He moved to Valencia and passed his bachillerato, the first non-compulsory educational option in Spain for admission to university. He later moved to Madrid and began Legal Studies. During these years, he frequented the cultural institution Ateneo de Madrid and heard poets from the Postismo school. He was also finishing his early play "Picnic," then titled "The Soldiers", and writing "El triciclo", at first titled "Men with a Tricycle". In 1954, Arrabal hitchhiked to Paris to attend a performance of Bertolt Brecht’s "Mother Courage and Her Children" given by the touring Berliner Ensemble. Later that year, in Madrid, he met Luce Moreau, who became his wife. In 1955, he was awarded a three-month scholarship to study in Paris, during which time he lived at the Colegio de España at the Cité Universitaire. While in Paris he suffered a serious relapse of tuberculosis. He considered this disease to be a "lucky mishap" that allowed him to move permanently to his "veritable homeland, that of Kundera and Vives, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Picasso: exile." Arrabal had been known for being anti-Francoist and anti-monarchist and interested in anarchist trends in cultural production. Arrabal had a complicated relationship with Communism. He had ties with the Communist Party of Spain during his exile, but a rupture seems to have occurred in 1977 due to a conflict with his play "The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria" being performed in Barcelona with artists reputed to have Communist Party ties. Arrabal was among the more controversial writers of his time, and his work has been recognized internationally. Awards include the Grand Prize for Theatre of the Académie Française, the Premio Mariano de Cavia for journalism, the Nabokov Prize for novels, the Espasa Prize for essays, and the World Theater Prize. In 2001, he was nominated for the Premio Cervantes by Nobel Prize in Literature winner Camilo José Cela and José Hierro. He was reportedly a finalist for the Nobel Prize in 2005 due to the solicitation of several institutions and individuals. On July 14, 2005, he was named to France's Légion d'honneur. In 2007, he was awarded a doctorate of letters Honoris Causa by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.