Livre d‘Or

I heard about Canfranc Estación only last year (2023). This year, 2024, offered a road trip to Portugal. I knew I had to include this 1920s magnificent, grandiose, explosion of optimism, vision, national pride and belief in the future, undertaking. I was not prepared for its superb reincarnation! Overwhelming stunning! Especially a couple of days after a heavy snowfall when all the roads and walkways have been cleared. Beautiful in its rebirth, an example of “(re)build it and they will come” thinking by the region of Aragon and a tribute to all the architects, designers, builders and decorators who have worked so well to fulfill this renovation. Like Titanic, the Opera Hause in Manaus and Werner Herzog’s ‘Fitzcarraldo’ and Iquitos, or the Roman baths of Caracalla, it is mind-blowing. I had to splash the cash and stay there — rationalising the outlay as in celebration of my first granddaughter’s birth. There are things which still need tweaking and tuning, but it just makes me smile with joy. The sooner SNCF or the French government see sense and repair the French line, the better they can share in the ecological, energy-sensitive potential that the rail line offers to all of us. A month after and I am still smiling at having found Canfranc Estación. Superb, just . . . Wow! The photos Matthias has taken are an invaluable and beautiful record of Canfranc Estación. He has saved for us many of the details which, sadly but inevitably, have been lost during the station hotel’s renaissance. The photographs help to give an increased sense of hope and joy for the future by showing what _is_ possible when people care and realise the importance of history. One lovely touch in the hotel rooms is that the old, original, worn and weathered window frames have been used as picture frames for images of the old hotel. It’s a lovely touch. I hope some of Matthias’s photographs have been, or can be thus used. They deserve to be. Thank you for your work, Matthias.