Post #43: European Vacation, week two
- Nana Beryl Jupiter
- Aug 3, 2023
- 10 min read
With Oo-oo reunited with Cooper, the luggage cram-packed into the SUV wayback, Jesse at the wheel of our rental vehicle, Jason co-piloting in front, and Stacy navigating from the back seat, the five of us embarked on week two of our European vacation by leaving Montpellier and heading west along the French Mediterranean coast.
Next stop: visiting Stacy’s friend Janine and her family at their Perpignan home for the afternoon. Once we located their house on the outskirts of the city, we spent a relaxing time where Cooper got to play with Janine’s son Ryan.
And we were alltreatedall treated to a tummy-filling, cheesy raclette lunch.
Bien sur (of course), the raclette was accompanied by wine for the adults. Designated driver Jesse, however, minimized his alcoholic intake.
Despite the rest of us being in a semi- cheese-and-wine induced coma, we still had to wend our way later that day on curvy, undulating roads to Collioure, the fortunately nearby seaside village where Janine had recommended we stay.
We had a two-night reservation at our boutique hotel, aptly named Les Roches Brunes (brown rocks) as it was situated on a rocky ledge along the town’s Mediterranean bay.
We unpacked the loaded car in the narrow parking lot, carted all luggage inside, and checked into our sea-facing, charmingly decorated, eco-friendly rooms, which were a vast aesthetic improvement from the functional hotel where we had spent the past week in Montpellier. Stacy was especially delighted with their luxurious larger room, required for accommodating three people.
We woke up to a scenic view of old and colorful Collioure and a delicious in-house petit dejeuner including aromatic coffee, fresh baked goods, fruits and cheeses in a lovely dining room overlooking the sea and town.
After breakfast we took ourselves on a cool November Sunday morning walking tour of the picturesque town with its 800 year-old royal château, seaside cafes, circular beachfront, and pastel-colored buildings in narrow winding alleys.
And you may recall from blog posts #40 and #41 that Nana was traipsing around in a mid-calf stabilizing boot on her left foot, having broken a mid-foot bone and torn ligaments by tripping over a low concrete barrier in a parking lot in Florida just a week before traveling. So I was more likely to be bringing up the rear as we were sightseeing by walking, hearing Cooper’s occasional concern, “Where’s Nana?” It was nice to know someone was looking out for me, and sweet that it was my grandson.
Fortunately, while we were meandering around, there was usually something for a little boy to do, like walking on the seawall, or skipping rocks into the water with Papa, even though Cooper gets easily frustrated by unsuccessful attempts.
Chef Jason was delighted to find a truffle store with tempting tasters and a large variety of truffle foodstuffs. Nana bought some truffle-infused olive tapenade to take home, while Jason filled a shopping bag of truffle goodies.
Janine and family met us in Collioure for afternoon dejeuner, locating a restaurant with a varied menu to accommodate the palettes and seating of our large group, splitting up into kid and adult tables. Cooper seemed perfectly comfortable separated with Ryan and two teenage girls.
While Nana and Papa returned after lunch to the hotel, Stacy and Janine’s family spent more time together, culminating for Cooper in yet another carousel ride.
Due to the dark chilly evenings, we chose to have both our dinners in at our hotel’s restaurant with its gourmet, Italian-inspired menu. That worked for Cooper, pasta both nights.
On Monday morning, we had time for another lovely in-house petit dejeuner before we departed from Collioure, France to Sitges, Spain, where Stacy had planned another visit to friends, more specifically Cooper’s school friend Milan who had moved from Fiji to Spain with her parents. Since then the kids had kept in touch by scheduled FaceTime visits. We were unfamiliar with Sitges but learned it was a popular Mediterranean seaside destination south of Barcelona.
Meanwhile it was going to be a challenging travel day. Challenge #1: Re-packing all our luggage in the SUV’s wayback, primarily Jason and Jesse’s spacial relations task. Challenge #2: Departing the hotel after paying our bills, emptying our rooms, etc. to allow ample time to drive to the Perpignan railway station for our train to Barcelona. Challenge #3: Navigating our way from the hotel to the train station in the center of Perpignan, where we dropped off Stacy, Jason, Cooper and most of the luggage. Challenge #4: Returning our Hertz vehicle in a compact French town by locating the supposedly nearby garage by driving on mostly one-way streets to the minimally-identified entrance where we were instructed to park, subsequently finding the designated hotel where keys were to be returned, and walking our way back to the train station. Fortunately, challenges #2, 3 & 4 were accomplished with minimal error, just travel anxiety, but we managed an arrival with time to spare.
