Roujan, France and Barcelona, Spain

I've been really bad about updating the blog with our trips. We've taken several major trips that I have yet to report on. I thought I would fill you in on our latest trip while it's still fresh on my mind and then I'll get caught up on everything I've been missing.

August 2-8, 2009

I don't know if you would call our last trip a "Babymoon" or not, but it was probably our last major trip until the baby is born. It has become increasingly uncomfortable for me to fly, especially on these discount airlines where there is absolutely no leg room. I was so happy our latest trip was only a couple of hours on the plane, because I don't think I could have lasted much longer. The up side is that Easyjet makes all pregnant ladies sign a release form that states how many weeks you are and we got to board with the "people with children and those needing assistance" group, thereby avoiding the cattle call that is Easyjet boarding.

We arrived in Montpellier, France on Sunday and had decided to do some of our trip "Lilly and Aron style". Lilly and Aron are the friends from Oxford that we traveled with (they are now back in Houston :( ). In all of our trips, I plan EVERYTHING-flights, car rental, where to stay, train times/tickets, etc. We were spontaneous on restaurants and sometimes on what we did when we were at our destination, depending on our destination. But for the most part, I planned for months and everything always went off like clockwork with no stress at all. Lilly and Aron were a little more freestyle in their travel, sometimes not even knowing where they would spend the night. So we decided to take inspiration from them and *GASP* not pre-book our rental car! I know, it's hard to believe, but we did it. We started going from desk to desk in the airport and every single one of them said "Sorry, it's a very busy time, we have no cars available". So I begin to panic a little because a car is literally the only way we can get to our ultimate destination of Roujan. At the last desk, we hit the jackpot with a VW Golf for a reasonable price. I was relieved. And to top off our "Lilly and Aron style", we *HUGE GASP* did NOT get a GPS system. We are so crazy, I know...next thing you know, we'll move back to Texas with a 6-week old...oh wait, we are already going to do that!

We arrived in Roujan with no problems. It seems we can still read a map and road signs. We were warmly and graciously welcomed by our friends, Lizzie and Ali, at Le Couvent. We always said that we would never visit any of our previous travel destinations twice, with the exception of Le Couvent. It's like visiting old friends and we could not leave Europe without seeing them one more time. Within a half hour of arriving, we were greeted also with the sounds of a trumpet and the beginning of the Roujan Fete. This is an annual celebration in Roujan that consists of many activities, such as a parade, carnival and wine tasting from the region. I loved the parade. It's the kind where after the last float passes you, you follow along, so by the end of the parade, everyone in the entire village is following this parade and they all wind up down at the carnival grounds. We both had fun watching the musical entertainment and Edgar had fun tasting the different wines and fresh oysters. Dinner that night was at a local restaurant with the entire house of guests from Le Couvent. It was great to get to know everyone we would be seeing for the next few days. Our second day consisted of sleeping very late and getting a very late start. But it's OK, the purpose of this trip was not "travel", but "vacation", and we promised ourselves we would just relax and basically do nothing but enjoy each other and the sunshine. We drove over to Pezenas the second day for some lunch and a little shopping and then on to Neffies, a nearby village, for a delicious French dinner at Les Goutailles. The highlight of our third day was sitting by the pool at Le Couvent all day long, and capping our day with homemade vanilla ice cream courtesy of Lizzie. And because I'm the pregnant lady, I got to finish off the canister, and I did...I don't think they even had to wash the thing. We had dinner that night at another nearby village, Servian, at a restaurant called Le Vesuvio. We decided that on our last full day, we should probably do a little road trip. We love driving through the little French villages, and this would probably be our last chance for a while. We wound up in Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, a beautiful medieval village and considered one of the most beautiful in France. We meandered along the narrow passageways and up and down the hills popping into unique shops and stopping for a cool drink every now and then. Needless to say, it was a very active day, and when we returned to the car to head home, we were both sufficiently exhausted, and hot. We capped our last night with an aperitif and games at Le Couvent before heading back to Neffies for dinner.

This is where things got interesting, because we were supposed to go to Barcelona on Thursday for the remainder of our vacation. And in keeping with our "wing it" philosophy, we did not reserve train tickets. I mean, Barcelona is only 3 hours away, how hard can it be to get a train ticket? Well, apparently, everyone wants to go to Barcelona in August and no matter what we did, the train website kept saying there were no tickets available. We had alot of fun at breakfast Thursday morning with everyone trying to help us out. We had suggestions of hot air balloons, finding a fishing boat and working our way across the Mediterranean, and hiring the local taxi driver who is also the local mortician (and hopefully no none would need his services while we were away). In the end, we just drove to the train station, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best, which happened. There were tickets available, just not the direct kind. We had to change trains in Spain, which wasn't too bad, except the train we had been on in France was built for long distance travel and was very nice. The train in Spain was more of a commuter train and you can imagine hot, sweaty, stinky people getting on and off after a day at the beach. It was probably the stinkiest train I've ever been on. No offense to any Spaniards, and I can say this because Edgar is of Spanish descent, but please take a shower and wear some deodorant (don't worry, he does)!

We arrived in Barcelona, a little later than anticipated, but we at least got there. The very cheap taxi (they are plentiful and cheap in Barcelona) dropped us in front of our hotel, the Grand Hotel Central. We grabbed some delicious tapas close by and then retired to our room to scrub the train stink off of us and get some sleep. We spent our day and a half in Barcelona walking Las Ramblas, touring some Gaudi sites like the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, and bascially just enjoying the beauty of the city. We have both decided that it is now our #2 favorite city we have visited behind Rome. The buildings are beautiful, the people nice and the food really, really good. It was the perfect combination of modern cosmopolitan and old world.

This was a great last trip for us. And it is so appropriate that our first and last big trip to Europe included Le Couvent. We have made so many life long friends during our time over here and we are so thankful to have had the experiences we have had. We both realize we are living a dream and it's hard to believe it is winding down for us. We've hit the snooze button as many times as possible, but now we know we will have to wake up eventually. Thanks to everyone for supporting us and being interested in what we are doing over here. It's made it that much more enjoyable for us.