29 from Burgundy

We learn all about Burgundy wines (love ’em!), and take a cooking class.

10 from Summer in España

Our first summer in Barcelona.

12 from Roman France

Yep, France again! This time we’re visiting amazing Roman ruins in in amazing French towns.

12 from Basque Country

We love San Sebastian and both Spain & France’s Basque Country where Cameron learns to surf

Guess what I just found!

I can’t believe we’ve been here almost a month already! Wow, it is speeding by faster than I even imagined. We don’t even have a well working shower yet—ours is like a combination of getting hit with a fire hose while someone simultaneously spits on you. But other than some upkeep issues, our apartment is ideal, and in the PERFECT location. All part of the experience—especially the shower, which is a true adventure.

Thank God Kate & Lilly have been on top of the blog. I did have good intentions—do have good intentions—but there is so much to do here. I haven’t written and I’ve barely read. When I do have free time I prefer to just set out (hopefully with Kate or the kiddos) in some new direction and discover more of what this amazing city has to offer. And it is so packed full that even the same route reveals new gems on each and every excursion.

I’ve always been someone who relishes the unopened gift on Christmas (I never tried to sneak a peek)—Whatever could be in there?? BCN is like a city of unopened Christmas gifts. Each night… or day… or Thursday… I don’t know, schedules aren’t really a thing… the gates and doors are closed on businesses, often covering their sign and any clues about what’s inside. You walk by some small, closed door without ever questioning what is behind the gate and graffiti art. Then one pass you see it open and discover some amazing cocktail bar or craft beer shop, a giant, multi-level bookstore, a store that sells nothing but rubber ducks, an art gallery, a barreled vermouth bar, a giant bike shop, and of course endless markets, cafes, and restaurants. I literally just saw a hotel across the street from us I hadn’t noticed until yesterday. Seriously.

And that’s just here in our neighborhood.

Speaking of our neighborhood, for those familiar, we are in Central Eixample which is just West of Plaça de Catalunya (away from the water). The Plaça divides four sections of Barcelona: El Raval, The Gòtic Quarter (+ El Born) and Left & Right Eixample—so we are close to all the action! Rambla de Catalunya divides the two sides, so officially we are are on the left, or “Gayxample.” It’s got a ton of energy and a great vibe! Just beyond the quarters are Barceloneta (the beach) and Gracia, La Sagrada Familia & other Gaudi creations and I guess other things too… we have a lot more exploring to do!

These are just some of our finds on our “Been There Done That” and “Want to Go” Google Maps lists. When friends and family are finally able to visit, we have a long and growing list of great places for you to discover.

One find not too exciting for everyone else, but great for me is the WeWork on Passeig de Gràcia. It has been a quick and easy place to go work rooftop, use a printer, and get away for calls where I need privacy. It is just one block away, in-between a huge FC Barcelona store and a Gaudi building, and open late. The time difference has had a few challenges, but honestly been a pretty easy transition. I LOVE having my mornings free to go for a walk, hang with the family, then start working in the afternoon. We may sneak out occasionally at 10pm for a dinner (totally normal time here), but that’s 4pm back home, so really able to keep US hours for the most part. And for travel it works great because we can take our time Monday morning—or any morning. Have I had a conference call end at midnight? Yes, but totally worth it. Oh, also WeWork has free coffee and beer.

Fractional Petsolt

Those of you I work with know I try to work in new places as often as possible… why not!? Here are my daily snapshots of a work location and view on Instagram @FractionalPetsolt

(COVID did make this a bit challenging back in SOP, but I did my best to keep it going)

I have so much more to share, but that’s it for now. Please read the blogs from Kate & Lilly about all the details and much better writing—I will try to do a better job of memorializing my thoughts about this adventure and share some stories too. I promise!

Salud

The More the Merrier the More We Rice

So, based on this being a blog post about living in Spain, it is now safe to assume that I live in Spain. The day we moved was the day that most people were starting up school so people were posting on Instagram about how they went to school or whatever and my thought was, that’s cool too but I moved to Spain today (not that it’s a competition or anything). Here are some small stories that have happened since we’ve moved. 