In all honesty, Nana was relieved to be finished with the rental car arrangement of our family vacation. While it gave us flexibility in our touring and plans for several days, we had to translate French signage, negotiate unfamiliar and often narrow roads and confusing roundabouts, while simultaneously transferring phone GPS navigation to our designated driver Papa Jesse, all rather anxiety-producing.
But the travel day was still in progress. Challenge #5: Deciding where to wait with all our luggage for the announcement of our track, which would be posted only 15 minutes prior to the train’s arrival. We piled all our stuff by a table in the waiting room, regularly checking the departure monitor. Challenge #6: upon hearing the French announcement, confirmed on the monitor posting our train’s impending arrival, we gathered all our belongings, funneled into an elevator line, piled in to access a lower level track, located the first class coach, loaded all our stuff on board (thank you Jason & Jesse for muscle power), found storage for the large pieces, located our assigned seats in a peculiar little section labeled premier classe with small high windows, and caught our collective breaths as the train departed the station.
We had some temporary relaxation on our 90-minute train ride, crossing into Spain, to arrive in Barcelona. Upon arrival, Challenge #7, exiting the train with our multitude of belongings and maneuvering everything up one level to the central area of the station. Challenge #8, figuring out how to go from Barcelona to Sitges, about 20 miles south along the coast, while switching language from French to Spanish. There were frequent trains to Sitges, but Stacy observed the outside taxi line and quickly concluded that it would be optimal, for all of us and our voluminous luggage, to taxi directly to our Sitges hotel, eliminating additional transfers, even if it meant taking two taxi cabs. But as we stood in the taxi line, we observed that there were occasionally van-size taxis that might accommodate our whole entourage, and we were fortunately able to request one from the taxi coordinator. All good decisions at the last leg of our multi-transfer day.
About 40 minutes and 75 euros later, we arrived at the high-rise MIM Sitges hotel where we had made reservations at the recommendation of Stacy’s friends. We appreciatively found an attractive modern facility with updated comfortable rooms and appealing common spaces.
The hotel was well-located a block from the Mediterranean beach and nearby playground with ship feature, to which Cooper and Stacy gravitated soon after unpacking.
Having not had an actual meal since breakfast, we located a sea-facing restaurant which was open for a late lunch, and most importantly had pizza for Cooper.
Of course, Stacy had contacted Milan’s parents to determine when the kids could get together, which was our first evening in Sitges. We all had dinner that Monday evening at a casual restaurant nearby our hotel. While travel-weary Nana and Papa returned to the hotel soon after dinner, Stacy stayed longer to allow Cooper and Milan to play longer in the pedestrian mall.
Due to school and activities, Milan would not be available again until Wednesday afternoon. So Tuesday was our open day to return to Barcelona for touring, a delightful city which Stacy, Jesse and I had previously visited. Unfortunately, Tuesday was also predicted to be the chilliest of the days of our short stay in Spain.
After an ample and tasty buffet breakfast, we went in search of the express bus stop to Barcelona, unfortunately with initial location confusion, but eventually boarded the right bus at the correct stop.
To get an overview of Barcelona’s highlights, we had decided to take the double-decker, hop on-off, turistic bus, city tour, which first required walking several blocks with Nana's clunky booted foot, to the Plaza de Catalunya to purchase tickets and begin the tour.
Cooper’s first excitement in Barcelona was a plaza full of pigeons that voraciously swarmed arounds hands offering bird food.
Boarding our city tour bus, we all found seats in the open-air, upper deck for optimal viewing.
Nana was especially excited to re-visit the city of the incredible architect Gaudi. But given the unseasonably chilly, blustery day, Nana wore hat and gloves, but still wished she had added a fleece vest to her layered attire. Before long, Nana and Papa moved to the partially enclosed lower bus level for some warmth. I was amazed that the Fijians stayed on top. We didn’t do a lot of hopping on and off. Even the famous Gaudi-designed, hilltop Parc Guell, which I had hoped all could enjoy, was closed due to high winds.
We ended our tour in the Ramblas area, all freezing and starving, and fortunately found an iconic tapas restaurant, with a delicious variety of Spanish specialties we all could enjoy.
