TL;DR (this is a long post)
We arrived back Wednesday night from our 14 day trip to France and Spain. It was an all around fantastic trip. We traveled by plane, train, automobile, boat, metro, bus, tram and foot. Lots of foot! I think every day had its challenges but it was all good family time and we came out stronger with many great memories to share.
The Plan
It took some extra work and saving to make it happen. We are just grateful it worked out. I had a few ideas for what to do in France from my mission areas. Sarah was great at putting together a detailed itinerary for each day, getting the passports and airbnb's lined up, train tickets and reservations all printed out. Grandma and Grandpa Musser took care of our Spain navigation which was awesome. We expected some things to fall thru but only had a couple disappointments.
Paris
When we landed in Paris we found out our Airbnb for Paris had been cancelled. So we had to quickly rebook somewhere to stay while at the airport. Luckily we found a nice place available for our days. It actually was a better location than what we originally booked.
After we dropped off our luggage we got right back on the metro and headed for Luxembourg gardens. The metro in Paris was fairly easy to navigate with the help of Google maps. We just walked thru the gardens because we were zombies at that point. There were a lot of older folks doing tai chi. It was nice seeing some people playing 'boules'.
We walked to Montparnasse tower. It's a tall building in the middle of Paris with a nice view of everything. We rode the elevator to the top. It was an amazing view so we got a few pictures. Afterwards we took the metro back to our apartment. We were all super exhausted so we crashed pretty hard that night.
For most of our dinners and breakfasts we ate food from the grocery store. It was fun to pick out lots of cheeses and grab fresh baguettes each day. We usually stopped at places to eat out for lunch- kebab shops, creperies and restaurants. We stopped somewhere once or twice a day for a croissant or patisserie snack too wherever we were, keeping a look out for good boulangeries.
Day 2 in Paris was a lot of walking. We walked from our 11th district apartment to Sainte-Chapelle. It was fairly overcast, windy and occasionally rainy most days in France. It reminded me of the Springs I spent there as a missionary. I didn't mind it. We were prepared with jackets, layers and umbrellas. It was not too bad after walking around a bit and the sun came out sometimes. It felt great to walk down the French streets again, see all the little shops and cafes, little cars and bikes. We walked thru a market with produce vendors. We saw lots of pigeons. The kids loved the pigeons!
Sainte-Chapelle was pretty amazing with the floor to ceiling stained glass windows. It's a 13th-century gothic chapel. Afterwards we had to walk around to find a bathroom. That proved to be a challenge at times in France. Google maps eventually helped out after Paul had to pee off the roadside.
Notre-Dame de Paris was nearby and our next visit. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was amazing inside and so huge! I was very disappointed when it burned in 2019. The inside had been cleaned since the fire and it was really bright and clean. It was a little busy but still great to walk thru.
Day 3 in Paris had another great highlight - the
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. I remember people telling me to visit this place on my mission so it was on my todo list. I like the Greek cross layout and the huge dome of this church. It stands on the highest hill in Paris. You have to climb up 250+ steps to get to the top but the views around the dome are amazing.
Next we marched down to the center of Paris, walked thru the Jardin des Tuileries and to the Musee d'Orsay. It was a large museum so we didn't get to see everything. We focused on the impressionist exhibit and enjoyed seeing some iconic paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh. Kahlan was able to appreciate some of it from her art class. We didn't stay too long because the other kids were getting tired. That concluded our visit to Paris. We would love to visit again!
Nantes
We road a TGV train to Nantes from Paris. It only took two hours and we had a nice view on the second level. When we arrived at Nantes we stopped by the
Jardin des Plantes which was a nice big park where we looked for birds for a while. Then we walked a mile or so to our airbnb apartment.
I really enjoyed seeing Nantes again. We visited on a Saturday and the market was going on all over downtown. Nantes has great piétons downtown and everyone was out walking around. There were some bands playing too. We stopped by a few churches that were getting ready for Palms Sunday and we heard singing and organ music inside. I especially enjoyed visiting The St. Peters Cathedral. I was always blown away by the size of this cathedral. The interior is stunning and also looked very clean and bright.
We visited the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne which is a large castle and museum right in the middle of town. The museum was all about the history of Nantes which has a lot of history being an old port city. We ate some delicious savory crepes outside the castle after our tour.