Tiny Cactus Smuggling

Last Christmas I got three tiny cactuses, and by tiny I mean none of them were bigger than my thumb. Anyway, when you travel internationally you are not allowed to bring over any living things in your luggage. Since the cactuses were so small, I just put them in an empty retainer case in the middle of my suitcase with the hope they would not be destroyed. They made it to the apartment completely fine but I forgot to open them for a while so one of the cactuses is now almost dead(oops). 


The Climb

They say that, at most, only 891 have made it to the summit of Everest in one year so we had reason to be afraid. As we approached we could barely see the top through the glaring sun, but we knew we had to keep going. The first day we made it three levels, it was amazing how different the landscape was and how it reached further than the eye could see. A few days later, we passed through three and on to four, five, and six. By then, you could tell that the air was getting thinner as you wound through the pathways up, up, up. Every level provided some reward that you were not expecting to see. Another day went by and we reached the eighth stage but we couldn’t go any further, it was too much to tackle. Finally the day came where we again reached the eighth stage but this time, we were prepared to press on. There was no turning back as we stepped on the escalator and up to the 9th floor of El Corte Ingles. Awaiting us were treasures beyond imaginable, the cafeteria. It was filled with pastas and sandwiches and burgers and churros, oh the churros so covered in sugar and with a side of chocolate for dipping. At this point it was confirmed that everything we had gone through was worth it and that there were no regrets about what we ordered. 


Eau de Q

The other weekend we went to the French Riviera. We were visiting a couple of cities and one of them (we didn’t know this until after we had already picked to go there) was my Grandma’s favorite town. The town is called Eze and it is a little medieval  town with small winding streets going up and down with beautiful vistas hidden in gaps between buildings. The day we were there the Tour de France was passing through so we went and saw that, as you do. Before the bikes came through a parade with cars came through that threw random merchandise into the crowd such as random smallish and long paper banners that were for some a random car company that was in no way related to the Tour de France. We waited for the bikes to come for a while but when they did, they came in waves. That was pretty awesome except the kid in front of me when the bikes were passing by was waving his arms around making it impossible to take a clear picture. He also had one of those banners that were given out and he was waving it up and down in a circle which made it nearly impossible to take a picture let alone see. Enough about that, the next day we came back to Eze for a perfume experience. We went to a workshop and my mom and I created our own perfumes. Cameron helped my mom and my dad helped me but he claims that all the scents smelled good which wasn’t helpful but did make me feel good about my choices. After 2 ½ hours of perfume mixing our scents were ready for us to take home in a fancy bottle. They then had to ferment (I know that’s not the correct word but it is relatively funny when referring to a good smelling perfume) for two weeks. The car ride back was an absolute nightmare because everyone but me decided to try on the already crafted perfumes and cologne in the store which made the car a collage of those scents along with the ones we had been intentionally smelling for hours. That being said, we all smell very delightful now. 


The More the Merrier the More We Rice

One night when we were in France we were trying to find a place to eat. Since none of us speak French we used the google translate app where you can hold up the camera up some words (like a road sign or menu) and it switches what it says to English. Anyway, we held up the app on my phone to the image of the menu on my mom’s phone and it translated. The translation was very off with the craziest menu item called “the more the merrier the more we rice.” We decided to turn the translated menu items into a poem, please read the picture and try and read it as a poem. 

8 from the Pyrenees

Hiking in the Spanish & French Pyrenees, with a stop in Girona, is a great long weekend.

Tour de France! What?

