We officially had our first family vacation with our 11-month old and we did not hold back one bit! My husband and I have always been adventurous together and we decided to include the infant on the adventure. We of course tend to plan our trips around food and some places are a lot easier than others to do so. This trip was most certainly one of those trips, especially since we were going to explore some of Basque Country.

Many people think because we are chefs we must eat “fancy” food all the time. WRONG! The first words to come out of my husbands mouth while planning the vacation were, “I don’t want to eat any ‘funny’ food, just good local food.” By “funny food” he meant fine dining and molecular cooking. Now you have to understand for years my husband worked, lived and breathed this type of cooking. He worked in thekitchen known for its “funny food” El Bulli, in Spain. He has also working in a number of world famous fine dining kitchens like Vue de Monde in Australia and Per Se in New York.

Therefore with that simple motto in mind I jumped on it. We were to fly in to Barcelona, rent a car and I was free to plan our trip from there. I say “I” because I wear the “tour operator” pants in the couple. Each person brings his/her own strengths to a marriage and that just so happens to be one of mine. After road tripping in Europe a month prior I figured let’s go for it and see a little of France again too. We just had to make sure we were back at the Barcelona airport in two weeks to catch our flight home.

Since I have friends in the Bordeaux area, Pomerol to be exact, I contacted them to see if any of them would be around. Lucky for us, they were. And boy did we hit the jackpot in regards to the timing of our trip, I’ll explain later. Therefore, Pomerol would be as far north as we would go. Keeping my daughter in mind while planning the trip, she tends to do well in the car for up to 3 hours, 4 hours max. Using Google Maps I then decided where good stopping places would be. We did the following:

Barcelona: 2 nights

Toulouse: 1 night

Pomerol 3 nights

Saint-Emilion: day trip

Bordeaux: day trip

Biarritz: 1 night

Lourdes and Pau: day trip

San Sebastian: 2 nights

Pamplona: day trip

Zaragoza: 1 night

Castelldefels: 1 night

We may have been moving a lot but it never felt stressful or tiring. I think it really helped that we stayed with our friends in one place for 3 nights and my daughter got to play with our friend’s daughter, so that was fun.

When we arrived in Barcelona it was hot. We all were jetlagged. We decided to keep our nap to a minimum and made sure we made it to the Barcelona soccer game in time. My husband is a huge fan so this was definitely on the bucket list. It was a good game but getting into the game came with a surprise. “Excuse me sir, but you need a ticket for the infant, “ the guy at the gate told my husband. Wait, what!?!? A ticket for an 11-month old?!? Seriously you have to be kidding me! But they were not kidding. Luckily we found a guy selling his son’s season ticket seat for only 25€.Otherwise we would have paid like 70€ for the ticket. We enjoyed ourselves though and then found some dinner. Thank God everyone is Spain eats super late. Our hotel was in a more residential neighborhood but we were able to find a place that was open until midnight. And the food was good.

After a few days of eating, sightseeing, eating, walking and eating again we started to make our way up north. Unfortunately the night I parked on the street in Toulouse, someone broke our window while we were parked on the side of the street, but we didn’t let that ruin our vacation. Thank God for insurance and we exchanged the car and continued on our way up to Pomerol. Many people have heard of Petrus, yeah the wine that’s like over $2,000.00 a bottle. Well it comes from the small region of Pomerol. My friend we stayed with runs her family vineyard in Pomerol. It’s been in the family since 1830 and we just so happened to be there days few days before the harvest. It was gorgeous to say the least. We tried the grapes straight off the vine and we got to drink some of their amazing wine alongside some tasty dinners.

Not only did they share their wine, but their parenting hacks as well. We picked up some new tricks and how to make parenting life a little less stressful. It was cool to see how they do things with their daughter. I most certainly took their advice and gave my daughter the end of the baguette to chew on for her teething and enjoyment. We realized how much she really loved this when we went to walk around Bordeaux for the day. I was grateful for the time spent with my friend and her family; and to be able to share with my husband a side of the France, most people do not get to experience.

