Le bel été

I grew up with this series too. In Bulgaria it was such a success that the Bulgarian National TV repeated it five or six times. We all loved it. I remember all the kids from the neighbourhood playing "Verano Azul" day after day without getting bored or anything of the kind. Of course, all the girls were in love with "Javi" /Juan Jose Artero/ and "Pancho" /Jose Luis Fernandez/. I wish I could see or meet them now. Them and all of the cast. For me "Verano Azul" is the best film for children ever made. It portrays every important moment and every significant value in a child's life. I wish I could see the series again. In the meantime I can only say: "Gracias, chicos! Habeis sido estupendos! Os quiero y os quiero conocer para agradecerles de todo corazon todos los momentos felizes que me regalasteis! Un monton de besos!"

I was just about 11-12 years old when "Verano azul" passed for the first time on Portuguese TV. They passed once a week, during weekends. I saw the first episode and immediately got seduced by the characters and the story. I saw all episodes until the end of the series and when that end came I felt sorry to realize that I would no longer be able to keep seeing Julia, Chanquete, Pancho, Javi, Bea, etc. Anyway, Portuguese TV passed the series again in the following years and I saw it over and over again. I've been looking for a long time to buy it on DVD, but can't find it here in Portugal. Hope I can get it soon, to see it again. They just don't make that kind of series anymore.

Ijust watched the very first episode of Verano Azul again.I'm also Bulgarian, nd I'm not surprised to see other Bulgarian comments posted here. Indeed the series were tremendous success and everyone who remember them still love them. I'm younger than most of the grown up children from that generation, but I still have a slight memory about those days. Everything was different then and it seems to me that people were happier then. The series are part of our childhood and that's why we all love them so much (among with some Bulgarian movies and TV series like Voinata na Taralejite - "Hedgehogs' War", or Vasko daGama ot selo Rupcha) Verano Azul contains a great variety of characters, all of them so real, that after a few minutes you feel like you know them. And the series are suitable for just everyone. My parents also remember them, and even my grandparents.

It was great to read the other comments here. It's good to know that so many people from different countries still remember Verano Azul. This means that those marvelous days are not forgotten and pieces of our childhood still live in our souls.

To those of us who were kids or teenagers in the early 80s in Spain, "Verano Azul" –or Blue Summer, in a literal English translation- brings back many fond memories of what our childhood/adolescence was like.

There were two TV channels only, no home computers, play-stations, i-pods or mobile phones. And we kids would spend the whole day in the street playing ball, marbles, hide-and-seek, catch-me-if-you-can and many other games that are now extinct. Or we would pop to the local bar to play the pinball machines while having a Coke or a Fanta. We used to read Spanish comics, ride our bikes or play charades, and always had a great time. Also in those days summers were proper summers, before climate change came to screw things up. Our school summer vacation ran from mid-June to mid-September, and you hardly would see a rainy day in between. I hadn't seen the series for almost twenty years now, and when these past few days I had the chance of watching it again, my eyes filled with tears. I have been watching as many as three or four episodes every day, and couldn't get enough. Many things that I had forgotten suddenly popped back in my memory in that so well know effect that gives us the feeling that it happened only yesterday. I realise now how good this series really is because it is so realistic and well-made, with absolutely credible performances –those kids had real talent, they did-, typical teenage problems and situations within the context of the era, cultural icons, and the humour provided by Tito and Pirana, the youngest members of the gang. Because I am the same age as the actor who plays Tito, seeing him now is like seeing myself thirty years ago. These two cheeky kids always steal the show with their lines and with the innocent and plucky things they do.

I knew that the series had been a huge success in South-America but I had no idea about Bulgaria and Poland, and the reviews posted by people from these two countries have left me amazed. They say the show gave them one of the very first glimpses of the West and what kids were like in the free world, and they also say that the minute it would start on TV the streets became empty. I would have never imagined it.

This series is perfect in every way, and it is a good thing they never made a sequel (the typical thing with the youngsters returning to the village two or three years later and getting together again) because it surely could never be as good as the original.

There is a Spanish saying that goes "Good things, if they are brief, they are twice as good".

And it is true.

I grew up with this series. As time goes by, I have revisited many of the shows I used to love as a child, only to wonder: "What on earth was I thinking wasting my time watching this?!" Not so with this show. It is nostalgic, beautiful, enduring and has a quality of truth that spans the decades. I still love it as much as ever.

Each of the children will reflect you at one point in your life or other. Worth watching if you have the chance.