Our Nantes Airbnb was perhaps our least favorite, accommodation-wise. It came with only 1 roll of TP which was presented in a gift box when we arrived. The location was nice tho and it was a good size.
The cheese highlight was Coulommiers- kind of like a Brie but very mild smooth flavor. I also enjoyed a good Roquefort and some Boursault which is a rich, buttery, spreadable French triple-cream cheese. We also enjoyed a favorite drink called mint syro. Adding it to water is very refreshing (in small amounts). Adding to milk or yogurt turns it into mint ice-cream!
We took the tram and bus, which was free to ride on Sundays, to the Nantes airport car rental place. It was a cold morning and we waited a while.
We rented this large Renault 9-seater van. It was spacious, comfortable and we could get all our luggage in it. Overall, it was a good car and very convenient for the next 5 days. The only problem was learning to get it into reverse (manual transmission). We couldn't figure it out at first which turned into a problem when I did a three-point turn and blocked a street for a while. Luckily gravity got us out of that situation and later we did learn the trick from the manual.
It was a nice 5-hour drive to
Brive. We got the hang of driving in kilometers and round-abouts. Sarah was a great navigator throughout the trip. We stopped in a pretty old town called
Poitiers. I'd visited it as a missionary once or twice. We found some Indian food for lunch there and walked around a bit.
Brive-la-Gaillarde
Brive was my favorite and first mission ville. Our airbnb apartment there was also
the best. It was large with 3 rooms and well furnished and had a dedicated parking spot. We were able to do our laundry there. From Brive we ventured out each day into the green hilly countryside to exciting destinations.
On Day 1 our first stop was to
Collonges-La-Rouge, a little medieval village all built with red sandstone. We visited the small chateau there but not much else because it was rainy and not much was going on there.
1997
Next we drove to nearby
Gouffre De Padirac, a pretty spectacular cave and chasm. This was a trip highlight. The kids loved it. Once you get to the bottom (103 meters) of the chasm you walk thru several chambers and passageways. You follow the river to a point where you have to get on a small boat. A guide paddles you 1 km thru some passages and then you continue on foot thru some huge chambers.
After that, we drove to Rocamadour. It's another old medieval village built on a cliff side with a sanctuary and chateau on top. At the top there is a great view of the valley. It's a nice hike up to the top and there were lots of birds.
The Birds
We brought binoculars to spot new birds on our trip. It gave us something to do wherever we went. Sarah kept a list of what we spotted. These included: the European Robin, Eurasian Blackbird, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Rock Pigeon, Common Wood Pigeon, Mute Swan, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Carrion Crow, Common Shelduck, Eurasian Moorhen, Eurasian Magpie, Common Chaffinch, Eurasian Jackdaw, Black Kite, Eurasian Crag-Martin, European Goldfinch, Common Firecrest, Yellow-legged Gull, White Wagtail and Monk Parakeet (Barcelona). We were hoping to spot a Common Kingfisher but unfortunately never saw one.
On Day 2 at Brive we drove out to Beynac. It's an impressive fortress sitting on a cliff overlooking the Dordogne river valley. The drive there was pretty but had winding roads that made Penny sick in the car. Luckily she was ready with her barf bag so it wasn't a disaster. This castle has a long history dating back to the 1200's involving Richard the Lionheart and the war between France and England.
Next we visited the rival castle across the same valley called Chateau de Castelnaud. It had been turned into a museum of medieval warfare so it was pretty interesting. It sits on a hill above a little village. You have to walk up the hill to get to it. That was the end of our stay in Brive.
Lourdes, Tarbes, Carcassone
We drove from Brive down to
Lourdes which took about 4 hours. We stayed 1 night here and visited the two main Basilicas which was like a church on top of a church. It's a pretty town in the Pyranees with mountains all around. It was a bit rainy while we were there so we didn't do too much.
Next we stopped by
Tarbes not far away which was my last mission ville. We got to walk around town and saw my old apartment. We found lunch in an inside market and got some pasteries. We walked thru my favorite park called the
Jardin Massey which has peacocks walking around. Then we drove to Toulouse to drop off our van at the train station and catch our train for Carcassonne. We got hung up at a gas station for a while but luckily made our train.
