, I am thinking about the beach, the vicious thistles which are natural landmines, have fun to pick out the thorns from your feet, haha. We don’t have thistles on our beach in Travemünde. I think in France we learned how nice flip-flops are!

When I think about Argeles, I also think about hot temperature with a much more bearable climate compared to our summers in Northern Germany. I can’t explain, but we had higher temperatures in Argeles, but back in Germany we had lower temperatures but the climate was much more exhausting. I guess it’s about air moisture. When I think about Argeles, I am also thinking about lots of palms, desert-like areas with lots of dust due to people riding horses. I remember, when I was very little, we walked a long trail to a thatched hut where they sold drinks. We discovered Orangina, a drink like Fanta but with flesh of fruit and much more tasty than Fanta. On the way back, we started to hear a noise and it got louder and louder (really loud), and then we saw them coming, about five men on their horses. A moment later we were surrounded by dust and couldn’t see each other anymore.

Just many years later we found the Orangina drink for the first time in a large supermarket in our city. When I get myself Orangina bottles today, I close my eyes when I take a sip, and the memories of Argeles that pop up are still vivid even if it’s almost two decades ago since I’ve been there the last time. I believe I don’t do the place justice with just a few paragraphs. We experiences so many good things there. But I will probably talk about it again if I scan some photos of our old holidays.