Argelès-Plage

For some reason this is one of very few photos I took today, and shows merely the view from our side-on-to-the-sea balcony in a hotel on the beach at Argelès-Plage, taken as dusk fell. Much travelling filled the day, from the 7.10am Hoppa to the two-hour coach journey here from Barcelona Airport.

And one thing stands out: passport control at Barcelona. A young woman was directing the arriving hordes: European passport? Non-European? When I waved my maroon European passport, she waved me through to the scanners and smiled. I smiled too. And then I looked left, at the huge queue of Americans, Russians, goodness knows what. It filled half the hall.

And next year, that’ll be us.