Philpott Family Adventures: European Vacation 2023 (Part Un)

My husband and I have been saying for years that we want to take our kids to France to visit family there, and also simply to experience a different culture (or cultures) while they're young. So when  one of Herb's longtime friends invited us to join them for a Bordeaux River cruise, we realized that this was the year we could make it happen. It took some finagling to get all the moving parts to work together, but in the end we had a fabulous itinerary that allowed the two of us to enjoy the adults-only cruise while our youngest kids (ages 11 and 13) spent time in Toulouse with their older sister and her boyfriend, their two older French cousins, and their French tatie (aunt) and her husband. 

Since the entire trip took nearly three weeks and covered three countries, I'll break it up into parts. We'll see how many parts it takes! 

(Note: Most of these photos are ones we took, but I've included a few pro or publicity shots to illustrate some shots we missed or weren't allowed to take.)

Part Un: Boston to Amsterdam to Toulouse to Bordeaux (Or, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles)

Sunday, June 18th

One roller bag and one backpack per person wasn't easy, but we didn't want to deal with checked bags on the plane or hauling a huge suitcase on trains or on foot, so we simplified as much as we could. And of course we had matching shirts (multiple colors and styles), because is it really a Philpott Family Adventure without PFA shirts? Also, take a good look at my hair, because this is the best it will look for the next three weeks. I did bring a curling iron and a French converter, but who wants to spend time fussing with your hair when you could be exploring France?

Our original plan was to fly from Boston to Paris and then from Paris to Toulouse, but it was a fairly tight connection and we were concerned about flight delays or long lines at passport control being an issue, so we found a different pair of flights through Amsterdam that left Boston at nearly the same time (about 5pm) but had a much easier connection. It was about a 7-hour flight to Amsterdam (landing at about 6am, due to the time change), then only about 2 more hours to Toulouse. My stepdaughter and her boyfriend, who travel internationally on a regular basis, stuck with the original connection and made it in plenty of time, but we enjoyed experiencing the Schiphol airport and not stressing over wrangling a teen and a tween through customs. 

Monday, June 19th

When we landed, we had enough time to go through customs, grab a cool drink, use the bathrooms, and just sit for a few minutes before they called our flight. The kids were fascinated by signs in both Dutch and English and the different sound of a crowd speaking mostly Dutch instead of English. Rather than a direct jetway from our gate, we hopped onto a shuttle bus that drove us out to the tarmac where we climbed the steps right onto the plane. 

When we arrived at the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, we didn't have to deal with passport control (thanks, EU!), so we hopped a cab to our AirBnB. We were astonished at both how narrow the streets were and how expertly all the drivers navigated them! You can't NOT be an expert driver and drive in France. There's so little room to spare that parked cars fold in their rearview mirrors - at one point we were about to pass a parked car that hadn't folded his mirror, and our driver rolled down his window and flipped it himself so he wouldn't hit it. The narrow streets and frequent curves and speed bumps keep the cars quite slow, but they also drive incredibly fast whenever they reach a clear area. They'll stop on a dime for a pedestrian with the right of way, though. (Might be half an inch from their shins, but they'll stop.) Remember the scene in Harry Potter when the Knight Bus is zooming through London and suddenly comes to a screeching halt for a little old lady in a zebra crossing? Not an exaggeration. 

Anyway, Rosemary and Nolan had arrived ahead of us and figured out the logistics of gates and keys and codes that we would learn is part and parcel of the European AirBnB experience. Our apartment was nestled in a little complex with a shared garden courtyard, with a sitting room and three bedrooms downstairs, and a kitchen, balcony, and more bedrooms upstairs. It even had air conditioning, which is somewhat unusual in that area, but which was much appreciated by these sweaty Americans!

With all 6 of us reunited, we left our bags behind and walked in search of lunch. Our apartment was in a residential area, but not far from a number of cafes, boulangeries, and other small shops and businesses. We found a burger restaurant called Le Malabar, and between Herb's rusty but quite passable French and some pointing and gesturing, we grabbed some cold drinks, ordered some food, and found seats at a sidewalk table. With my nearly complete lack of French, I soon learned that even with people who speak as much English as I do French, "bonjour," "merci," and a lot of pointing can nearly always get the job done. Practical note: Although we did get some Euros at one point, nearly everywhere we went we were able to use our American credit cards. The only time we used cash was either for our own convenience (like handing the kids 20 Euros to grab their own snacks) or on the rare occasion that a vendor's wonky internet connection prevented their card reader from working. Even the sketchiest street vendors have card readers! The burgers were excellent and came with a mountain of fries, enough to satisfy even our hollow-legged, 6-foot tall teenage boy.

