Barcelona

Beach in Barcelona

I booked a rental in Valencia and as it turns out, the night train trip direct to Valencia was full.  As I previously mentioned, I had to figure out how to work with the state run rail website, Renfe.com.  Anyway... it was too late for that because the night train was full.  I don't know if you have ever ridden on a train in the daytime with four kids, two under 7, it ain't fun.  So we had to look for alternative means of travel.

There was this really cheap flight in from Paris to Barcelona, a day before we were supposed to depart.  I figured that would make my French landlord happy.  He seemed cool with it either which way, but I could tell deep inside he had plans of stretching out (no pun intended) in his loft again, maybe with a nice lady, bottle of wine.

Au Revoir, France

So we took a cab to the airport which I arranged the night earlier through a service called Taxi G7, they arranged a taxi to the airport via a handy iphone app.  It was expensive, but taking the bus to the center of town and the special bus to the airport, for all six of us, would have cost more, and been more time consuming and aggravating.  So I managed to save a few Euros and ride in the comfort of a nicely appointed cab to the airport.

We arrived looking for the budget carrier, Easyjet.  They weren't hard to find at all.  The terminals are set up pretty cool.  No sweat.  No hassles about baggage.  I know I will have to lighten my load for the next trip though.  We zipped through the airport the plane came in and we zipped on to Barcelona with no problems.

When we got there, our landlady was not present.  This was a cause for concern, as my French prepaid sim would not make calls in Spain.  Plus, we were wondering if we really got the address right.  No sweat, the address was wrong, but the right address was only two blocks away.  Well, a little sweating, who wants to be waiting outside with four sweating little ones wondering if they are in the right place.

Barcelona garden, or what we call a courtyard in the states

So I run in the little tabac to buy a sim card.  A tabac is a little tobacco store slash whatever else they might sell.  This guy sold sim cards.  He was cool enough not only to call and have it activated but to work with me through my Spanish which had atrophied from twenty years of no use to si, no, yo quiero, and muchos gracias.  Okay maybe a few more words, but clearly not enough to activate a sim card. On my way out of the store the landlady was walking up, right as I was leaving her a message. She apologized for getting off from work late, traffic, yada, yada.

On the way to the city center

Fine cup of Spanish Coffee

The city itself was more metropolitan than I expected.  Big, modern, fast moving.  Well, one good thing, we were near the ocean.  You know how we love the beach.  As it turns out, our place was two blocks from the beach, so I got to stick my toes in the Mediterranean, at least for a few minutes.  There was also a huge mall nearby where they had both inexpensive clothes and modern electronics.  There was also a supermarket and tons of restaurants.We were beat so we put off seeing what I wanted to see the most, Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudi's great unfinished work, it will have to wait until we return. We walked around our neighborhood, went to the mall, acclimatizing to Spain and prepared for our onward rail journey to Valencia.

Boulangeries and Patisseries

Boulangeries and Patisseries are where you can find fresh baked bread and assorted pastries daily. Most boulangeries rarely sell only baguettes and other types of bread; they supplement their offerings with at least a dozen types of pastries. That being said, their are many patisseries that sell only sweet goods, occasionally drifting into the realm of the chocolatier.

In the city of Paris, they are everywhere! Much like in the hoods of urban America where at least one liquor store or storefront church can be found on every block, the same can be said for the boulangerie.

They make an excellent baguette and pear tart, too

The best croissants in the city here 

An inside look

Everyone is always on the go here so to make extra income, many shops sell sandwiches for the busy lunch crowd. This boulangerie had some of the best to be found and we would walk a mile out of the way for them. There was one little catch though, you had to know what you wanted, how to pronounce it, and fast! No time for browsing with 7 or 8 people in line behind you. The woman in the photo is who I referred to as the 'sandwich nazi'. I was always nervous trying order with my rudimentary french, and she had no patience for me.

yummy

bite-size treats

mouth-watering

this was a 'bio' aka organic boulangerie

i thought these were coconut based macaroons, but they are 'macrons', which have no coconut and taste vaguely like marzipan

this shop sells pastries but are more well-known for there chocolates

French Wine

It saddens me to say that Americans, as wine drinkers, have been bamboozled. Lied to. Led astray. One would be pressed to think of a bottle of wine that can be bought in the U.S. for under $10 that not only A. taste good, but B. leaves you without a trace of a headache or other nagging symptoms that denote a poor quality wine. In the realm of imported French wine, trying to find one under $20 is very difficult. So consequently, as Americans we are trained to believe that you have to not only pay dearly to drink well, but that you must have some sort of training to do so. We did a test while in Paris. We purposely tried to purchase a bottle of undrinkable wine. Most were under 3 euros and none were over 5, all chosen at random. I am happy to report that we did not succeed. All of them were very pleasant tasting, with varying degrees of greatness of course. What is imported and sold to wine drinkers in the U.S. is nothing close to what the French drink themselves, at a fraction of the cost.

Thoughts about Paris

After a few weeks in Paris I think it is probably one of the most unique places I have ever visited.  It kind of reminds me of Cairo, but Paris is a bit different.  It is cosmopolitain, like Cairo, it is based on neighborhoods as well, but there is something connecting the neighborhoods and connecting the people, perhaps a love of the city, a certain uniqueness that no other city has.

My landlord, after trying to squeeze me for a few more dollars towards the utilities made an interesting comment.  He is no typical landlord.  He is renting us his artist loft space for a little extra spending money I expect.  I asked him how they can live here, how they can afford it.

He said, we, young fools, learn to love Paris - like a sometimes difficult, but deserving woman.  I could dig that.  I mean, what woman do you know who isn't difficult sometimes?  And yeah, I could live here.  I mean, if I had a visa, beyond three months out of every six.  Perhaps I will find someone to split the time and rent an apartment here with.  We would never see this other person, but we would get six months in Paris.  Prices on places fall if you rent for a whole year instead of month by month.  Just a thought.

The weather is mild right now, it is better weather wise than Chicago, not much more so, but enough so that it is almost worth living here, in that regard.  The people are very interesting.  There is this thing they do, when walking.  If you look at anyone in their eyes they immediately look away, even if it is towards a brick wall.  That wouldn't matter so much except when you juxtapose it to all the people watching that goes on in cafes and parks and restaurants and public spaces.

This was supposed to have been published about a week into Paris, but now I am revising it after the trip in Paris is done. Is Paris my favorite place in the world?  Well, so far it is up there.  I mean I loved all of Egypt and Valencia is pretty cool too.  But lets just say Paris is special, especially in April.  Next time,  Barcelona!

The Louvre, Pt II

While the additions of the glass pyramids are quite stunning on their own accord; I still don't think that they have grown to 'fit in' with the rest of the Louvre architecture. One interesting fact of note, Abu Dhabi will be opening a satellite Louvre in 2013. The photos of the planned finish project look amazing. It will definitely be worth a trip there just to bask in its opulence. 

Louvre

Well, so much art, so little time...

Amazing galleries but the collection is so extensive.  We saw about 5% but hope to come back in the future.  We included a few pictures, they actually do allow photography, minus flash.  However, sometimes it is better to just look around.  Next time I want to check out Napoleon's apartment.  This time we checked out their Egyptian collection, French paintings and Sculptures.  I'm surprised we got to see that much with the young ones.

However, here is a brief gallery devoted to the Louvre:

@Louvre Pt1