Beach Days with the Family

This week we had a lot of nice weather so we headed for the beach. 

I had spent the weekend with Maria and Pierre, so we met Isabelle and Alexis at a beach called Bandol, which is about halfway between Cuers and Aix-en-Provence, so that I could go home with them.  It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.

One of the beach activities that is very popular here in France is to bat a little ball back and forth with paddles in the water. It's a pleasant little sound to hear while you're napping in the sand.

Pierre and Maria kindly lent me a hat to wear at the beach. I felt like a cowboy.

Since I've been spending so much time outside in the sun wearing sandals, I now have rather distinctive tan lines on my feet!

We stopped for a drink after the beach and Maria got a fantastic-looking hot chocolate to warm up after dipping her hair in the water.

Pierre got a nice nap in.

Before we left, Alexis gave me an impromptu self-defense lesson.

Finally, here I am with Josette (or Bijou) after our Sunday lunch. She was so happy to see me, as I was to see her, and she sends her greetings to my mom back in the US! She wants to meet you very much. 

Sagrada Familia

We finished the walking tour in front of the Sagrada Familia. Here is a view from across the pond that shows the whole church and construction. 

Then, we headed with our tour guide to a restaurant to eat before going into the church. Again, the restaurant was very inexpensive and they gave us an unbelievable amount of food that I could hardly finish. This was our starter, a choice of four tapas. It was pretty much a meal in itself.

We had to go up to the front of the restaurant at the bar to get the tapas. There were so many choices that I almost didn't make it back to the table.

Afterwards, we parted ways with our guide and went into the cathedral. I was blown away by the detail on the facade.

The front side of the cathedral faces the east and contains the story of Jesus' birth and childhood.  Gaudi planned this so that the sun would rise on Christ's birth.

On the western side, Gaudi planned to depict the death of Jesus, which matches with the setting sun. He died before he could achieve this, so another architect has been working on this part. You can tell that the style is different here, more simple and angular.

The square on the wall is arranged so that every horizontal, vertical and diagonal row adds up to 33, the age of Jesus at his death.

Once inside the cathedral, we learned that the pillars are supposed to represent trees. Gaudi was very influence by nature in his design. He believed that the harsh, straight lines of modern architecture are unnatural and wanted to take his inspiration from, nature, God's art. 

The ceiling is supposed to look like the leafy top of a forest and the holes represent light filtering through.

One of the things that Gaudi paid a lot of attention to in his architecture was the balance of light in the final product. He believed that too much light as well as too little light blinds a person. In his Sagrada Familia, he strove to create the perfect balance of light to promote an environment of spirituality. 

When I saw these beautiful stained glass windows I was amazed and realized that he really meant what he said. It was the perfect balance of light to make the windows look gorgeous and brilliant like precious stones.

As you can see from this model, the four imposing spires on the Sagrada Familia are far from what Gaudi planned. When completed, the church will have a central tower that is almost twice as tall!

Gaudi even planned detail in the entrance on the floor. This is a depiction of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem before his death.

Around the outside Gaudi created a cloister-type area. The detail inside was nearly as impressive as the outside.

Gaudi Tour

One of the highlights of our stay in Barcelona was the Gaudi tour. The enthusiastic tour guide took us all over the city to see architecture by Gaudi as well as other artists of the period. We finished by the Sagrada Familia, had lunch with him and then went in to see the cathedral. (But that's another post)

These tiles in the street, were designed by Gaudi. Over the years, they were broken and destroyed, but recently they have been restored to how they were when he created them. I love the detail. 

This building was not by Gaudi, but it's an example of architecture in the same period. (All of the information the guide gave us on the tour is mixing together in my brain at this point, so if any of this is misinformation, let me know!) 

The most interesting thing about this building, in my opinion, is that the rich people of the time advertised their wealth by putting modern objects in the hands of the angels on the balcony. The one on the right is holding a camera, an object that most everyone else at the time could not afford. 

I believe this angle is holding a light bulb, which shows that the rich people had electricity.

Further down the street, was a building by Gaudi with a building by another architect right next to it. The street was lined with 5 ( I think) buildings by Gaudi's biggest competitors.

The inside was just as gorgeous as the outside.

If I remember correctly, this rich person made chocolate and these little rats are depicted pouring the chocolate...Maybe I just made that up in my head though. Not sure. haha

Next door was a Gaudi piece of architecture. I personally prefer the one on the left, but Gaudi's work is more interesting, if less appealing to the eye. As you can see, the balconies look like skulls and the supports look like bones.

This is another of Gaudi's famous buildings. I can't remember everything he told us about it, but apparently Gaudi received a lot of flak for it.

Of course here's the lovely Andrea...

...And the lovely Jenny on our tour.

I'll be 100% honest here and say that I don't remember what this is, but I thought it was quite lovely.

We also went out for tapas. I couldn't get enough of those little green peppers! 

Along the way, I also caught sight of a bar named after Obama. I would have loved to go in, but the tour was moving on and I could only snap a picture. It cracks me up that it's called the Obama and it says "British Africa" and "British American". Not sure at all what that is supposed to mean. What a mix of things. Not sure why Obama is supposed to be British here...Also his statue is in the corner.

Tapas Tour

One of my favorite things that we did in Barcelona was our tapas tour. Ian, the guide was a lot of fun and explained everything very well. 

Tapas in Spain is a type of food that is shared by people when they go out for drinks. It's not exactly a meal because it's usually a small plate of food that is shared standing up and most people get one or two plates at each bar instead of sitting down and eating a lot of food in one place. 

The first place we went to served octopus as its speciality. 

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about eating octopus, but as it turns out it was excellent! Since calamari is rubbery, I expected something similar, but this octopus had a lovely texture between meat and fish. In the picture below, the octopus is on the plate on the right.  We also ate green peppers cooked in oil and sprinkled with rough ground salt. 

At the next stop, we were served sausages, cheese and crackers along with cider. The cheese was strong, almost like blue cheese. 

Since the cider from this region of Spain is not bubbly, the tradition is to pour it over your head into a glass and then to drink it very quickly before the bubbles depart. We were shown how to do this and quickly learned that this was not a good tour to wear nice clothes on...

At the last stop we ate sausages, beans, peppers and bread rubbed with tomatoes and garlic mayonnaise.  The highlight of this stop was learning how to drink wine out of a porron wine pitcher.  This was apparently developed in the past when people wanted to share the wine easily without sharing germs. Again, no nice clothing at this stop. 

I became quite a pro at the end. Ask Andrea and she'll vouch for me. :) 

Finally, here's our tour guide Ian showing us how to do it.