Our first road trip in Europe did not disappoint. Note: long post ahead – these blogs are to fill in family and friends and will serve as a bit of a journal for us so will include many details. We are most certainly counting our blessings that we can safely travel by car and explore nearby France. David was at the rental agency Friday morning when they opened and we were out the door by about 7:45. First stop Aix-en-Provence, maybe a 4.5 hour drive from home. Checked in early to our hotel so we could drop our things and park the car. It all came flooding back – the tiny, tiny parking garages. I mean, there was about 2 inches of clearance on either side of the car as we snaked down into the garage. And while David to me seems somewhat absent-minded when he is behind the wheel in Southern Pines, when we are on switchbacks, small roads and trying to navigate a parking space made for a Mini Cooper, there is no one I would rather have behind the wheel. He is the master. Anyway – set off on foot to see what this little old town had to offer. Lunch outdoors under giant umbrellas with a carafe of local rosé and a gorgeous and delicious salad with the biggest piece of burrata on top seemed like a pretty good way to kick off the weekend. Bliss. As is our way, we wandered down cobblestone streets, doubled back on ourselves because we didn’t know where we were, hit a few local shops, walked some more. David scooted back to work from the hotel while the kids and I walked and walked and walked some more. Grabbed David for a bite to eat across town. More rosé, more delicious (not fancy) French food, more catching up and laughing at the dinner table. One observation for our 2 weeks here in Europe – I have maybe heard five different groups of people we have passed speaking English. Normally I feel like there’s English all around. This is a nice change. Oh, another observation is that the French smoke so, so much. In Barcelona proper we see folks smoking outside at restaurants and occasionally on the street, but in France it seemed like EVERYONE was ALWAYS smoking. Gag.

We originally made plans for a free wine tasting at a local vineyard and then decided it might be more fun to just scoot over to the next town where we had a hotel booked. This meant a drive down into Nice where I wanted to catch the Grand Corniche – the beautiful elevated roadway overlooking the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). Fortunate to have been on many scenic drives but this one takes the cake for me! Every turn presented a grand view, and overlooking Monaco from high above was a treat. Cameron pointed out the luxury yachts moored in the bays. I don’t know what those people do (or don’t do) to have such opulent boats.

Menton is the citrus capital of the area so everything is lemons. Our check in at the hotel included fresh squeezed lemonade – a nice touch on a hot day. The hotel was situated on the Lower Corniche (basically Ocean Boulevard) and our room overlooked the mountains out back. Normally I might be disappointed to not face the water, but the view out back with enormous windows open all night offered a glimpse into life in this sweet town. You’ll see a theme emerging…. we set out for town, map in hand, and wandered the colorful and steep streets to the cemetery at the top of the old town. What a view! We then meandered back a different way, got lost (not really, but we did do more doubling back), and found our way to the more commercial district. The highlight this afternoon was the kids getting into the Mediterranean and bobbing around. We found a beachfront Italian restaurant (we were about 2 kilometers from the French/Italian border still on the French side) where we were covered with giant umbrellas when the rain began to fall. The kids, undeterred, kept swimming and enjoying the water. We shared a couple of pizzas, David and I had more rosé (told you there was a trend) and we waited out the rain. Kids dried off, threw their clothes back on, shared some tiramisu and a lemon tart, and we were off. We picked up some tasty and locally made limoncello, honey, soaps and art. We think Menton is a great little town and enjoyed the colored buildings and contrasting shutters. We considered surprising Lilly by walking on the promenade over to Italy but – COVID. Another time, kid. We freshened up and had a late dinner at a hopping spot a few minutes from the hotel then back to bed.

