Cerbere, Forgotten City

One of the most memorable places I visited in France was the town of Cerbere, which is kind of like a French Detroit in so far as it was once a booming destination, the epi centre of a vibrant economy, that is now a forgotten town whose population has gradually dwindled and whose once lavish relics stand      vacant and decrepit, though some still quite majestic in a haunting sort of way.

Before the European union erased borders, the mechanization of the railway system, and the development of vast automobile and air plane travel, Cerbere was a place of trade and leisure as it is the last French town before Spain, which is only 4 kilometers away. The train is what built Cerbere. Because the Spanish rail system was different than the french, imported and exported goods had to be moved through manually, which created many jobs for people on both sides of the border. Since it took a while for people to get through the paperwork to cross into Spain, Cerbere became a tourism Mecca as developers saw the opportunity to make the waits appealing. Most notably the ship-shaped Art Deco palace (now a faded beauty), le Belevere Du Rayon Vert Hotel, became a destination in its own right with its high class rooms, roof top tennis court, impressive theatre, and luxurious banquet halls overlooking the Mediterranean sea that appealed to the 1930s glitterati. Josephine Baker even performed there. But now the place is empty despite the owner's painstaking efforts to foster a revival,  save for a few legend seeking tourists (like me) who come for a guided tour or to rent a "revamped" apartment there for a weekend. 

Cerbere feels kind of like a ghost town. The mechanized voice of the National Train Corporation (SNCF) still reverberates through the entire town every hour announcing the incoming trains, but now this is just a pit stop for most travellers. Though if you hang out long enough you can witness some beautiful snippets of Cerbere's present life, for example I listened to a group of old timers sitting on a bench in small renovated concrete covered park and was struck by the beauty of their sing song accent, an interesting mix of Spanish and french, which made more of an impact on me than anything else I saw on this incredible field trip to "la ville au bout du monde."*

*city at the end of the earth, as it's sometimes also called.