Grateful

As I sit on our deck back home and think about our trip, I am full to overflowing with gratitude.

I am grateful for the weeks and months of researching. For Jarett and I, half the fun of these trips is in the planning.

I am grateful for the adventurous spirits of Lleyton and Adalynn. I love that they helped research some things, that they are willing to try new tastes and sights and experiences. I love that they tested out some French and lots of smiles and laughs. We are a pretty great team of four.

I am grateful for Jarett. Wow, this guy. He was our translator, our driver, our navigator, and just so fun. It was so awesome to get to see him use his French again and so well!!! Seriously, we are the luckiest that he is ours.

I am grateful for best laid plans that went off without a hitch.

I am grateful for wrong turns that showed us new streets or towns we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

I am grateful for the sounds of laughter that come from stories of our adventures that will be told over and over again. I am grateful for the sounds of waves and wind and cheering down the streets from our open windows. I am grateful for the small gasp I heard from Lleyton at the Louvre and the “yes” from Adalynn when she stood up surfing.

I am grateful for tastes of Pinxtos and cheeses and wines and meals that I will be able to find in my mind a thousand times over.

I am grateful for the smell of the saltwater air on the coast, the heat glazed city smell of bigger centres, smells of bakeries, and caves and of town squares packed to the brim.

I am grateful for the feeling of my feet on cobblestone walking down winding streets. The feel of the wind on my face from an unexpected break in the buildings. The cool water as I dive in from the beach. The hot nights, and the ones filled with ocean breeze.

I am grateful that travel is so many things. An adventure, a chance to grow, learn and explore, sometimes a break. Everyone says that it creates memories and that is true and I cherish them deeply. Travel is more than the memories though. It also changes you and becomes a part of you. Because of being in the places we were, we will have different touchstones and markers and experiences to draw from moving forward. As always, this is true of every day and all of our experiences, but sometimes travel helps you to go further out of your comfort zone and to pay more attention.

I am so very grateful that the four of us got to travel again.

Fun France Faves, facts and things we just found interesting from our trip

⁃ bottle tops that flip up instead of twist off

⁃ New chip flavours (bacon flavour pringles and cheeseburger Lays)

⁃ In buildings the main floor is 0 not 1

⁃ We averaged about 13000 steps per day; our most steps day was 31000 (a little shy of our most in Japan)

⁃ Lots of crosswalks had a countdown which we liked and sometimes a cute animation to go with it

⁃ When we actually counted we visited 9 different places in our 14 days!

⁃ 130 speed limit on highways

⁃ If you spent 60 seconds looking at each of the objects at the Louvre, going steadily for eight hours a day, it would take you 75 days to see them all

Heading home

After leaving Tours we took a train to Paris and then a taxi to our hotel near the airport. We had a great time enjoying the podium and the air conditioning!

We had a nice dinner and breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the airport for our way home.

Tours

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to Hendaye bright and early and drove at sunrise toward Bordeaux. The smoke from forest fires has made things a bit hazy the last few days and it got quite smoky on the road for a stretch closer to Bordeaux.

In Bordeaux we dropped off the car and then took a train to a city called Tours. We had a bike tour booked and went there straight from the train station. Our guide was great and showed us lots of sites and explained some of the history.

Afterward we checked into our cute place in the old part of town and wandered around for a it. We found a Belgian Beer place of a brand Jarett liked and stopped there for a pint. Then shortly after we went to a tapas restaurant that was recommended by our bike tour guide.

Some more walking and some ice cream after and then it was time for bed. This morning, up and breakfast to see some more sites and now we are on the train to Paris for our last night at the airport hotel before flying home tomorrow.

Surfing, a cave, fireworks and beach towns!

The last couple days have been so much fun! We have been able to balance exploring more around our place here in Hendaye with some more fun excursions. Yesterday the day started with surfing lessons for Adalynn and I! Here is Adalynn’s entry about it below:

Surfing

Today me and my mom had surfing lessons! We woke up around 8:00 – 8:30 and got ready. We ate, put on our bathing suits, and headed down to the place. When we got there, we put on a wetsuit plus a swim shirt to know which group we were in. Once we got are surf board and everyone was there we headed off to the ocean. The other people in are group had already surfed before so they went straight into the ocean. First, we started on the sand so we knew how to lie down and stand up then we got into the water. Both of us fell quite a bit at the beginning, but I started to get the hang of it soon and I stood up more and more. Our instructor was very helpful and told me when I wasn’t looking forward or bending my legs. Soon the 2 hours were up we went back to the shop to take off our wetsuit and swim shirt. We also returned the surfing boars then headed back to our place. I found surfing so much fun, so the next time I’m near ocean the we’ll probably both go surfing.

While we had our lesson, Jarett and Lleyton got in some beach time too. Afterward we got stuff for a quick lunch back at our place. Then we headed out to Sare, a beautiful (hot) Basque town not too far away.

From there we went to visit the Caves of Sare. Lleyton tells you all about it below:

Going Into the Caves!

