Earlier this year I visited Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. Join me in reliving the trip, recapping the very best parts, and how I'd do things differently if I ever visit again. 

This Barcelona {Overview} is the first in a series of three posts. Coming up next are Barcelona {The Sights} and Barcelona {The Food}.

I hope these posts will serve as a mini getaway for you and a useful guide if you'll soon be visiting Barcelona.

Barcelona is a huge city in Spain and a very popular tourist destination. While technically located in Spain, Barcelona is loyal to Catalonia. Catalonia was once separate from Spain and Barcelona was its capitol and largest city. While Catalonia and Barcelona are both folded into Spain now, you'll see signs of loyalty to Catalonia all over the city in the form of yellow ribbons. There are separate flags for Catalonia and Spain which often fly next to one another. I'm reminded most of Sicily where residents don't focus on being part of the larger Italian community.

That all being said, I was warned that Catalan is the primary language and that folks in Barcelona prefer to speak it over Spanish. Since I don't speak either, I was relieved that nearly everyone we encountered in Barcelona spoke or understood English to some extent. 

Barcelona is located on the water and has all of the charm of an old European city. It underwent a major makeover in advance of the 1992 Olympics which were held there. We learned that the sand and palm trees at the Barceloneta beach were all brought in from Egypt and other various locations around the world!

I didn't know much about Barcelona before this trip except that it's got a famous and expensive cured ham called jamon iberico and that the masterpiece of the city is "the church of our generation" called Sagrada Familia that's been under construction for decades and is still not finished! 

It was thrilling and satisfying to explore and get to know a place that was never before on my radar. Come along with me to Barcelona!

Two things that I LOVE are Disney and traveling. When visiting Disneyland Paris became a real possibility in my life I had to make it happen! Once we booked our trip to France and my husband, Bryce, was convinced (the real magic!) to spend a day at Disney, the very next steps I took were buying park tickets and making our dining reservations. 

Enjoy my 5 favorite things from the magic of Disneyland Paris, via this 'Fav 5' Travel Guide. If you ever find yourself in Disneyland Paris, I hope you'll enjoy visiting the best parts from my visit.

Disneyland Paris is about an hour's train ride outside of Paris proper. The park was originally called Euro Disney and it was the second Disney park to open outside of America, just after Disney Tokyo. Once I saw the Bucket List Family visit Disneyland Paris I knew I had to go! This was my first time visiting a park outside of America, while I've been to both Disneyland, in California, and Walt Disney World, in Florida, several times. 

There are two parks making up the Disneyland Paris: Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. My husband and I spent one day hopping back and forth between the two parks. Of all 5 Favs, only the Ratatouille ride and restaurant are from Walt Disney Studios Park. The other 4 are from Disneyland.

We considered staying at the Disneyland Hotel but the cost was nearly $1,000 per night!

The food was truly the highlight of our trip to Paris. We'd dreamt of street side cafes and macarons for months leading up to our trip and we were overwhelmingly delighted with the quality of food in Paris. 

Follow along on our journey to the many places where we collected fresh produce, sweet treats, and incredible restaurant meals across Paris. The added and unintentional bonus is your chance learn from our SEVERAL American traveler mistakes! This post is very long but includes tons of info and photos.

If you're here at Figs and Flights for the first time, please also enjoy the post on Paris {The Sights} and the basics of our trip via the Paris {Overview} post. Coming soon will be posts on Paris Disneyland, our cooking class in Paris, and visiting Normandy and Bayeux in France. 

The food in Paris was exceptional. We enjoyed colorful macarons, dainty French pastries, simple meals, and a delicious meal eaten in a historic train station. The seafood was fresh, the apricots were perfectly ripe, and figs and rainier cherries were spotted all across town.

​The food from our visit in Paris includes:

Markets:

• Fruit
• Seafood
• Horse meat!!

​
​Sweets:

• Sorbet at Berthillion
• Crepes
• Macarons from both Laudrèe and Pierre Hermè

​Restaurants:

• Bistro Dupleix
• Le Train Bleu
• Brasserie Mollard

There is so much to do and see in Paris! Deciding what to do, and what to skip, can be overwhelming, especially with limited time in the "City of Lights."

This post includes a list of the Paris sights that we saw, with photos and reviews for each. Hopefully this post will serve as your own little Paris tour or it will help to inspire your future visit. 

To see more about the basics of our trip, read the Paris Overview post. I'll be posting again soon with what we ate in Paris.

Paris is a feast for the eyes. Many of the scenes are exactly like the paintings and images you've seen a million times: cream colored buildings topped with blue grey awnings, and dotted with ornate iron balconies, charming shutters, and colorful flowers. There are huge and historic churches like Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur mixed with modern and geometric masterpieces like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre pyramid.  No design detail is spared. 

The sights from our visit in Paris include:

• The Eiffel Tower 
• The Louvre pyramid
• The Siene River and Pont des Arts (the former lock bridge)
• île de la Cité and Notre Dame
• Monmartre and Sacre Coeur 
• Galleries Layfayette 
• Overall Paris charm

Bonjour! We just visited Paris, France, for the very first time. While I'll do a full download of our favorite food and activities soon, I thought an immediate and basic overview of  our visit will be helpful to me in the future. Hopefully it will also be helpful for you!

Overall I LOVE love LOVED Paris and would and will go back again in a heartbeat. Our time there was not nearly long enough.