This will primarily be a recap of our now-annual pilgrimmage to Julie’s homeland! This time we took stops in Lyon, Marseille, Barcelone, and Paris, Toulouse and Carcassonne.

LYON

Julie’s best bro Jean is Lyonnais, and happened to be in Lyon while we were in France, so we stopped for a night and checked out his fair city. His pops gave us a wonderful tour of the town, including stops in an amazing weaving shop where they still weave things on giant giant looms. It was magical. Above, a mini tour ficelle!

MARSEILLE
La Méditerranée in November is cold on the old feetsies.

Love Locks: going to happen?

Changing jeans on the side of the road: Stay Classy, Sab.

Parking on the sidewalk. Not only is it authorized, it seems to be encouraged.

Calanques.

Marseille was total culture shock for me. Avenues seven lanes wide, scooters on the sidewalk, trams the opposite direction of traffic. It was immensely stressful. Jules was in his element, though – he loves the chaos. We rented a spectacular flat in a walk-up on cours Belsunce, at the top of the Canebiere, with huge windows overlooking the street, from which we could JUST see the bonne mere, and the port.
We took a trip out to the calanques and picnicked on the sea (December 29 picnic in t-shirt, thank you very much!), walked along the boardwalk and the old port, and it was so so delightful. I am definitely a coastal kind of gal.

PARIS
Montmartre.

Me, with tour ficelle.

Our first time in Paris was miserable. Miserable! It was the end of our honeymoon, we were tired, London had been spectacular, and I had such high hopes for Paris. Paris! The city of romance! Paris, the city of lights! Paris, with its culture and its baguettes.
You know what no one tells you? Paris smells. Paris is damp, and people pop a squat in the street between motorcycles. People urinate on “No Urinating” signs, on public toilets, on benches. People are cranky, probably because of the pee smell. The subway is dark, and slow, and rickety, and the servers are rude. Paris is not the city of romance. Paris is where the French go to work until they can afford a place in the South.
So, for this trip, I knew we were flying in and out of Paris, but I didn’t want to spend too much time there. I DID want to go back to Helmut Newcake (even though the service is the worst IN THE THE WORLD) because their Paris-Brest is to die for, and I really wanted a pair of Coq Sportif shoes. I didn’t get either of those things, but I ALSO didn’t hate Paris, and neither did Julie.
Montmartre was bright and charming, and didn’t smell like pee at all! We walked all through the area, then down to the Coq Sportif flagship, where Jules got an amazing pair of electric yellow tennies. Can’t wait for summer so he can wear them!

VARIOUS SOUTHERN ROAD TRIPS
Sete.

Horse, Sab. Sab, horse. And Queribus.

Queribus Selfie

The nice thing about having a ‘home base’ on holiday is you can spend days driving around exploring fairly aimlessly. Above, we headed up to Sete and got oysters from the man who grew them. I did not get in the water. Too cold!
We also headed up to the Château de Quéribus, one of the old Cathare castles. Last year we visited Château de Puilaurens, and Peyrepertuse. This year, Quéribus! Cathare castles are like Pokemons. Next year, direction Aguilar and Termes?
Quéribus had these free range horsies in the opposite direction from the Château. I find horses pretty intimidating, but I was assured he would not eat my hand if I kept it as open as possible.

CARCASSONNE
Ville de Carcassonne

GIANT Rocher

Ze Fiesta!

We got to do quite a bit of chilling out at home. The primary reason for this trip was to spend time with Julie’s grandma, 97 year old awesome lady, so while we did quite a lot of jaunting about the country, we also had more than a few days to relax and spend time with her. Our Reveillon de Noel was a quiet evening, with a salad, echalotte de veau, some foie gras, and some Ze Fiesta!, quality French programming 😉

BARCELONE

So, obviously at the end of this post I realize there’s a caption feature on the images. I’m not going back to edit the other ones. That’s real.

I have a confession to make: I love McDonalds. I know, I’m a “foodie”, I should be all “eugh eugh processed foods!” but no. McDonalds cheeseburgers are like heaven on buns. I can’t eat heaven on buns, though, because of all the wheat. BUT DID YOU KNOW that McDonalds in Spain has gluten free buns!? YES THEY DO.
So, road trip, destination: Espana. Three hours from “home”.

I had six cheeseburgers in two days.

What? It was worth it.

I cannot express the joy that I felt biting into the first one, you know. I mean, photos above, so I guess you can see it, but like, McDonalds Canada needs to get ON that. It tasted just right – just like being a kid again.

We also did culture things, like see the Sagrada Familia. Mostly, though, it was the cheeseburgers.

PHEW!
More re-cap posts to come! Maybe!