After Mom and Adalynn’s surfing we took a break then took a car ride to a town called Sare. From there we went to the caves! When we arrived, we parked, but then had to walk up a hill that makes you tired. At the top of the hill, we got everything ready for the tour. The person guiding us spoke French, but luckily on the website you could listen to it in English. So then, we made sure that worked with no Wi-Fi and then we checked out an area you could go see before the tour. It showed artifacts and even had this little room that had a screen that made a creature look 3D without the glasses! When our tour was ready, we got closer to the cave and there was a plaque built into the cave for Napoleon the third, I think. I don’t know which because there are so many Napoleons! It was pretty old, 1800s I saw. Inside was very interesting, to get to the first part we had to go up a set of stairs.  On the second level you could see below you which was very interesting. The first part we visited was the habitable zone. That area is where humans and other mammals lived many years ago. Another part we visited told me that we had three hundred thousand pounds of limestone above our heads. INSANE! One time when we were going to one of the places in the cave, I saw real bats on the top of the cave. I was a bit scared, but I still thought it was pretty cool. I didn’t even know there were bats there before even though I heard them I thought that was just a sound effect! The last part had a hole pool of water and had a four-minute video. It was obviously in French so I just watched it on my iPad with headphones (I didn’t want to disturb the bats, and we had to). At the end we went to the washrooms and in the washroom, there was a full shower! Anyways, it was fun writing this. See you soon! Byeeeeee! 

No pictures allowed in the cave so this is it 🙂

We got back, went for dinner and then to the beach. We came back, rinsed diff and walked to enjoy the fireworks for Bastille Day!

This morning we slept in since it was a later night. Then we took off to see a couple of the other costal French towns near here. We first went to Biarritz. It has impressive rock/cliffs that reminded us of Portugal and is also renowned for surfing.

Next up was a town close to us called St. Jean de Luz. We had lunch and walked around and checked out the beach and main parts of town.

When we got back this afternoon we hung out at our place for a bit then hit the ocean! it was high tide so we needed to find a different spot and even then moved up once when we were there. Next we came back and all rinsed off and chilled for a bit, then headed out to dinner.

After we walked around and for dessert!!!! We decided to take it up to our place to actually eat but it was so tempting because they smelled so good!!!

And… bed.

Spain visits! Bilboa and San Sebastián

Tuesday we were up early and out on the road to Bilbao Spain. We were mainly headed to see the Guggenheim museum there. It is the only other one outside of NYC so we thought it would a destination and it did not disappoint. The building itself is a work of art, and many sculpture and exhibits are actually outside. Inside was also really amazing. A favourite was the “Matter of Time Exhibit” which you could walk though and also observe from above.

The exhibit called “Driven” was also really amazing. There were cars from many years again either the stories and art set to many of them behind.

I also loved the poetry in this modern exhibit. It was cool the way the lights went up but mostly I loved poetry eluminated in many languages at once ❤️

This morning we set out to visit San Sebastián Spain. It is not far from where we are. We slept in (for us) and were in the road by 9 or so. We first visited the surfing beach. So fun!!!!!!! Big big waves and lots of surfers even at that time in the morning. We then decided to move over to the main beach which had more people but was calmer and had views of the old town.

Then… food!!! Pinxtos bars!!!!!!! Basically when you think of Spanish tapas you think of small plates and sharing. Pinxtos are smaller. Some are to be shared but many are one bite. Do you order many things and they are so so good 🙂

Then

Then back to Hendaye and the beach. A quick shower and off to the octopus festival :). I don’t have pictures because I forgot my phone but Jarett will add them later. We had calamari and squid on a skewer. I also spied squid ink rice and I’m sure there were a million more options but lines were long so we picked as we went. But so fun with bands (that we are still listening to at almost midnight with no signs of slowing down lol) ❤️

Hendaye – first couple days

We arrived around 4:30 yesterday to Hendaye, met our Air bnb host and walked up to checknoht our place. We booked it for the views and proximity to the beach but I still had my breath taken away. The front balcony is this

And the back balcony off the bedroom and kitchen is a view of the Pyrenees mountain range

We got our luggage up, ran and got some grocery essentials and then straight to the beach it was. We had a late diner and might be converting to French time lol, but it worked. Then a walk to check out the area and beautiful sunset and bed.

Woke up this morning and Jarett went for a run while I had a coffee on the balcony.

Then to the beach. I ended up buying the kids boogie boards today!!!!!! they love them already and even though we will leave them here they will be worth it ❤️ no pictures of the boards yet but wow do they love the ocean. It is soft sand, shallow, and warm! Yay!

After beach time we crossed the street and came up for lunch (baguette sandwiches with veggies and amazing Spanish meat) and cheese for me of course. Then… walked down the street and rented kayaks to kayak in the bay for an hour. It was so beautiful!!!!!

Now…sitting on the balcony watching surf lessons with a French white in hand.

I will head to store soon to buy some awesomeness for diner and then we will head to the beach again before we come back to eat. The kids will go to bed and we will sit out here again 😍🍷

Hello Bordeaux!

