Once upon a time there was an awkward teenage girl who dreamed of going to France. She took French 1-4 with Madame Holeman at Canby High School. She watched movies about France. She asked for a beret for Christmas and was thrilled to receive one in red (ahem, ROUGE). She went on to college and took French there (even though it was FIVE days a week). Then, she met a boy who said, “I’m sorry, I have no interest in taking you to France.” And, the girl was sad. But, she decided to marry him anyway as he was still very, very awesome. Luckily, when this boy and this girl decided to plan a honeymoon, they were able to find a honeymoon cruise that stopped in the South of France for just a little bit.

On the morning of September 3rd, the girl woke up in France and she was so excited. She walked out on her veranda, and this was her view.

She even cried a little bit on the tender ride from her ship to Villefranche. Her husband was pretty happy, too.

The girl and the boy hopped on the train to Nice (though they almost accidentally got on the train to Monaco) and walked and walked and walked until they reached the beach (where the girl was SHOCKED! to see topless women) where they settled down for a bottle of Rose’ (it was a wee bottle, lest you think we they were wandering around Nice drunk) and a Nicoise Salad. (Luckily, the girl found this wonderful guide to what to eat in Nice before her honeymoon, and though she did not eat all those things, she has a recipe for pissaladière which she will be making soon). They wandered and shopped and took some pictures, then decided it was time to head back to the ship.

And, then the girl and the boy had their first marital crisis. Despite the girl’s 8 years of French, she was completely useless at the train station. (Note to France: Your ticket machines are NOT USER FRIENDLY). The girl was convinced she was going to have to spend the rest of her days in Nice (which would have been a-ok with her) because she could not make the ticket machine work. Finally, after 45 machines and approximately 39 minutes, the girl and the boy were able to buy a train ticket. They got back to Villefranche, and back on the tender to the ship and the girl cried again. This time? Because the boy said he’d take her back to Nice someday. And, she was very happy.

*I loved Nice so much that I decided that it deserved it’s very own post. SO, my next update will include Ajaccio and Naples.

P.S. Happy 39th Birthday to Mon Petit Chou, Thank you so much for taking me to France.

I’m home with a kidney stone and sick of watching TV. Sometimes you have to make your own fun.

Note: I’m going to break these posts up a bit because there are millions of photos and I want  you to see them ALL!

Normally, when I go on vacation, I start packing days (sometimes weeks) beforehand. The thing with a honeymoon is that you just really don’t have that kind of time as you’re completely stressed with wedding crap (at least I was). Thankfully, we didn’t leave until Tuesday, so we had all day Monday for last minute shopping and packing. This made us a bit, um, frazzled. But, it worked out in the end. Even though I did have to recycle an outfit or two.

The morning we left, Bill logged into his Delta account to see what the upgrade situation and lo and behold, we had been upgraded. Hooray for having a significant other who spends way too much time away from home. Also, hooray for being able to arrive into Barcelona fairly well rested (though still really slimy feeling)

We checked into our hotel, the W Barcelona and were pleased to find out we were upgraded to a Cool Corner suite (honeymoon upgrade count: 2). The suite? Amazing. After scooping all the giant bottles of Bliss products into my bag, we took a little nap and headed out on the town.

My husband drank a giant beer, had his photo taken with a fabulous man and we had our first official Cava of the trip. (Dear Cava: I love you).

Then we ordered 40 plates of tapas (approximately). We arrived back to our hotel to find a complimentary bottle of Cava in our room (free bubbly count: 1), which we naturally drank while watching CNBC, otherwise known as the only channel in English on our television.

The next day, we went out to check out the fabulous La Boqueria market.
You guys. This place is ridiculous. Gorgeous produce, fresh fish, meats, little tapas bars…deliciousness all around. Bill had some meat and cheese on a stick, we each drank two of these yummy juices and we finally had the pimentos de padrones that we weren’t able to have at our wedding (screw you Portland weather for delaying the padrone crop). Also, we ate this and this.

We wandered around a bit more before heading back to grab our bags before boarding our ship. Now, you guys. I know many of you are not cruise people. On this cruise, our second…we officially became cruise people. This ship was amazing.

We checked into our quite spacious state room to find a bottle of champagne (free bubbly count: 2)

We wandered around for a bit – making dinner reservations, spa appointments and purchasing the very important drink package. Then, it was time to set sail!
Next up: Nice (be still my heart) and Corsica!

(also, more pictures of Barcelona here)