ABSTRACT. – Since its founding in 1882 by Professor Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, the Arago Laboratory, one of the three marine stations of the University Pierre and Marie Curie-Paris 6 accommodates researchers and students from all over the world for scientific collaborations, courses or national and international conferences. Some became famous, and the author lists over thirty Academicians of Science living or deceased including four Nobel Prize: Andre Lwoff (1965), Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1991), Albert Fert (2007) and Jules Hoffmann (2011). After a review of these various researchers that later became Academicians, and having recalled some anecdotes about some of those she met at the Arago Laboratory, Marie-Odile Soyer-Gobillard more particularly focuses this article on the founder Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821-1901), an eminent master of experimental zoology. She also evokes Edouard Chatton (1883-1947) a great protozoologist, pioneer of cell biology, Director of Arago Laboratory, and author of splendid drawings, courseboards destined to his students and pupils. She also mentions his favorite pupil Andre Lwoff (1902-1994), Nobel Prize for Medicine. Before being known for his work in bacterial genetics and virology Andre Lwoff was an eminent protozoologist. Finally she mentions a great friend of the Arago Laboratory, Walter Gehring, who was Professor at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and visited Banyuls every year with his students before coming for longer periods. Gehring was a pioneer of developmental biology and his work on genes called “Masters of Development” and on the Pax6 gene, essential to the development of the eye, opened new avenues of investigation at the scientific crossroads of Evolution and Development. Besides the stimulating scientific environment of the Laboratory, many of these researchers have regularly returned to Banyuls because of its geographic situation, proximity of the Mediterranean sea, abundance of marine equipment, colours of the hills and surrounding vineyards associated with an always present “joie de vivre” all contributing to the “magic” of Banyuls.