I failed to mention that while driving the Grand Corniche we saw signs indicating it was part of the route for the Tour de France which got us wondering how and where we might catch a glimpse. Or was that totally wishful thinking? Our hotel was able to clue us in, explaining it would be passing through Èze the next afternoon. We tend to have pretty good luck when traveling and this day proved no different – we were already booked to stay in Èze the next night. The tour schedule had all been changed thanks to COVID so we were in luck. We got up early and made our way down to the medieval town, parked our car (this time in what I might even call a full sized parking lot which was awesome), and made our way to the pool. Our room wasn’t ready so we lounged, swam, read and took a bazillion selfies from the infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean. I would argue this was one of the prettiest views I’ve ever had from a hotel. Since our room still wasn’t ready and we wanted to hit the town and see about those bikers coming through, we changed back and set out for town. This was a dicey situation as we walked 25 minutes down the same beautiful roads we had been driving… BLIND CORNERS, SPEEDING DRIVERS, NO SHOULDERS. David was our brave leader in his bright pink shirt ready to take one for the team, you know, if a car should come too close and pluck him off! We made it without incident to the cobblestoned, hilly old town. We learned a little bit earlier that this town was my mother-in-law’s favorite town on the French Riviera, making it especially meaningful as we explored. We could all picture her going in all the little shops and enjoying her wine at a picturesque little restaurant. Our lunch was a trip…. everything was pretty much shut down because the Tour was passing through. I know what you might be thinking – that would be a opportunity to stay open because of the large crowds. Me too. As it turns out there were not all that many people there to see the Tour so there were only 2 restaurants open. One was fully booked and the hostess shook her finger and head at David when he held up 4 fingers looking for a table. No go. He did manage to secure the only indoor table at a crepe and pasta and pizza restaurant. The table was literally in the kitchen. The 3 other tables outside were full and besides, they only sat two people each. The waiter was also the host and the chef. Since we were not in a hurry it was fun to watch him work, preparing one meal at a time for the other customers. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I would not say that David has a grasp for picking up languages and today showcased this point to the children. The only options on the menu were 5 pizzas, 4 pastas, and 4 crepes. David picked what he assumed was some sort of Sicilian pizza thinking that meant some spicy meats and cheese. Turns out that whatever he ordered was in fact NOT a meat and cheese pizza but rather one covered in olives and anchovies. Out of curtesy and to assure our waiter/host/chef/owner that we liked his pizza when we asked several times, David ate about half. The kids and I do not do anchovies (I tried but couldn’t do it) so David plowed through. The sweet, older gentleman seemed genuinely concerned about us liking his pizza and pleased that we did (or so it appeared).

Now to the Tour de France. Seriously, the Tour de France. The barricades were set up and a small crowd began to gather. David and Lilly found a quiet little spot near the bridge (no one was allowed on the bridge for good reason) where we could catch the riders taking the turn at the bottom of a long, fast hill. There were so few people we were able to spread out. Really. After anxiously waiting about 45 minutes the riders began to come. Oh, let me back up. While we waited at a little bar about 100 feet from the barricades the merchandise trucks came by selling official gear, followed by advertising vans chucking gear and samples into the small crowd making it festive. Note: the photo of David in the bright yellow bucket hat was just him modeling; that hat is going to straight to Chuck Schirmer when we return! Then we watched about 20-40 support vehicles, maybe more, come in advance of the riders. Police, official TDF vehicles, motorcycles, ambulances, street sweepers. Yep, there was a giant street sweeper that came through and picked up most of the pine straw that had been blowing onto the course. He was preceded by a man with a blower pushing the pine straw to the curbs. And then he was followed by the same blower guy working briskly to keep up with the pace of the mess blowing onto the road. Made me think of Moore County with all the pine straw falling. Ok. Now here come the riders. They are FAST. And after the lead peloton came, all of their support vehicles careening around the bend with about half a dozen bikes on each roof rack. They were barely managing the turns – it was crazy. The bikers were cruising, the sun was shining and those around us were cheering. We waited for a few more groups to come through, including all of the support vehicles. *For those of you who know me well, you won’t be surprised to learn that I cried when the first racers came by. I mean, I saw the Tour de France!

Less exciting that afternoon was our first family game of Pétanque, a game much like the bocce we play in our backyard, except this time we are overlooking the Mediterranean. Here’s a link to a short video about the game. Despite the very simple rules we still had several disagreements about certain aspects – NO, we aren’t competitive! 🙂

I’m surprised they didn’t go find a tape measure!

After breakfast the next day Cameron, David and I squeezed in an hour of really fun, grass court tennis. While we did that, Lilly was dutifully at work on the terrace since school is officially in session. She’s so disciplined. I think she was pretty content with her set-up anyway!

We had to check out and head to town for our private perfume workshop, complete with Champagne and guidance from Caroline, Galimard’s chief perfumer. Three hours was how long it took to whittle down our favorite selections from the 127 jars in front of us. We selected from base notes, heart notes and top notes. Depending on which layer they are from (base, heart, top) the scents will linger different lengths of time. It was overwhelming and educational. Lilly’s creation is perfect for her – fresh, lovely, light. I would gladly wear it. Mine is slightly heavier but still light and just my vibe. We were told to wait two weeks for them to macerate and mature before wearing. Since that was the case, I felt like picking out another bottle at Galimard made perfect sense. Caroline walked by and told the saleslady which one I would like – not surprising, she was spot on! Our handsome gentlemen were by our sides the whole time. Cameron was especially helpful when it came time to measure each fragrance into the beaker. The formula was tweaked by Caroline who at each of four phases had us choose our favorite scents from a batch of her choosing. Once we had narrowed it down she wrote down how many millimeters of each would added to strike the right notes. Now our formulas are on file and should we want to reorder, we can. Or we can add it to lotion or body wash. Grasse, just a few miles from where we were in Èze, is the perfume capital with over 40 factories. I think Cameron was relieved to be served gummy bears, chocolates and Orangina during the workshop rather than touring multiple factories!