Wine country to the Atlantic Coast, our next stop was Biarritz. My friends have an apartment down there so they know the lay of the land. We ended up finding a fantastic market where we ended up eating a freshly roast chicken and croissants for a late breakfast. We brought it down to the beach and enjoyed the waves and few surfers in the ocean.

The original plan was to go directly from Biarritz to San Sebastian back in Spain, but we ventured a little over 2 hours back inland instead to Lourdes. When I grew up I remember hearing about a holy place with healing waters. The Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl 18 times, first in 1858. I was always fascinated and curious with what I heard about this town. So we loaded up the car and went to see for ourselves. It was most certainly a special place. There is a sense of peace and calm there that I rarely encounter. People from all over the world pilgrim here and there are nurses, priests and volunteers there helping people around, praying for you and just willing to strike up a friendly conversation. There is mass almost every hour in one, or a many of the different churches and chapels. No need to worry about language barriers either because masses are held in multiple languages. It was most certainly worth the trip.

On our way down to San Sebastian that evening we ended up stopping in Pau for a lovely dinner and an incredible view of the Pyrenees Mountains. We arrived in San Sebastian late, we were all tired, my daughter was cranky , needless to say we were happy to see a bed. The hotel staff cheerfully grabbed our bags, offered us adults a complimentary glass of Mumm Champagne and quickly helped us to our room. I’d say our stay in San Sebastian started of stellar. Lasala Plaza Hotel, a newer hotel, was perfectly located in the heart of the old city, on La Concha Bay. The view and the location receive top marks since it’s in the old city with tons of good places to eat and a 5-minute walk to the beach. Food everywhere is San Sebsatian, it’s hard to have a bad meal here. We went for a lot of seafood when dining, on top of the their delicious ham of course.  A few restaurants have all the fresh catch of the day on display. These places were not fancy either, here it’s about the product, as it should always be! We fed our daughter most of what we were eating and she gobbled it up. It took me less than 12 hours to realize this city is now one of my favorite places.

La Concha Bay has a nice boardwalk and a killer beach. The tide is really something to see though. When the tide is out, you can walk on the sand the entire length of the boardwalk, but when it’s in? When the tide is in, it looks like there are two small beaches, as the beach gets divided in two. At the end of September we were still able to enjoy a day on the beach with 80°F weather. The hotel even arranged a nice sailboat ride for us in the bay. Our captain was born and raised In San Sebastian. He gave us a lot of history about the city and talked to us about present day life. I also now have a list of things to do and see when we go back, including surrounding towns to visit.

Sad to leave the beach, we headed inland for a quick stop to see the city know for the run of the bulls, Pamplona. Once a year people are crazy enough to run through the streets with bulls all the way to the bullring. It takes about 3 minutes and yes people get hurt. That was our pit stop on our way top spend one night in Zaragoza before having to fly out in 2 days. Zaragoza, a major city in the heart of Spain is about halfway from San Sebastian to Barcelona, so it made perfect sense.  We enjoyed a lamb dinner, visited the Basilica of Our Lady Pillar and the Aljaferia Palace, with its beautiful Islamic architecture. After one day of site seeing I drove, ham sandwich in hand, to the outskirts of Barcelona, Castelldefels on the Mediterranean Sea. This beach town was dead when we arrived around 7 pm, but it sure came to life around 10pm. Apparently this was the place to be and eat. We enjoyed one last Spanish dinner and then enjoyed one last stroller on the beach before driving 15 minutes to the airport.

After almost two full weeks of traveling we were sad it was over. We saw the sites, ate good food, enjoyed the company of friends without worrying too much if it was going to interfere with our daughters nap time/ “schedule.” It’s easy to do that as parents. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean your life is over. You can still travel and be adventurous. Some things will be modified, but we learned to enjoy new ways of doing things. And I know, as our daughter gets older, this will be a special gift that we get to give her. Nothing fills your life more than traveling the world, experiencing new cultures and meeting new people.  Sometimes traveling the world means driving an hour or two away from where you live and exploring life there. Please don’t let having young children stop you from taking new adventures.