Our last morning in Paris was spent doing the real-life jobs that so rudely interrupt the fantasy of travel...namely doing laundry (and trying to figure out how to use a French laundromat...an embarrassing experience which ended up with our hotel maid coming across the street to help us). We savoured our last Parisian moments at Cafe Constant, our favourite cafe that we had discovered on our last trip.
We decided to take the high-speed train to Barcelona, rather than the 1 1/2hr flight, as we really wanted the time to relax on a train and to take in the views of the French countryside. The journey was 7 hours in total, with one quick transfer. We had no regrets. The scenery was stunning! Just outside of Paris we saw rolling green fields dotted by crumbling stone cottages. As we got further south, the landscape looked very much like the landscapes in many of the Van Gogh paintings we'd scene....field after field of sunflowers, lavender, and wildflowers, interrupted on the rolling horizon by church steeples. Still further south, the landscape changed again...palm trees in the foreground standing in contrast to the looming Pyrenees mountains in the background. Coming out of tunnel to see the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean in the south of France was pretty breathtaking. It was a peaceful and pleasant journey, allowing us to sightsee while giving our tired feet a day to recover.
As we neared Barcelona, it occurred to me that we have essentially seen a cross-section of Europe on this trip, drawing a nearly straight line down from Amsterdam in the north to Barcelona in the south. It has been a little geography lesson just to watch the changing landscapes and to see how the cultures of each country are a reflection of the land. The air in Barcelona was warm and velvety as we stepped of the train...about 27 degrees at 8:00pm. Yikes!