And just like that it was time to head home. We really packed it in and saw some beautiful scenery. We covered a lot of ground on our first “vacation” and feel like we learned a lot. I forgot to mention that prior to our trip I tasked Lilly with doing some research on the region – foods, customs, etc. In true, adorable, perfectionist, creative Lilly style she created a beautiful list, complete with pictures to share. I can say without a doubt that given more time and with safety ensured, we will head back and explore the region again.

21 from the French Riviera

Our second weekend in Spain and we decide to go to France. In Eze (one of my Mom’s favorite towns) we happen to catch the Tour d’France!

You won’t get it right if you do it wrong!

I’m totally behind on posts so this is from a few days ago and trying to catch up to today…

MONDAY: We seem to have trouble getting the kids up and moving in the mornings here so David set off to a nearby coffee shop to get some emails sent and gear up for the week. I was not long behind since the kids were zonked out. I had the most delicious açaí bowl at Juice Dudes across from the university (a block or so from our apartment). What I really needed to do was set a lesson plan for Cameron – school is starting for us. Sure, those veteran homeschool parents already have their weeks, months or even year planned out. Not me. I’m like a day by day person. Time for me to dig in and get to work so I can make it a great year for the kids academically.

Juice Dudes! And my “lesson planner.”

Let’s back up a little bit. Remember those sleepyhead kiddos? Yeah, had to get them moving because we were hoping to show them the beach. We ambled our way down to the water after taking a little pitstop in the marina to gawk at the luxury yachts. I pulled one up online to see what the story was – on sale for 4.1 million euro. Outside our budget but fun to look. Cameron was loving it all. Anyway….to the beach. We weren’t dressed for a dip or basking in the sun but we did pack the frisbee. Cameron and David played for a while, Lilly read and I watched the people go by. It is quite pleasant, yet at the same time sort of eerie, how few people are out and about. We did notice a large police presence – huge pick pocket and petty theft area. We always have our guard up. David and Cameron dipped their toes in the water and on the way Cameron saw more topless old ladies than he wanted. I guess one was too many. Welcome to Spain, kid. Found a delightful little beach shack and sat a spell to enjoy a cold drink and a few tapas. We could not ask for a better view. Pinch me. This is just a Monday in Barcelona.

Because of the way David’s work day is arranged we spend the morning doing the fun exploring and family time and then follow it up with school/work. It’s totally flip-flopped from our routine back home but it is working out really well. Once we got back home it was high time to dig in. Lilly is pretty much on her own – too smart for me. Cameron on the other hand is stuck with Mrs. Petsolt for his first year. I would say it’s a hybrid of some online lessons and other curriculum we picked out together. English and grammar lessons were fun and easy. Math, Cameron’s long suit, was up next. I had a lesson plan and everything – remember that “extensive” planning from this morning? He took a couple shortcuts, did all the problems in his head and made 3 silly mistakes. Lilly was sitting across the table as I so wisely stated, “Cameron, you won’t get it right if you do it wrong.” The kids starting laughing hysterically at my pearl of wisdom and Captain Obvious statement. They wrote it down, put my initials by it as its author, and date stamped it. Maybe you had to be there, but I guess I need to work on my catchphrases and quips in the weeks to come. Tough crowd.

Cameron in class at our dining table – window to the courtyard open.

Charcuterie board for the grownups and Cameron’s lemon chicken, a crowd favorite, for the kids again outside. One thing we are finding a little strange – we have yet to see one other person in our neighborhood or within our view use their balcony. I don’t know why that is the case but we are on ours every day. There are many shuttered hotels around the city – one directly across from our place which explains a few of the empty balconies. In other, more dense areas of the city folks definitely take advantage of their outdoor spaces.

