Southwest France is Amazing!

We just got back from our first real VACATION as a family! I say vacation because it was relaxing and fun (for the most part!). Our other adventures tend to be trips and a bit stressful, but we think we have finally got this travel thing down. Only took about a year! If you want tips on how to travel with kids in Europe, drop us a line.

Family pictures and trip overview is at the end. Various odds and ends at the beginning of this blog. I know it is organized poorly but I don't know how else to organize this! This is a really long blogpost...reader beware...

We flew from Paris to Toulouse. Then back to Paris from Perpignan.

We spent 10 days in the south of France puttering around. Here is the map of our route:

We discovered that we will never own (nor rent for that matter) an Opal ever again! On the 2nd day of our 10 day trip, this little yellow light came on that showed a wrench in the middle of a car. We decided that it just means you need a wrench to fix the car and kept on driving.

We were discovering a region of France called Languedoc-Roussillon, which is known for Cathar castle ruins, mountains, and my favorite belly/thigh enhancing dish called Cassoulet. It is a stew of white beans, sausage, confit de canard, fatty porc that is cooked slowly. It's like Van Kamps pork and beans, but good and without ketchup (B's note).

Most mornings started around 10:30am after breakfast, etc was done. Then, we'd go somewhere. Usually just one place. Then, be back at our hotel around 5pm. In our first hotel in Caunes-Minervois, the time we got back actually mattered. The hotel had a 3 car garage that they fit 5 cars in. Many days, we felt like Austin Powers did when he got stuck in that car between 2 walls.

One morning, we had trouble getting out. This Frenchman who drove a Jeep Grand Gherokee (which is like driving a Hummer in France) helped us get out. We got a bit antsy wondering if we would fit between 2 cars to leave and he comes over, looks at it and is like "you've got PLENTY of space, like 2 cms on each side." Glad it's a rental.

No matter where we went though, the British were there. It was incredible. The place was overrun with them! An interesting thing about our 10 day vacation was that we only encountered about 3-4 Americans while we there. And we only saw 1 Rick Steves book. Usually, whenever we go on vacation, there are tons of Americans and lots of Rick Steves books around. But not this time. It was our first real Europe Through the Back Door Experience. We heard a lot of French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and British English. It was strange also to be only 1 of 3 Asian people in Collioure.

So anyways, here is the summary of our trip. As usual, many more pictures are available on our smugmug album. For those who are REALLY bored.

Love,
P



Trip Overview

Wednesday, August 20th
Flew from Paris to Toulouse. Picked up our rental car and drove to Carrefour (like Sam's) where we bought groceries, diapers, and privisions for Michael. Drove to Caunes-Minervois to try to check in, but our hotel owner was taking a nap until 5:30pm and it was only 3pm. Drove to Lastours and hiked/toured the castles there. A king built one castle for each of his 4 sons so none of them would feel favored. With 4 sons, it makes you wonder...was that king a BESANCON?!?!?! Family picture, bien sur:



Drove back to Caunes-Minervois and checked in. Had an awesome dinner in the courtyard of our hotel, which was in a 15th century house.


Thursday, August 21st

In the morning, we had breakfast in the courtyard of our amazing hotel. This is the same courtyard where we had dinner and feasted on Cassoulet! Here we are in the middle right:
Drove to Carcassonne. Toured the castle ramparts. Came home. Michael's worst day, but to his defense, we planned it quite poorly for him.



Friday, August 22nd
Drove to Abbeye de Fontfroide. Loved it! We took the French tour and Brian understood almost all of it and I understood about 60%! We are gettin' somewhere in this language! The abbey was everything you would imagine to be:

Here we are in the gardens outside the Abbey:
Drove to a tiny town carved out of a canyon called Minerve. Walked through the tiny quaint town and had ice cream. Drove back to Caunes-Minervois. Bought a picnic and 'explored' Caunes-Minervois. Took Michael to play area and he had fun throwing rocks into streams. Per usual.

Saturday, August 23rd

Drove to Albi. Michael rode the caroussel and we checked out the market. Bought quick picnic there and gave Michael lunch outside the cathedral. Toured the cathedral and choir. Michael fell asleep so Brian and I ran quickly over to a nearby cafe recommended by Rick Steves called La Tartine. Had an awesome relaxing 1.5 hour lunch as Michael slept. Went to the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum. Drove back to Carcassonne to get night time pics of the Old City and see the place floodlit from Pont Vieux. Michael rode the carrousel first! Here is a night time shot:

And us inside Carcassonne's walls with the floodlights providing light for the picture:

Did that, stopped at Quick Burger (like McD's) at 10pm for dinner. Michael was already asleep and had dinner earlier.

