When I returned to Porquerolles in 2015 as an adult I was nervous. Would it live up to my childhood memories?
Back then, dad and I would hire bikes to cycle around the island’s sand tracks. We were boisterous; racing each other to the next beach, splashing around in the clear waters and watching the surfers just off-shore. Meanwhile mum would find a shaded spot in the town square. For hours she would sketch the weathered faces of boules players, the hands of craft sellers – the details around her that no one else noticed.
A great deal had changed for dad and I in the fifteen years between our visits, which is why it was so comforting that the island had, for all intents and purposes, stayed the same. It was almost like that game of boules had never ended. The rich terracottas of the town were exactly as I remembered, the bikes were just as temperamental and the waters just as clear.
Despite the tightness I felt in my chest that this time, mum wouldn’t be waiting for us in the square at the end of the day, my first glimpse of Notre Dame Beach through the pines made me feel just like it had as a child: like there was no where else in the world I’d rather be.
The Curious Traveller 
Oh my, this post gave me tears and goosebumps! The nostalgia. What a beautiful place to spend your childhood
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I actually cried a little as a wrote it! Not with sadness but as you say – the sheer nostalgia of that view and the memories it drags along with it. Maybe also a little something about feeling so far removed from it right now too… photos often evoke that sort of response in me!
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It immediately made my eyes misty. I could feel the horrible feeling in your chest. Sad!
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Thanks for stopping by 🙂 It was certainly one of the most personal things I’ve posted on here. It’s strange that the feeling never really lessens so much as comes in pangs every now and then.
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I do understand. There are few impressions on your mind which stick forever simply for their emotional weight.
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How lovely that you and your dad could return to a favorite place and still relive those sweet memories of yesteryear. Your relationship to Porquerolles will always be so much more than beach, sun, and sand.
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Couldn’t have put it better myself. I do find it strange that what for most people is a casual holiday memory of a place they had a beer in the main square, holds such a big part of me. The wonder I guess of all the little corners of this world that mean something to us…
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