Among the interesting random sights I spied in Toulouse were a cat riding in a car in a little hammock that was stuck to the passenger window with suction cups, a man waiting at a bus stop dressed perfectly normally but sporting a red clown nose, people carrying enormous flat rectangular bags that I later learned were bicycles, and a nun in full habit riding a bicycle with her wimple streaming out from underneath her bike helmet. (Bikes are a huge mode of transport here, in case that wasn't obvious.)

After lunch, we explored Toulouse a bit more and discovered the Jardin des Plantes, an ancient botanical garden with a small stream and waterfall, stone walls and iron gates, statuary surrounded by flowers, and the occasional rooster loudly and proudly announcing his presence.

Our nieces joined us for dinner in a different part of Toulouse (the younger, hipper part of town), at a restaurant they recommended called M. Georges. We were seated in a canopied area in the center of a square of restaurants and shops called Place Saint-Georges. With some help from our nieces translating the menu and communicating with our servers, we had a delicious meal including my daughter's first croque monsieur (a ham and cheese sandwich with broiled cheese on top) and a marvelous duck breast (magret de canard) for me. We realized at this point that the French serve French fries with EVERYTHING. Often in a metal bucket because there isn't enough room on the plate. Also, although some restaurants have free tap water, many only serve bottled water (still or sparkling), so you may need to pay for water. It is often served in a carafe that is left at the table, and without ice (which is "glace," pronounced "glahss"), but they frequently ask Americans if they would like ice, which is brought in an ice bucket for the table or in individual glasses if served with a bottled soda. With such wonderful - and often quite inexpensive - wines, it's understandable that water is drunk less often here than in the States. 

After dinner the girls gave us a tour of that part of Toulouse, including the City Hall ("Capitole") plaza and the Canal du Midi, which joins the Canal du Garonne to connect the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

After our tour, the 4 younger adults headed off to check out the local club scene and the four Acton Philpotts headed back to the apartment for some last-minute instructions from Mom and Dad for while we were on our cruise and some quick re-packing for the same.

Tuesday, June 20th

We showed the kids how to get to a local pastry shop, Artisan Boulanger, where we ordered croissants and my first of many marvelously strong yet miraculously never bitter cappuccinos. In my first "real" foray into speaking French, I bravely piped up, "Bonjour! Un croissant et un cappuccino, s'il vous plait!" and even had the presence of mind to understand, "Avec sucre?" ("With sugar?") and respond, "Oui, merci!"  

And then it was time for Herb and I to head off to the train station and wend our way through the bucolic French countryside to Bordeaux. The train was very comfortable, with seats that faced each other and small foldable tables between with both power and phone charging outlets, and free Wifi. The scenery going by included fields of wildflowers, especially vivid orange poppies, distant chateaux with terra cotta roofs, orchards, cornfields, the Canal du Midi, stucco and stone farmhouses, lots of crows, the occasional horse, and as we approached Bordeaux, plenty of vineyards. 

We arrived at the Gare du Nord station and found our way to our hotel, the Hotel Madame. We were greeted by a lovely English-speaking innkeeper and the resident dog, named Figaro. Our first floor room (which is the second floor to Americans, being one above the ground floor) was on the corner of the building and had French doors on each side for a wonderfully cool cross breeze that carried the smell of an amazing patisserie and roasted nut vendor next door right up to us. There was a huge marble arch just outside the window that led to a street lined with shops.  

Hotel Madame is the building on the right

We explored the shopping area and followed the road all the way to the riverfront, discovering along the way an umbrella canopy, a large Ferris wheel that gave us a terrific view of the city, a fountain with elaborate sculptures, a large tram system (that we used quite a bit later), and a series of riverboats, one of which we suspected was the one we'd be boarding the next day. The Garonne River is clean of pollution, but the soil is clay so it's very silty and brown. 

After our walk, we met up with one of the couples we'd be traveling with whom we hadn't met yet but who were also staying at Hotel Madame, and we joined them for dinner at a nearby restaurant that they had been to the previous evening, Hippopotamus (yes, really). We ate al fresco and enjoyed a lovely red wine (of course), and I had a duck confit that was absolutely delicious. As we were wrapping up, we got a message from the other three couples we would be with inviting us to join them for drinks at the rooftop bar of their hotel, the Intercontinental. We ended up having a lovely time getting to know each other (and sampling some more wonderful local wines) before we headed back to our respective hotels to get some sleep before we set sail the next afternoon.

Coming soon: Part Deux, All Aboard for Bordeaux!