April passed by like a flash, as I expected it would. We finished up our first round of French lessons, and we welcomed our first visitors from home, Todd’s parents. We did a lot of traveling together for Oli’s two-week-long spring break, and celebrated Todd’s 40th birthday in Barcelona. It was a whirlwind month, and now I feel like I need a week in bed to recover.
Todd’s parents’ visit started with a few days in Bordeaux, and it was so much fun to show them around our new town. They rented an apartment a couple of blocks from ours, and Oli enjoyed quite a few sleepovers with them while Todd and I snuck in some date nights. We took them to some favorite restaurants (they loved Books & Coffee and the Frog & Rosbif Pub) and did some touristy stuff like the Cite du Vin, the science museum, Saint-Emilion, lots of cathedrals, and the tourist train, which was interrupted by a protest (of course). But some of our favorite times were spent just catching up at our apartment, sharing simple meals, and watching Modern Family. We have definitely missed having family around, and their visit was like a soothing salve to our homesick hearts. I think it was also comforting for them to actually see where we live now — and understand why we fell in love with this place!
After nearly a week in Bordeaux, we all boarded a quick flight to Barcelona, one of our favorite cities. We hadn’t been there since Oli was a toddler — we’d spent six weeks there as a trial run, thinking we might move there. That trip ended abruptly and a bit traumatically when I had a miscarriage, so our return was laden with a lot of big feelings.
Overall it felt good to return, and we were happy to revisit many places that had become familiar during our previous stay. We visited the Sagrada Familia (epic!), the Picasso museum, the zoo (not the best), ate a lot of tapas, and I took Todd to Teatro for a memorable birthday dinner.
As we were packing to leave Barcelona, I hit my head hard on the open door of our room safe, and I suffered excruciating headaches and head pressure for the next few days. The second leg of our Spanish adventure was at a beautiful beach house on the Costa Brava, but unfortunately I spent a lot of our time there in pain and stressed out about a potential brain injury. After a few days and a quick telehealth visit, Todd took me to the ER in a nearby town — my second Spanish hospital experience! It was pretty similar to an American ER, with long wait times but thankfully modern equipment and well-trained staff who spoke enough English to communicate easily. The biggest difference was the price — we were informed upon arrival that there’s a flat 200€ fee for ER visits, but any tests would be extra. Since I had a CT scan (which showed no brain damage, whew!), the grand total was about 700€, which will hopefully be fully reimbursed by our international expat health insurance.
Besides that unexpected adventure, our time in the Costa Brava was probably my favorite part of spring break. We discovered and fell in love with this gorgeous region years ago, almost by accident. It stretches along the coast from Barcelona all the way up to France, and it’s packed with dramatic coastlines, medieval villages, and beautiful beaches. We rented a cute condo overlooking Cala Montgo just outside of L’Escala and spent our non-hospital days hiking coastal trails, hanging out on the beach, and visiting nearby villages. If you’re ever in this region of Spain, I highly recommend at least a few days exploring the area.
As the in-laws were flying out of Paris, we decided to spend our last few days together there. We rented an Airbnb (another winner!) in one of our favorite neighborhoods, le Marais, and did our best to introduce them to Paris in a few short days. Despite our flagging energy, we managed to do a rainy Seine boat tour, the Louvre, lots of bakery trips, some shopping, and a meal at Le Procope (a restaurant dating back to the 1600s). There was even a day at Disneyland Paris (which I skipped).
After a very tearful goodbye, we went our separate ways — the grands to Charles de Gaulle airport, and us to the train station to catch our ride back to Bordeaux. We’ll miss them so much, but we’re so happy we got to share this incredible bonding experience. And I’ll admit it does feel really good to be back in Bordeaux, back to our routines and slower pace of life.