Barcelona, etc.

Well, it's obvious that having a guest is not conducive to writing a blog.

My friend Lynne arrived Wednesday a week ago and since then, though we have been all over, I have posted on this blog just once.  In the time since then, we have visited Mont San Michele

A beautiful medieval town called Dinan

We had a drink at the pub down the street and eaten at a restaurant in Passais, the next town, owned by a guy from London.

But the biggest part of our week was a road trip to Barcelona.  We drove first to Bordeaux, which has a very different character.  Much of it is large, monumental buildings with an arty twist.  Here is the Bourse, right on the Garonne River.

Nearby is a very cool fountain that people can walk through.

And a very large sculpture of a wholly man.

Inside the city there were great restaurants and amazing shopping.  And a lot of people.

We drove the next day to Barcelona--one of the most amazing cities I have ever been in.

We had a bit of trouble actually finding the place we had rented--I told you about the fear I have driving in big European cities--and it was justified this time..... and we did not have a GPS for Spain.  The apartment was only about two blocks from La Ramblas--a wide street with a walkway down the middle that is absolutely packed with restaurants, souvenir shops, artists and anything else you can think of---and people. This was great in that you were right in the heart of things, but not too cool when you wanted to sleep.

The city is so big, we decided to take the tour bus and get the lay of the land.  The first stop was the Sagrada Familia, the cathedral that was designed by Antony Gaudi.  He started building it in the 1880s and it should take a very long time to finish.

Guadi's style is actually the inspiration for the English word gaudy.  It is fantastical, complicated and weird--and it is very beautiful.  It could have been a joke--but it works.

 Gaudi also had a hand in designing the Park Guell, which was supposed to be a high-end housing development but only sold two of the 65 lots when it opened.  It sits on a hill above the city and has unbelievable views.

It is just very strange, architecture-wise.

But Barcelona is not all weird buildings.  There is this, the National Gallery

This gorgeous place that apparently houses a music museum.

And this church, located in what they call the Gothic Quarter.

Barcelona has many wide boulevards--in fact one that goes through town has eight lanes--and many modern neighborhoods, but the Gothic quarter is very different, very old.  It has narrow streets, artists studios, high-end shopping, great restaurants.  It's so weird that the place is so close to so much that is modern.

Inside the church are many gorgeous chapels.

Some dated back to the 14th Century.  While we were there, a choral group started warming up--in anticipation we figured, of a later concert.

We didn't stay for the concert, but went looking for a nice place to eat and found one not too far away.  When we finished dinner, we realized that Lynne had lost a bag of items she bought at the Sagrada Familia.  We went back to the church but it was closed.  Believe it or not, we returned the next morning and they actually had the bag that Lynne had left on the pew when we were listening to the chorus.  And the security guard seemed very delighted to return it to her.

The next day, after retrieving the bag from the church, we took the bus again and stopped at a beach on the Mediterranean.  Our first stop was lunch at this open air restaurant.

Then we sat on the beach for a couple of hours.  We were the only ones with street clothes there and in fact two of the few women who were not sun bathing topless.  (Sorry no close-ups on that one)

What can you say about the Mediterranean. It is gorgeous.

When we had been on the bus the day before we kept saying "We should come back to that" when we saw something interesting.  But the truth is we spent the day at the beach.  And walked along the harbor looking at the yachts.

And finally having dinner where we could watch the sunset on the beach.

The next day, we drove eight hours to Orleans to get Lynne close to Paris and the airport.  During the trip we crossed the Pyrenees and the mid-Pyrenees in the Languedoc Roussillon section of France.  Absolutely stunning!!!

Anyway.  I dropped Lynne off at the airport this morning and drove back to St. Fraimbault.  Tomorrow I get the house locked up and travel to a hotel near the airport and leave on Tuesday morning.

Can't believe I'm going home after all this time. From Brighton to Paris to Normandy to Barcelona--a fantastic trip but I am ready to come home.

Rennes

Rennes is one of the largest cities in Brittany--the region just below Normandy.  St. Fraimbault is very near the border of the two regions, so it's not a very long trip--about an hour and a half.

Once again, by sheer luck I managed to find a parking space just a block from where I wanted to go, which was the old part of the city.  And it was very old.  There were half-timbered buildings all over the city--as there has been in a lot of the cities and towns of Normandy.  I've mentioned this before but, whereas in England every half-timbered building is listed in a town's tourist maps, here there are just too many to take notice of them all.

For instance,

That is one of the main squares in town and the buildings are from the 16th Century, apparently.  Even older was this one, from the 15th I think.

I loved the detail over the door.

And then there was this one.

Again with beautiful detailing.

And these.

The thing about Rennes is that, since it has been the seat of government for the Brittany region.  It also has a lot of monumental buildings like the Center for Commerce.

 

And the Parliament building.

That building has a rounded entrance way that fits neatly into the front of the building across the courtyard--the Opera house--also pretty monumental.

But there are also other buildings that look like they should have been in Paris, like this one. 

When I arrived in the city, one of the first buildings I saw was this beautiful church.

But I knew I would like it in Rennes when I noticed that just next door was this very cute little bar/restaurant.

The office of tourism was in another converted church not too far away.  They had a brochure with a walking tour of the city, which I followed.  But just as I left the office I heard a lot of commotion coming from the next street.  When I went over to see about it, I saw these people coming down the street.

  I could not tell what they were protesting, but they were loud.

Later I saw them in front of the parliament building  and it seemed like they were against the building of a new airport.

But there was another group at a different location--surrounded by police--that I thought might have a different agenda.

The walking tour took me past a very beautiful garden that was associated with the local abbey, until the revolution when the government took it over.

The garden had a lovely little cottage and pond made especially for the birds.

I also passed by a monumental indoor pool.

Nearby I stopped for lunch and saw this house across the street.  It looks like they have rigged up a brace to keep the house together.

Nearby was the biggest and most gorgeous abbey I have ever seen.  No vow of poverty here, I guess.

Out front were some patches of what looked like chili plants masquerading as flowers.

There is a river that flows through Rennes--the Vilaine--but it is not a navigable river because the city has built numerous bridges just above the water line.  So it's mostly just for show at this point--but really pretty.

Just a beautiful place.

Lynne and I went to Mont San Michele and Dinan yesterday.  I'll talk about that in my next blog entry.