Greetings from the Road! France and Spain

Greetings from the road! Our road trip has been a wee bit stressful at times with the little bundle in tow, but still a lot of fun, and daddy's done a great job driving. We started in Marseille and made our way south to Barcelona, where we are now. We explored Marseille, took a Mediterranean Sea voyage, explored Carcassonne, drove through the eastern Pyrenees Mountains, hiked up to Chateau de Peyrepertuse, stayed in a cute little town called Cucugnan, then made our way into Spain and stopped for tapas in Girona, and now we're in Barcelona. Whew, we've done a lot in a week and have one day to go. Here's a bit of what we've been up to so far...

In some places the Mediterranean Sea just looks fake it's so beautiful. We walked along the coast and took in the view. But we needed to refuel and had something sweet on our minds. We bought some very good orange blossom cookies from the bakery below. 

Lois had her first boat ride! (Oh wait, it was her 2nd boat ride!) We cruised along the coast to the calanques. 

Before heading out of town we checked out the local fish market. 

Then we headed to Carcassonne, a really neat medieval fortified town. It was very touristy, but we still enjoyed it. 

Back on the road, we stopped at Chateau de Peyrepertuse, one of the Cathar Castles. We hiked to the top  and took in the beautiful view. Lois had her first real hike, and she was a trooper!

Driving through the Pyrenees was really fun and a little stressful at times, like when we encountered this big truck o' logs. Tiny narrow road, on the side of a mountain--we were just praying for cars not to come, but they did anyway. We had to back up for this truck but we all survived. And we weren't even in the BIG part of the Pyrenees. 

We stayed in a cute little town called Cucugnan. Just look at these pictures! Adorable. Below is sunrise in Cucugnan and the valley just below the town. 

After leaving Cucugnan, we headed for Spain. We stopped in Girona where we had some yummy tapas. 

To be continued, from Barcelona. 

Alsace

For our last weekend in Switzerland, we decided to take the train to Alsace, France. Above is a little collage of some of our pictures. Thanks to Caroline for showing me how to do that! (I've only been meaning to learn for forever.) Alsace has a long history with German roots, which you can see in the style of architecture throughout the region. The town we stayed in, Ribeauvillé, was so darn cute that it looked a little bit like a theme park at Disney, only this was the real thing. The scenery was beautiful, and the wine and food delicious. We stayed at a nice hotel on a hill that provided an amazing view. We also had a terrific dinner at the hotel restaurant (with Lois sleeping soundly in the car seat next to us). We had an equally great lunch at Zum Pfifferhus. It was a great way to spend our last weekend in Europe, and we look forward to going back!

I left my heart in Alsace! Really, though, we did have one of these little tarts and it was sooo good!

Above is a Kugelhopf, which we didn't have, but the area is known for them. It's a type of cake or sweetened bread. Just ask MyKugelhopf, she'll tell you!

A real castle on a hill! We saw quite a few castles on hills.

The view from our room. It might be hard to tell since it's not quite spring there yet, but the hills were covered in grape vines.

The sky looked pretty.

Lois and Andrew had a great time. Here they are on our patio checking out the great view. See you next time Alsace!