We arrived in Bordeaux on our train on Friday around 10:30, got our car and drove to the city center. After navigating parking we walked to check into our place. The set up was so cool. There was a door on building (fairly typical) but when you opened it this was the hallway!

It was like a mini street (and could have been at one time as that was the size) but closed off from the main roads by the doors. Then there was a different door leading up to our apartment and another door to get inside. The place itself was nice and worked for us but I loved this “hallways” part. After checking in and getting our luggage up we had a quick bite and it was off to our wine tour!

We drove about 50 minutes to château bause-jour bacot. We walked around a bit before we found the right property lol but it was a beautiful walk and we were early. We found the correct place and our guide greeted us and shortly after the other family we toured with arrived. He drove us around the vineyard in a golf cart and explained the vines, the terroir, the family history, the grapes and more. It was so fun to learn and so interesting!

Then it was tasting time!!! We tasted four wines and they we all so different and so good. He did such a great job of explaining them. It maki g it fun and interesting. They were also paired with macaron or chocolates and he had some extra macaron for the kids.

After the tasting we drove about 5 minutes into the beautiful town of St Emilion. We got the kids ice cream, wandered around, Jarett bought us some wine for us. Adalynn needed to go to the bathroom and the public ones were closed and since I’m such a good mom I offered to order a glass of wine in one of the wine bars so that she could use the bathroom 🙂 St Emilion itself is so beautiful and is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Then it was back to Bordeaux for a yummy dinner and bed!

Saturday morning it was the Dad Tour of Bordeaux!!!! Jarett had researched the major points to see. We woke up and walked to each of them and he explained the history that he had learned. I joked that we should have picked up a few extra tourists along the way and charged it was at good!!!!

3rd century Roman coliseum

After our amazing tour we had lunch, and got in the car and headed toward Hendaye which will be our beach destination for a week.

The Louvre and Sacre-Coeur

Yesterday we slept in a little bit more and got up and headed to the Louvre for our 9am ticket time. We got there early and there was a line but it moved fast once they opened. We were grateful to get there then as it wasn’t too much of a wait to see the Mona Lisa. After that we spent a few hours finding some of the different things we each wanted to see and wandering through many of the different areas. It was great!

When we finished we walked back to our place and then decided we would get lunch. The Korean street food place right next to where we were staying has a huge line each night for dinner so we decided to check it out for lunch. It was really good! We got ourselves organized back at the apartment to head out for the afternoon. As we left we saw the line up for lunch a little after 1:00. Our “early” Canadian eating times have been helping us get in to restaurants which works for us!

Our train ride took us to the area of Montmartre and the church called Sacre Coeur. We were originally planning to take the funicular up to the church but didn’t find it right away so ended up walking up. The church itself was beautiful to see and the view from on the hill is incredible. Lleyton saw that you could go up the dome to see from above so we decided to do it. There were 292 steps to get to the top!!!!! Adalynn said the ice cream we said we would get later was her motivation. Up top was an awesome panoramic view of Paris. Definitely worth the climb. After climbing down and then down the steps in front of the church we found ice cream and enjoyed.

Next we spent a couple of hours exploring the streets and hills, shops and cafe’s of Montmartre. We visited the Wall of Love where “I love you “ is represented over 350 times in more than 230 languages. It was such a great afternoon.

Back near our place later on we found a cute place for dinner and then got ourselves organized for bed early. Today we got up early, navigated the metro to the train station and are on our way to Bordeaux!

And we’re in Paris!

We are so excited to have our feet in the ground in France and to be in another fun adventure together. We were prepared that we might have things slow us down at the airport but overall it went well. Our Calgary to Paris flight was delayed a bit as some people didn’t have vaccination records. Then at the Paris airport the line through customs was long. But, our shuttle guy waited and our baggage was there (yay!) So that made things go well.

We are at a cute little apartment in a great area of Paris! After getting in yesterday we wondered around then got a bite to eat. In the evening we headed to a tower called Montpatnesse that Lleyton had found when he researched. The view over the city was amazing!!!!!!

Then, off to bed for our tired selves!!!!! And up this morning bright and early for our running tour!!!! We met our guide in the Latin quarter and spent about two hours visiting many monuments, squares, gardens and interesting streets. We learned about so many things we would never have known on our own. There are some pictures below but this link from our guide is so cool as it shares our route and pictures he took of us along the way!

We had a chocolate croissant (and a coffe for me) in the garden where the tour ended and then went back to our place to shower and rest for a bit. Then…we were off to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. The kids couldn’t get over how big the Eiffel Tower was up close!

Another bit of chill time and then we decided to wander a bit to Gallery Lafayette to see how they do department stores.

Next, some time back again at our cute Paris place to get ready for an amazing dinner. We went to Qui Plume La Lune and it was so fantastic!!!! Amazing meal and service and the kids did great!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Heading to bed full and happy and excited for all that tomorrow holds! ❤️