A Walk Through Cadaqués

A family of three, in a small town on the Mediterranean called Cadaqués. For them, the perception of time might not exist if the church bells stopped ringing every hour, as they live day to day with the essentials, a passion, and a glass of Garnacha at night. Where do these images take you? Do they take you back to the past; to that endless summer with bare feet? Or do they fly you to the future; to those coastal vacations you’ve been thinking about for a while? These images tell each of us a different story. Even to their own protagonists.

Photography by Armando Rafael

They are Joshua and Lucía, an adventurous couple, parents of Amelie, creators of Polonio, and citizens of the world. He is from New York, she is from Montevideo; united by their love of travel and design. They met ten years ago working at Adidas in Germany. It was hard to win her over, according to him. Love was always the starting point of their projects; the couple, the family, Polonio, and their boutiques. Their brand was born after Josh’s first visit to Cabo Polonio. The star-lit nights, the easy lifestyle, the duality between connection and disconnection due to lack of signal, and the bumpy truck ride over the dunes that gave Josh a warm welcome to Latin America. It was love at first sight. The story of their first store in Cadaqués is also magical, but like in every couple, there are two versions of the same story.

In 2021, with Italy’s borders closed in the middle of the pandemic, they needed to spend time in the Old World while waiting for samples from their Florentine factory. That’s how they arrived at this romantic destination by chance, which reminded them so much of the Uruguayan coast; a small beach town with cobblestone streets and the aroma of restaurants that rises early with dominant notes of garlic. “Lu remembered Cadaqués with her parents in her childhood, so we drove there. We walked through the old town and immediately fell in love with its white houses, the tourists, and the slow pace. Suddenly, we found a small shop a block from the promenade that looked like a cave and was for rent. At that moment, we knew it was for us,” Josh recalls.

However, for Lucía, the story begins differently. “We went to visit Dalí’s house. The next day, it was raining heavily, and through the curtain of water, we recognized a sign with a map of Uruguay. It was the Iturria Gallery. We were welcomed by Uruguayan friends. We were already home. That afternoon, we imagined what color the door would be if we opened a store there. The options in Cadaqués were red, blue, or green, but we pictured it turquoise, like the little houses in our beloved José Ignacio. The next morning, we found an available shop with the door in the shade we had dreamed of. My father, a cabalist, always says that stores open when they appear, not when you want them to. With Amelie in arms, just two suitcases, and the whole world on pause, our stay extended, and without even a place to stay, we rented our first boutique in Cadaqués.”

Joshua and Lucía are nomads. Their home is their family. Today, their store in this Catalan paradise is different from the original one. One that connects to the Iturria Gallery and creates a passage that blends art and design, Spain and Uruguay, and conveys the essence of family, with children always around giving the space even more color. The images taken for this editorial piece were the idea of their friend, photographer Armando Rafael, during a visit to Cadaqués with his wife. With the vision of showing Joshua and Lucía’s lifestyle, they walked from the store to their home, relaxed, like any other day. “We wake up in the morning and make coffee or go for a snack, then go for a run. Later, we walk Amelie to school, who has already made friends with the whole town! Then we work at Polonio; we have meetings, review samples, and around noon, Lu does the shopping. At night, we uncork a wine on the terrace to enjoy the city reflected upside down in the water or we go out for tapas at Lua,” Josh says without Lu’s approval, who claims she doesn’t have a routine but agrees that specialty coffee can never be missing.

Adventure, quality of life, light travel, change as the only constant, and the most exquisite color palette – just like those European ice cream shops that captivate glances on the street – characterize the couple’s lifestyle; free, authentic, contemporary, and above all, simple. The same they inspire through Polonio. “Not everyone gets to remote places like Cabo Polonio or Cadaqués. We always say that our brand, with its name, proposes a destination. But this is not necessarily a place, but rather a way of living,” reflects Lucía, and Joshua agrees. Like every couple, they don’t always agree on every detail, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a good coffee.

-Camila Galfione