Back at our MiM Sitges hotel, Nana reheated by taking a soothing hot soak in our room’s large bathtub. Meanwhile, Papa, longtime soccer player and fan, wanted to view World Cup matches that were being played that week. Although Copa del Mundo was not available in our rooms, games were shown on the very large lobby screen. And we could order a light dinner from the lobby bar. Apropos, we learned that the hotel is owned by famous soccer player Lionel Messi who had a residence there. Although we didn’t see Messi, his golden soccer ball for FIFA player of the year was prominently displayed in the lobby.
Wednesday was our day to tour Sitges and it was already considerably warmer for our walking tour. We interspersed seeing the lovely seaside and village sights with playgrounds and pizza, the Cooper way.
At the second playground, Cooper challenged himself to run up the sliding board to reach the top. But no matter from how far back he took a running start, he could not fully achieve the top of the slide. Determined Cooper would not accept a helping hand from Papa. He frustratingly and sweatily attempted this feat more than two dozen times without success, until we insisted that we had to leave the playground.
Cooper’s mood improved considerably with pizza for lunch. We ate at a pleasant seaside promenade restaurant where Nana had her favorite Spanish dish, seafood paella.
For our Thursday morning departure after breakfast, we arranged a large taxi to take all of us and accompanying luggage to the Barcelona airport to fly to the last destination of our European vacation, a brief visit to the incomparable City of Lights.
It was another full day of travel, allowing ample time to check in for our mid-day flight to Paris, flying to Orly airport, arriving, collecting our belongings, switching back to speaking francais, and taking another large taxi in late afternoon city traffic to our left bank Hotel D’Orsay. The well-located, boutique hotel was charming, cozy and traditional. We asked the desk personnel for a nearby dinner recommendation and were delighted with Les Antiquaires with its traditional French menu and decor. Delicieux et tres bien! Admittedly, touristy but still special.
Once again, hotel petit dejeuner, including French pastries and cheeses, was merveilleux (marvelous) to start our day.
Our hotel’s proximity to and namesake of the Musee d’Orsay, famous Impressionist museum in a beautifully re-purposed train station, dictated our day’s first family activity. Fortunately, I had enjoyably visited previously, so was not too worried about seeing the museum this time through the eyes and speed of a 6 year-old.
At one point, Cooper stayed still long enough to watch with Nana and Papa an exhibit of silent movies, including some comic Charlie Chaplin, while Stacy and Jason got to view paintings at their leisure.
Cooper asked his mom a good question about the paintings and sculptures, “Why are there so many naked people?” Stacy fortuitously found and bought a kids art book in the museum store, appropriately titled, “Why is art full of naked people?” Cooper’s question must be a popular one.
Next Paris activity: a visit to the Institut Oceanographique where Stacy’s marine biology colleague Joaquin works. Stacy checked the location near the Luxembourg Gardens, about a mile away, and suggested we walk. Fresh air and exercise seemed OK to Nana, considering I’d already been traipsing through Europe on my booted broken foot, with minimal repercussions. But Stacy’s distance calculation was vastly underestimated and indeed my foot was not happy. Even Jesse insisted that I should not be walking so far with my injury. Cooper’s feet were wearing out too, but Jason picked him up and carried his fairly large son. So halfway there, Nana and Papa gratefully hailed a small taxi. We hoped the rest of them would catch a taxi too. But they stubbornly walked the whole way, with Jason still carrying Cooper.
Joaquin gave us a wonderful tour of the institute which was founded more than 100 years ago by Prince Albert I of Monaco and is housed in a beautiful historic building.
We climbed a narrow spiral staircase to the very top where we had a fantastic 360 degree view of Paris.
We joined Joaquin for dejeuner at his favorite nearby restaurant, whose specialty just happened to be pizza. Lucky Cooper!
Although Nana thought Cooper would enjoy a bateau mouche ride on the Seine to complete our Paris touring day, we never did that. Cooper was just as happy to relax in their room and draw pictures, perhaps inspired by the art museum.
Anyway, we had a full and memorable November Paris day, which would only be getting chilly and dark by late afternoon, and we would all be leaving very early for the airport the next morning. Once again, we had pre-ordered a large taxi to take all of us from our hotel. And Nana concluded our two-week family adventure with pre-ordered wheelchair assistance to expedite wending through the extensive Charles de Gaulle airport, for which her tired, travel-weary foot was especially appreciative.
Considering all the moving parts of these international, intergenerational and multi-city plans, we all agreed that the trip was a great success. Au revoir France!
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