Carcassone is a beautiful little town next to a huge walled castle. This was definitely a trip highlight. We stayed in the center of town in a nice apartment. In the morning we dropped off our luggage near the train station and walked a mile or so to the castle and took the tour. The double walled ramparts and 52 towers of the castle surround an inner village, chapel and citadel. This site boasts a 2000 year history and was restored in the 1800's. It was super windy on the ramparts but we walked all the way around. In the inner village there are shops and restaurants, kind of a cool place to walk around and hang out most of the day. We had lunch there and eventually made our way back to the train station where we caught our last train.
Barcelona
It took about 3 hours to reach
Barcelona by train. Grandma and Grandpa Musser met us at the train station. They were awesome hosts for the next 3 days. We had plenty so see in Barcelona. We mostly got around by the metro which was pretty nice. We noticed that people on the metro there were louder than the Paris metro where everyone seemed quiet. There were more street performers in Barcelona and the weather was sunny and warm.
La Sagrada Familia is the huge church designed by Gaudi and still under construction after 100 years. It was a trip highlight too. It is enormous and awe inspiring with the huge towers, naive and stained glass windows. The pillars branch at the top and make a forest canopy. It was unique from all the other churches we visited. Afterward our visit Sarah's parents took us to their favorite Turkish Kebab shop for lunch. It was delicious.
Next we went to Montjuic and visited the
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya which was free on Saturdays. It's inside a former palace on a hill with great views of the city. We viewed an exhibit of 12th century Romanesque frescos from Pyrenees churches. Since it was general conference weekend we got to watch it with Sarah's parents at their apartment.
On Sunday after watching some more conference we went to
Playa de la Barceloneta which was a great beach for a picnic. The kids were very excited to be there and had fun playing for a little while. There were a surprising number of vendors their walking around selling cocktails among other things.
On our last day we visited Park Guell which was designed by Gaudi as well. The organic architecture and mosaic designs were really cool to see. It happened to be a holiday while we were there and super busy. Dave and Brenda then took us to their favorite sushi restaurant. It was all-you-can eat and they had a huge menu to order from continually. We all loved it.
Next we visited La Rambla which is a great place to walk around with shops and food and street performers. We found some souvenirs and then walked thru the gothic quarter for a bit and Sarah's parents treated us (again) to some delicious churros and chocolate!
It was hard to say goodbye and end our trip. We got up the next day and rode to the airport in the mission MAV (mission assault vehicle) which was a big Ford van. Things were smooth flying to Madrid but then we missed our connecting flight to Dallas! We had sprinted with our luggage all the way thru the airport but didn't make it. It was very disappointing especially to Juniper. But the airline got us a hotel to stay in and a new flight for the next morning. It took a while to get to the hotel and it was bedtime so it felt like we lost a day. But the next morning went pretty smoothly to get us to Washington DC and then to Salt Lake City. It felt like the longest day but we made it home safe.
The trip was unforgettable—not just for what we saw, but for the time we shared as a family. We made lasting memories and gained confidence navigating new places. More than anything, I hope it inspires the kids to be curious, courageous, and eager to explore the world.
Brive was my favorite and first mission ville. Our airbnb apartment there was also the best. It was large with 3 rooms and well furnished and had a dedicated parking spot. We were able to do our laundry there. From Brive we ventured out each day into the green hilly countryside to exciting destinations. 
Next we drove to nearby Gouffre De Padirac, a pretty spectacular cave and chasm. This was a trip highlight. The kids loved it. Once you get to the bottom (103 meters) of the chasm you walk thru several chambers and passageways. You follow the river to a point where you have to get on a small boat. A guide paddles you 1 km thru some passages and then you continue on foot thru some huge chambers. 
We brought binoculars to spot new birds on our trip. It gave us something to do wherever we went. Sarah kept a list of what we spotted. These included: the European Robin, Eurasian Blackbird, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Rock Pigeon, Common Wood Pigeon, Mute Swan, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Carrion Crow, Common Shelduck, Eurasian Moorhen, Eurasian Magpie, Common Chaffinch, Eurasian Jackdaw, Black Kite, Eurasian Crag-Martin, European Goldfinch, Common Firecrest, Yellow-legged Gull, White Wagtail and Monk Parakeet (Barcelona). We were hoping to spot a Common Kingfisher but unfortunately never saw one.
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