Sunday, August 24th
Checked out of our 15th century hotel and explored the abbeye in Caunes-Minervois. Definitely worth the no mention in Rick Steves. Drove to Collioure. Decided our vacation was in "neutral" and shifted into "PARK" for the relaxing beach part of our vacation! We spent time enjoying the beach, hiking around the hills nearby, exploring the small town, eating ice cream, and riding the caroussel with Michael. We bought 10 tickets for him for 10 euro and it barely lasted the 5 days we were there.

We loved it and much prefer it to Nice and the French Riviera. We were told the Mediterranean towns would be PACKED this time of year because of the nice hot weather. And it probably would have been in Nice! But in Collioure, we had plenty of space to lay out and enjoy ourselves. Nice is like hanging out with the crowds who shop at Neiman Marcus. Collioure is like hanging out with the crowds who shop at Dillards.

Checked into our pretty basic 2 star hotel. Sheets smelled of mildew, but the view was incredible.

Should have asked them to change the sheets the first day. Walked around Collioure and discovered we could only wander down 2 streets a day of the town to make sure we didn't do it all in one day. Had ice cream at least once. Ate dinner at La Copacabana and was thankful we had a table with a direct exit outside. Michael was AWFUL. I had to go do time out with him 5 times for screaming in the restaurant.

Monday, August 25th
Laid out on the beach all day. Upset because it was cloudy. Resolve to change plans to be on the beach if clear skies prevail. Had ice cream at least once. Love this picture of Michael running into the ocean with Collioure in the backdrop:

Brian and I bought a great little picnic for ourselves. Put Michael to bed early and had a bottle of wine, fresh chevre, baguette, and lomo sausauge on our balcony while watching the sun set over Collioure. Amazing. This is the sunset we were looking at:


Tuesday, August 26th
Drove to Queribus and Perypeteuse. Hiked to both chateaus on top of mountains. Queribus was not too bad. A lady in a full hot pink jumpsuit was able to do it. Here is us on the ascent:



Perypeteuse was not too bad to the 1st part of the chateau. Saw a bunch of birds of prey. Had fun exploring the nooks and crannies. Here is Michael, hiking! Looks like an "Endurance" poster to me!
And father and sone enjoying the ruins:


Downright scary to the 2nd part. Very steep and slippery rocks. German kids and German senior citizens whizzing by us left and right with their walking sticks. Very funny French people. While on the way up, there was a group of 5 older French people. We heard one lady say, "Well, at least if one of us slips, we all go down together!" Then, we hear a guy in the back yelling, "DOMINO!!!!" Awesome. Made it to the top. It was worth it. One the way down, another French girl told me "J'ai super peur." I am super scared. Me too. Her boyfriend, Brian and Michael got down the stairs with no problems while me and this French girl helped each other get down. We met our men at the bottom since they left us to fend for ourselves.

Went back to Collioure. On the way, stopped at McDonalds for dinner for all of us. Less stress option with Michael


Wednesday, August 27th
Bad day for our whole family. Brian and I both grumpy for various reasons. Michael grumpy for God only knows why. We attempted to hike in the morning to Ft. St. Elmo but I was tired from yesterday's massive hike and we turned around to go home. Went to beach in the hottest part of the day and Michael only wanted to ride the caroussel and play on the playground in stead of the beach itself. Wandered around the old town and found out there was only 1 street left we hadn't seen. Saved it for later. On the upside, we had ice cream more than once. And the hotel changed our sheets so our bed was much better.


Thursday, August 28th
Awesome, relaxing day. Brian and I had an excellent breakfast at a cafe overlooking the beach while Michael ate and played in the grass around us. Went to the royal castle. Glad Rick steves did not recommend it. Had lunch at La Marinade and Michael was EXCELLENT. He ate his lunch, did not make much noise, and played with another little boy when he was finished eating and we were finishing up. Our lunch was delicious. Brian had fresh sardines (hand fileted and fresh caught) and a salad. I had slow cooked veal. Went to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Enjoyed pizza on some steps overlooking the beach. Had ice cream at least once. Enjoyed a beverage while Michael took an early evening nap. Wonderful, relaxing, and amazing.


Friday, August 29th
Woke up, flew back to Paris via Perpignan. Airport only had 5 departing flights all day. 2 went back to Paris. 3 went to Great Britain.


I think this is the longest post EVER.

Navigation Skills

Well, we just got back from our trip to Caunes-Minervois and Collioure and I must say that Phuong did an excellent job of navigating! We had to find all these castles perched on mountain cliffs and villages built into the side of canyons and she got us everywhere despite my attempts to steer off the priority road and go where I wanted. The maps all had different labels than the real roads near Collioure and Perpignan, and we still had no problems!

We saw in the paper that the Tour de France is supposed to go through Perpignan next year, so we may have to go back in July.