Day 4-8: The South of France

 

“You ask him.” “No, you ask him.” “But you know more French then I do.” “What? Because I spent 10 minutes playing a learn French game on the iPhone?” We stared at the French train conductor from our seats…neither of us wanting to ask about the next train stop.

Exploring France was a bit difficult for us, due in large part to our language barrier. Getting off the train in Carcassonne, our first stop in France, we both felt completely alone in a strange town.

For both of us, the highlight of France was exploring The Medieval City of Carcassonne. Parts of this restored walled city were built over 1000 years ago and it is truly an impressive sight.  The whole time we were wondering around the ramparts and towers my imagination ran wild with images of princesses courting knights on their steeds (as well as Belle being chased around by Beast while Gaston sings in the distance)

 

 

Castle planking

A local specialty, Cassoulet, white bean stew with pork sausage & duck.  This was served sizzling and was spectacular.

Narbonne was our next stop in France. We only got to spend a few hours here. But we enjoyed some delicious pastries, gelato and discovering old buildings and unique streets.

Heading to Montpellier

While in France, Brett decided that I needed to try crème brûlée.  So we checked out the menu of every restaurant we passed and didn’t see it offered on a single one (although, we may have missed it, since we weren’t able to translate much of what we read while in France).  The only place we we found this delicious dessert on sale was at a local grocery store.  So we purchased a couple of these confections which were served in cute little glass dishes.

But of course everyone knows that the best part of crème brûlée is the caramelized sugar crust on top.  So once we got back to the hotel we had another delay in enjoying our treats as we tried to track down a broiler we could use.  The short game of charades we played with our hotel owner only yielded a microwave, which he assured us would not be sufficient for our needs. So we retired to our room with our non-burnt deserts and enjoyed them immensely despite not finding a brûlée torch (or proper silverware for that matter, see image below) 

Heading to Marseille

Cliff Planking at Les Calanques de Cassis à Marseille

We found some fellow plankers around lunch time.

 

Is there something more to this Provincial life?

 

For those interested in seeing more photos of France: Carcassonne, Narbonne, Montpellier, and Marseille

The train keeps heading east from here. Next stop Italia!…

Day 1-3: Barcelona

Narrow winding streets, colorful laundry hanging off of every other balcony, new & ancient buildings mingling perfectly together, beautiful people, delicious gelato, something new to discover around every corner. These are some of my favorite things about the metropolitan center of Cataluña; Barcelona.

As Brett and I planned our trip to Europe, Barcelona became the default starting point simply because it was the cheapest airport to fly into. Not knowing much of this wonderful city at the time, I wasn’t really too excited to visit. But I came away from Barcelona completely in love. It was my second favorite city we visited in our European adventures. In fact we ended up staying a day longer than initially planned (thankfully our hosts were gracious enough to put up with us for another day)

My infatuation with Barcelona is due in large part to the lovely friends we met and stayed with in nearby suburb of Argentona. I loved Argentona a great deal and feel that I could easily be content in living there long term. Our friends were incredibly welcoming, hospitable and were incredibly helpful as we set about to discover the history, architecture, tastes and beauty that is Barcelona. Our trip would not have been nearly as wonderful with out their warm welcome to Europe, their friendly smiles and their keen insight into the history of civilization Europe.

Our breakfast, complements of our amazing host. Decadent.

Original Roman columns inside a modern apartment complex.

.

The famous La Sagrada Familia, begun in 1882 by Gaudi and nearing completion by contemporary architects.  This cathedral is on everyone’s must see list when visiting Barcelona. There is more light shining into this cathedral than all the light in other famous European cathedrals combined.. Parts of it are much more modern than most cathedrals but the ample natural light made everything gorgeous.

A pretty little house in Argentona.

The view from our bedroom window.

Our lovely new friends. Thanks so much for making our visit to Barcelona so memorable!

This is a brief movie from our experiences in Barcelona.

The Davis Duo Do Europe

Brett & I were both bit by the travel bug prior to getting married. As last year’s summer road trip indicates we are both big fans of seeing the world. Over the last few years of married life, most of our travels took place on the highway and most of our nights were spent in tents, or the back of a station wagon. After trekking all over the US, we were both ready to branch out a bit father.  We sold our faithful station wagon and a few spins of the globe later, we settled on heading to the Mediterranean.  Traveling on a budget isn’t always easy, but fortunately, we’re both willing to do what it takes to get more miles and sights under our belts. For this trip that included packing light, only one backpack each, for a month, riding cheap local trains, as well as sleeping in a train station.

Over the past month Brett & I have traveled on six airplanes, dozens of trains, a few buses (some double deckers)several boats, a subway or two, some sky trams, a couple of taxis and one tiny scooter.  In doing so we were able to visit seven countries and get tastes of even more along the way.

This trip was quite an experience for both of us.  It was the first time either of us had been to Europe and we really wanted to savor the journey. By focusing most of our attention on the experience we didn’t end up documenting the trip as well as we would have liked.  With that being said, we did still get some fabulous photos and a handful of videos along the way. 

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of our pictures & video clips with you on this blog. So brush up on your foreign language skills and stay tuned!

Leaving Nassau, Bahamas on Sept 26th we flew to Barcelona, Spain.  On Oct 26th we flew back to Nassau from Milan, Italy.

Flights are shown in blue, boat voyages are shown in green.  All other transportation was done via train or on foot.

This photo was taken before dawn at the Nassau International Airport.

See you in Barcelona!

~Susan