Insert "Beautiful Barcelona" post here

We spent the past two days in Barcelona, soaking up the sun, seeing the sights and enjoying the Catalan food. It is a fantastic city, with a great atmosphere.

However, due to an unfortunate incident with the USB connection in an internet cafe, we lost all of the photos we had taken of the drive from Andorra to Barcelona and of Barcelona itself. This photo is testament to the pain and misery caused by this untoward development.

On the bright side, we did manage to save the pics we took in France and Andorra, and after getting those burnt to a CD, we spent an hour or so taking some photos to replace those we took over the past few days. Here are a few of them.

First is a photo of this extremely long pedestrian street called La Rambla, where, according to our guidebook, "anything can happen". In fulfilment of this prediction, we saw quite a few street performances. Simply crazy. Where will the craziness end?

And here is a photo of one of the winding streets in the district known as Barri Gòtic.

Ok, well, these photos don't really capture the great time we had in Barcelona, but at least we have some photos of Barcelona to prove we have been there (if there was any doubt)!

After we'd recovered from the shock and disappointment of what will now be known as the "USB incident", we went to drown our sorrows in Sangria and Paella, which certainly contributed to put a positive note back on the day.

A drive through the Pyrénées

We drove from Moissac (the town north of Toulouse where we had been staying) to Andorra la Vella (the capital of Andorra) today and as a result said a temporary farewell to France.

The drive was shorter than we expected and was nothing short of spectacular. After driving right under a mountain through a tunnel, we were treated to amazing 360-degree views of the Pyrénées along the subsequently winding road. Along the way we saw mountainsides variously covered in forests, scrub, flowers and snow. We also discovered that Andorra is somewhat of a skiing destination in the winter.

And despite the fact that the weather looks cold in the photos, it actually isn't too bad - the temperature has been about 16 degrees in Andorra la Vella today, which with no wind feels positively balmy.

Andorra is a little bit of a strange place. Its natural alpine beauty is thrown into stark contrast by the towns which, although not ugly per se, certainly do not seem to fit nicely into the landscape. There is construction everywhere and we are at a loss to know why it is necessary in a country of only 80,000 inhabitants (the capital has only 20,000 inhabitants).

Andorra is said to be Europe's shopping centre and we have certainly seen a lot of shops and shopping centres selling designer gear tax-free (there is no GST, VAT or any sales taxes in Andorra, and yes, it is a tax haven). Indeed, there doesn't seem to be anything to do other than shop.

The official language is Catalan, so as you can imagine, communicating has been interesting, but we've been managing in a hybrid of broken French, more broken Spanish and some English.

As interesting as it is here, we've decided to head to Spain tomorrow to finally get some of that long-awaited Mediterranean sun!

Au Revoir France (A Retrospective)

Today we said au revoir to France (at least for this trip). It's been a mostly fabulous 10 days, so here's my retrospective on the positives (+) and negatives (-) of our drive through France:

1. Paris
+ Gorgeous city, so much to see and do.
- We didn't have enough time! Only two days in Paris is definitely not enough.

2. The Loire Valley
+ Our introduction to regional France could not have been better, with impressive chateaux and villages that haven't changed in hundreds of years.
- We started the camping part of our trip!

3. Blois
+ One of those fantastic towns with winding cobblestone alleys set along the beautiful Loire River.
- Too much dog poo.

4. Tours
+ A bigger and more exciting version of Blois. It retained its 'olde worlde' charm while the student population makes for a great nightlife.
- Driving through this town and finding parking was a total nightmare. See below post for Josh's version of French parking (although mild by local standards).


5. Pauillac
+ Wine tasting! Vineyards as far as the eye can see with some very interesting winery tours, which end in indulging in the local vine (and they're very generous with their 'tastings').
- Working out how to pronounce the damn name! Three vowels in a row blows my mind. It's Pweeyak, by the way.

6. Moissac
+ Looks pretty from a distance.
- Doesn't look pretty up close.

7. Toulouse
+ Bigger than Moissac.
- Bigger version of Moissac.

Next stop Andorra and then on to sunny Barcelona!

The Art of French Driving

Now that we've been driving for a few days, I thought I'd tell you about a few of our experiences and share a few words of wisdom with you about driving in France and Europe.

First, the car. If you are going anywhere that is even remotely close to France, you should do a hire-purchase deal with one of the big French auto-manufacturers. Ours was with Renault - and we've now driven over 1000km in a brand-spanking new car with automatic everything (lights, locks, windows, climate, windscreen wipers, cruise control)... except for the gear-shift, which is manual (and which, I should add, has been a source of some consternation for Tova). In any event, driving it is a dream and I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason these very good deals are done is so that you'll love the brand and then buy a new Renault/Peugeot/Citroën when you get back home.

Second, the roads. We decided at the start of our driving trip (after a few false starts in attempting to get on the right road away from Versailles and avoid driving back into Paris) that we'd drive mostly on smaller roads and avoid the big toll roads. There are many advantages to this approach. Chief among these is that the roads are very picturesque and you get to see scenes like these: this one on the right being of an old aqueduct adjoining the Loire River. However, this method of travel is admittedly slow. During our drive from Tours to Bordeaux, we realised that we were not as close to our destination as we should have been and decided to opt for the A10 toll road. Although this allowed us to cruise at average speeds of 130-140km/hr, the €13.50 toll hurt.

Third, the cities. Avoid them, if possible, when driving. Narrow country village streets (which you cannot avoid if you are not taking the toll roads) with only enough room for perhaps a bicycle, let alone two cars side by side, are bad enough. But if you happen to have driven into a city, the way to make the most of your French driving experience is to embrace it and do as the French do...

Our Trip: Phase Two Begins

Phase Two of our trip began last week when we picked up the car in Paris and drove out into the beautiful French countryside.

Whilst the car is fabulous (except for the fact that I can barely drive it), it also means that we have started camping. I would hate to say anything negative about our wonderful trip, but let's just say camping isn't really my thing. There are bugs and wet grass, it's quite squashy and sometimes cold. But they say you can get used to anything and it seems that it's true. And let's put it this way, where else can you stay in Western Europe for €16.00 or less per night?

A Day to Remember

Château de Chambord

Loire Valley

France

À la defénse du Français

After dinner yesterday evening, we were given a free plate full of fresh cherries by the waitress when we asked how much they cost. This got me thinking about the popular view that the French are unfriendly, arrogant and rude.

In our experience, this has simply been completely untrue.

Since we have been in France, we've received more unsolicited help from locals than anywhere else. When we've stopped people to ask for directions or something else, we've always been met with a smile. Everyone has welcomed and appreciated our attempts to speak French (and have also helped us learn as we go). Where people have been able to speak English (which has been the case in many places), they have done so easily and without complaint of any kind. In addition to the cherry episode, another restaurant gave us free wine as a welcome gift (in my opinion, as reward for our French being so good). And even the drivers are polite!

After this experience, I think it is time that the English (and their 'colonials') did away with the misconception (fueled by jealousy, perhaps?) of French rudeness and arrogance and embraced a more balanced view of this hospitable and friendly people.