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            Trip Report A Barcelona Christmas - sunshine, palm tree, the "cagoner", and, yes, pickpockets

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            White Christmas? Bah humbug! We wanted some sunshine! Some palm trees! Some tapas!

            DH and I are from the US, but we are currently living in Amsterdam. While we totally love Amsterdam, even the biggest fans of the city and its inhabitants (which we are rapidly becoming) could not claim, with a straight face, that the weather in Holland in December is one of its high points - especially for the likes of us Californians.

            And Christmas was going to be the first opportunity for us and our kids to spend some family-time all together since we left the States in August. DS (22) is working at his first post-college job in Washington DC and DD (20) is at university in Paris this year. So where should we meet up?

            None of us had ever been to Barcelona. Does it have sunshine? Check (hopefully). Palm trees? Check. Tapas? Check. Barcelona here we come!


            Paris Prologue:

            DH and I started the trip off in Paris for a few days, while we waited for DD to finish her classes at university and her job teaching English at a Paris high school.

            We wandered around town admiring the Christmas decorations. They were as lovely as I've always heard. Those French people do have what you might call style. We loved the Futurist exhibit at the Pompidou and hung out one afternoon at the Musee d'Orsay, which was pretty uncrowded on a weekday before Christmas week. The weather was surprisingly warm (relatively speaking of course) and sunny, so it was quite pleasant for walking around.

            Speaking of walking, I found it completely unnecessary to revisit some of the sites I visited on one of my last trips to Paris in August. (It turns out once is more than enough for some things.) Notably, this time I decided not to break my leg and spend the night in the worst bed-and-breakfast in Paris: the hospital. (See one of my previous trip reports for my reviews of hospital lodging and cuisine in Paris. Not recommended.)

            This time I made a much better restaurant choice. I occasionally read the blog of another San Francisco expat, who used to be a pastry chef at Chez Panisse but has been living in Paris for the past 5 or 6 years. One of the places he recommends on his blog is A la Biche au Bois. A friend was in town from Aix-en-Provence, so we all met there for dinner. We very much enjoyed the dinner and the ambience - small, casual, filled with relaxed people having good food and a good time.

            Since I can now walk, another major “must-see” (it’s written up in all the guide books) I wanted to visit for the first time was DD's Paris apartment. It is a sixth-floor walkup in the third arrondissement just off the Place de la Republique. The last time or two I was in Paris (after the trip where I broke my leg) I could not manage the six floors of her ancient spiral staircase with a cast and crutches, so had never been able to see where she lives. But this visit I could haul myself up the 10,952 stairs to her apartment (I began to think the cast excuse had been a godsend that I almost regretted not having any longer) and admire it.

            She found the apartment just by searching on internet listings for places to share, so I had been a little apprehensive about how it would all work out. But it has been wonderful for her so far. She shares the apartment with two French twenty-somethings. She adores them and so has been included in an instant French social set. And through their circle of friends she has even acquired a handsome young beau (technical French term). Ah to be young and in love and living in Paris!

            As soon as DD got off from work the Friday before Christmas, we raced to Gare d'Austerlitz to catch the Elipsos night train to Barcelona. We had a small sleeping compartment for the three of us (DS was to meet us in Barcelona), a decent night’s sleep, and a very pleasant trip.

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