Family Vacation in Saint Cyprien, France

We arrived on Saturday in Saint Cyprien, which is in the Roussillon region of southern France.

We are staying at the Hotel du Port, which has a great view of the … you guessed it: the port!

We love French food!!

First of all, it is great to be in southern France, where the food is fantastic. I haven’t been able to stop eating the delicious baguettes, pains de campagne, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, cheeses, and pains au chocolat. I also have had my fill of champagne and red and white wine in the few days since we have been here. So far, my favorite cheeses are Raclette and Pyrenees and I really enjoyed the bottle of Faugères red wine my husband picked up. I even tried some of the saucisson, and it was delicious!

The beach at Saint Cyprien Plage!

Saint Cyprien is a beach town, and in the summertime, fills up with beachgoers. It does have a lovely beach, with cool, clean, clear Mediterranean waters. The beach in Saint Cyprien is nice, but nothing super amazing. I personally prefer beaches with greenery, and the beach here is pure sand. I do like the view of the mountains in the background: you can see the Pyrenees in the distance. I also appreciate the fact that the beach is completely calm on some days and has waves on other, more windy days. I also like the length of the beach. It is about 1.5 miles long, and, late in the evening, it is possible to have a nice, relaxing walk along the beach.

Because of the lack of shade on the beach, I tend not to spend more than a couple of hours there each day. My kids often get bored going to the beach every day, so I decided to splurge a bit and buy them an inflatable boat, complete with rows! That was a wise choice, as it is much easier to extract them from the house with the promise of a boat ride! Otherwise, my ten-year old twins and seven-year old would be content staying at home all day playing on their iPods and laptops.

While we are here, we are trying to find a good balance between relaxing and getting around to see the rest of the region. There are more natural and beautiful beaches in neighboring towns that we plan to explore. And, the Pyrenees mountains are absolutely amazing. We are thinking of ways to spend more time there during our stay here.

From Barcelona to St. Cyprien, with a Pit Stop in Girona

On Saturday, we left Barcelona to go to St. Cyprien, France. We thought we would stop in Girona on the way, as I have heard it is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. I am very glad we decided to stop.

The train ride from Barcelona to Girona was packed, standing room only. We boarded at Clot, meaning we did not get seats. Next time we travel to Girona on a Saturday, we will make sure to leave from Sants and get there early!

With a little persistence, however, I managed to get a seat! I spotted a man on the train with his luggage in the seat next to him. Not wanting to stand for the 90 minute ride, I asked him if the seat was occupied. He said it was, with his luggage. I pointed out that he could put his luggage in the aisle where I was standing and I could sit down. He agreed, and I sat down, with Raymi on my lap. Two seats for people, and one less for luggage!

The train ride went well. It was short, and the scenery was quite nice along the way. My ten year old twins were thoroughly entertained with their iPod touches, and I read stories on my Kindle to my seven year old. Thank goodness for electronic devices!

Once we arrived in Girona, we ventured out towards the historic center in search of a “menu” – an inexpensive prix-fixe lunch menu. The train station is about five blocks from the historic center. We made it to the famous Pont Pedra, and turned right towards the Plaza Catalunya. Close to there, we found a restaurant with a decent menu at a reasonable price – 13 euros. As a bonus, they had pizza!

The restaurant was Catalonian, the bartender Chinese, and the server Cuban – quite the multi-ethnic place. Nando ordered a plate of butifarra with kiwi as an appetizer, and I had a tortilla with salmon and garlic. Mine was quite a bit more interesting. We both had merluza or lluç – a white fish- for the main course. It was grilled to perfection and quite tasty. For dessert, we ordered chocolate cake and tira misu, which the girls devoured.

In Spain, a lunch menu comes with wine, so the waiter put two bottles of wine on the table. Nando and I made it through a bottle and a half of wine, meaning we were in quite a good mood after lunch. A nice long walk was just what we needed to walk off the wine. Girona is the perfect town to walk around in.

Girona was built hundreds of years ago, with narrow streets. One thing I have learned by spending the summer in Catalonia is that narrow streets are much cooler than wide ones. Tall buildings on narrow streets provide ample shade and a cool breeze. This made walking up the many stairs around the historic center much more pleasant.

I walked with my daughters through the old town and up to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is an impressive structure, with a few flights of white stone stairs leading up to it. Short on time, we didn’t go inside. A couple of hours in Girona was just enough time to walk around the narrow streets, up and down the old staircases, and through the narrow arches. As a treat, I took the girls to a “2 euro” store, which is kind of like a dollar store, but where everything costs 2 euros – about 3 dollars.

At the 2 euro store, Soraya got a straw hat, Tatiana a keychain flashlight, and Raymi a small toy keychain. I even got a new wallet, as I lost mine in Sitges a few weeks ago.

Soon, it was time to go back to the train station. Four hours in Girona was pretty short, especially because of our long lunch. But, it was definitely a great way to break up the trip from Barcelona to France.

The train took us to Cerbere, and from there we took another train to Elne. In Elne, my sister in law picked us up to take us to St. Cyprien, where she lives. The ride along the northernmost coast of Spain was very scenic. We made it to St. Cyprien, a lovely seaside town, by 7pm, where my sister-in-law had prepared a delicious seafood stew for us.