French food, French language

I might have made a mistake going to France just as I was feeling good about my Spanish. I felt like I had turned a little bit of a corner with my Spanish. I was having real mini-conversations with people. One waiter asked if we were from Portugal, because of my accent! What!??!

But then we went to France. What a disaster. Every time I tried to think of any French words, only Spanish came to mind. Sometimes I was pronouncing Spanish words as one might in French. I was basically speaking nonsense. I started asking people, “Parlez-vous Anglais ou Espagnol?” There were a couple people who preferred to speak in Spanish.

On the plus side, though: THE FOOD!!! Everything tastes better in France. We couldn’t get over it last year, when we went to Paris for two days on a vacation from our vacation in London, and it was true again this year. The bread. The cheese. The wine. The bread. The bread. The bread!!! At our hotel, for the breakfast buffet, they had little croissants and breakfast breads like I have seen at so many hotel “continental breakfasts” for work, but these were NOT the same. They melted in my mouth. They were little tastes of heaven. And the automatic coffee machine! Push a button and you get steamed, frothy milk, delicious coffee…. We enjoyed that hotel and its associated restaurant so much, we ate there almost exclusively. Olympics playing in the bar, French wine by the glass, English-speaking waiters, and central air-conditioning! I loved that hotel.

I sit here now, at 22:55, watching the Olympic closing ceremonies in our Barcelona “home,” after a 4-hour train ride on the TGV from Montpellier. We now have only one full day back in Barcelona to soak up what’s left, buy last-minute souvenirs (that’s on Anna’s agenda, not mine), and get ready for home. I could easily stay another week. Or two. I could do without the heat and humidity, but I’ve still loved this trip.