Lilly and I went in a used book store down the street and fortuitously found an English copy of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night which she needs to read. We also found some of Cam’s favorite graphic novels and left with 5 books for 10 euro, a good little find. Cameron ended the night catching up with a friend back home. Love that.

TUESDAY: I am embarrassed to say I am already forgetting what we have done day by day. We seem to be settling into an exploring routine and then schoolwork/work. Guessing day 2 of school was fine. Honestly, I already don’t know which end is up. Well, we did get our first delivery of groceries. The delivery man made his way up (the doorman buzzed our apartment and all of a sudden we learned our phone has a screen and it works!).

For all the packaging around the precious huevos (eggs), several were broken. What we do love – shelf stable food. Eggs on the counter that don’t take up precious refrigerator space. Using the on-line shopping as a teaching moment to show the kids words in Spanish.

Dinner with David’s former UNC professor was the highlight – we got to meet her family and catch up on so many things. Dinner started at 9:30 and we were kicked off the sidewalk at 12:00 – no one allowed in bars and restaurants after midnight. Happy to oblige, but we could have chatted for hours longer. Grateful to have a familiar and very friendly face here in our new city.

WEDNESDAY: Oh, right. I brought the kids to the Egyptian Museum (10 minute walk). Cameron had a world history lesson on Egypt and Mrs. Petsolt (that’s me) thought to tie it all together with a hands-on visit. Don’t panic – the place is not crowded on a normal day. There were a sum total 8 people. Pandemic safe. Sort of felt like I was crushing the home-school thing until the kids seemed utterly bored with all the plaques I was reading. Late night movie choice was The Imitation Game in honor of Lilly starting a heavy stats class. Again, David and I thought we were being pretty clever.

Egyptian Museum

THURSDAY: What a treat to meet up with Ashraf and Ayaan to play tennis. They met us at our apartment and we grabbed a bus to the courts – straight shot down Gran Via to a great little club. Cameron and I vs. Ashraf and Ayaan. We tied our set at 6-6. Awesome!! Pretty pumped to have found courts and a place we can take lessons. They also offer paddle ball which we might just try that as a family. I mean, why not, right? We are up for just about anything and outside sports are safe.

Tonight the kids wanted to show David the cafeteria at El Corte Inglés department store. Oh, now I remember. I brought the kids there on Tuesday for lunch. I’ll post those pictures because it was pretty epic. The view was amazing overlooking the city and they pour a VERY LARGE GLASS OF WINE for a very low price. And they serve chocolate y churros. What could be better? You could also catch a glimpse of the water. This is a beautiful city. Reminder – this is a 7 minute walk form our apartment. And we learned tonight they have sangria on tap. Have I said it before? I love this town!

Unrelated to anything – but this cracked me up – check out the picture of all the navy uniform shoes at the department store (there were two more full racks not in the frame). You really get an idea of how many Catholic kids are wearing uniforms. I had the option of like 2 pair that fit the bill for the kids when we chose back in NC – BLACK ONLINE. We opted this year to forgo the uniform – anything goes at BCN Academy.

THURSDAY PM: We are packing up for a quick getaway to Provence & the French Riviera. If all goes according to plan we shove off around 7:00 am in our rental car…. a short 4.5 hour drive and we will be in Aix-en-Provence, a first for three of us. Stay tuned for more on that. Putting to good use a book gifted to David from Sue – Epic Drives of the World. We are going to enjoy the views….

First road trip inspired by the book. Thanks, Sue! xo

The bottom line at this point – we love all things Barcelona. We love the urban setting, the proximity to markets and items we need (oh, I didn’t even mention that a brand new Aldi opened up YESTERDAY three blocks from us). I mean, could we get any luckier? There is much to see and do safely here. Finding our groove on the cadence of school will take a little bit of time but we are able to knock through a lot of material everyday. Cameron is attentive and good company. I might think differently in a month but for now I’m pretty damn content sitting next to my guy for several hours each day, learning together.