Au Revoir France, Hola España
- Charlotte Martin
- Mar 22
- 12 min read
Clementine decided to wake up at 6 this morning instead of her usual 6:45. We rolled with it, as we needed her to get a long nap in the portable crib before we traveled the rest of the day to Spain. Our flight wasn’t until 3:45 out of Marseilles, so we could relax that morning and get everything packed.
We were flying a budget airline to Spain because it was direct to Sevilla, but as I started trying to figure out how many kilograms of luggage I paid for versus how many kilograms we were bringing with us, I started to panic a little tallying up €14 times each extra kg 😮💨 I guess this is why Brennan kept getting annoyed every time I bought another bottle of wine at a grape farm 😅
Sure enough, Clementine got in a good hour and fifteen minute nap and it was time for us to hit the road. It was over an hour drive to the harbor side restaurant I found in Marseille. Driving into Marseille was…interesting. Graffiti everywhere and it looked much more like a modern city than anywhere we had been in Provence. The waterside area was very touristy, but had a great view of the Notre Dame de la Garde - a 19th century Catholic basilica constructed on a rocky outcrop 531ft above sea level.
Bren and I both got burgers for lunch, preparing for food in Sevilla to be similar to that in Florence…a lot of the same types of cuisine everywhere you go in the city/very little variety. Both cities eat a lot of cured meat and I knew Sevilla has a lot of tapas that likely wouldn’t be something we would want to eat every day (croquetas, jamón, olives, tortilla de patata). Silas of course eats his signature chicken nuggets from the plat enfant.
We drop the rental car off and start making the long trek (with all our luggage) to terminal 2…the budget terminal 😅 it’s pretty busy as we are trying to make our way to the ticket counter. The good news was she tallied up all our paid checked bags kilograms instead of each bag having to meet the 20 or 23kg weight. The bad news was we were 9kg overweight… €126 in overweight bagged fees 🥴 the other fun part about budget airlines is once they tag your bags, you then get to take them another 100 yards or so and drop them off yourself. We were very happy to be rid of all our checked luggage at that point and headed to security. They were a little more strict here than in Florence, but definitely not as bad as Spain. I made sure they knew I had baby formula and water that was on the warmer before it went through but they still flagged it. Then security took the bottle off the warmer to “test it”. We should’ve just thrown it out because at that point t the water was unusable. Brennan and I are frustrated to say the least, but they finally clear us to go through.
One bright spot was there was a Starbucks in the terminal! I realized I hadn’t had Starbucks since leaving the states…and it’s an almost daily occurrence back home for me. I grab an iced coffee right before we head to our gate to board.
The boarding is also an interesting process. We all get our tickets scanned then line up inside an enclosed area. We definitely feel like cattle at this point. We’re trying to get the stroller in the waterproof bag to gate check it, and Clementine in the baby carrier as we wait and I ended up knocking my iced coffee off the little partition and it spilled EVERYWHERE. We had nothing to clean it with and they were continuously letting people into this small room. I told the gate agent and she said she would call a janitor. It was a good 10 minutes of basically 80 people avoiding us and our area like the plague until the janitor finally came to clean it up. We were definitely “those Americans” at that point 🤣
They finally open up the barn doors and we walk out to the plane. Half the plane boards through the front door, half through the back door. You would think this would be a more efficient way of boarding but you would be wrong.
We get settled in our seats and Clementine is super fussy. We need to change her diaper but thanks to the rear boarding, it’s impossible for us to get to the bathrooms. So we wait until boarding is complete and thankfully the flight attendant let Brennan go change her before we took off. After we took off, Clementine continued to be super fussy as she was now tired and ready for a nap. Again, we were “those Americans” who couldn’t stop their baby from screaming for 10 straight minutes until she finally fell asleep. Towards the end of the flight, Silas needs to use the bathroom. I’m unfortunately sitting in the middle with Clementine so Brennan has to lift Silas up to get around us. He takes him to the bathroom and as they are walking back to the seat, the flight attendant is trying to get Brennan’s attention…he forgot to pull up Silas’s pants! I guess traveling really does take up all our brain power 🤣
We land in Sevilla and are the last people off the plane. I go ahead of Brennan and Silas with Clementine and see her stroller on the tarmac. An airport worker kindly helps me get it out of the bag so I can put her in it. It’s always comforting to be around nice people! Our pre-booked taxi driver is sending me texts that she is waiting for us in the lobby and I texted her letting her know we have 4 passengers and 4 suitcases…just in case her car isn’t big enough. When we get to her with all our luggage, her eyes got really big and she mentions needing an autobus 🤣 we did get everything to fit thankfully, and we are off to our VRBO.
My parents are meeting us in Sevilla but unfortunately had the travel day from hell. They were delayed leaving the US so they missed their connection to Sevilla and got rerouted to Almería (where even is that?) THEN Sevilla, and weren’t going to land until 8:45pm.
We got into the VRBO, gave both kids baths and put Clementine down. Brennan quickly found that UberEats had a lot of food options here as well as grocery delivery. Score!! We order food and stock up on groceries as Silas decompresses from the day by watching “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” aka “cookie mouse”. We put Silas to bed and my parents arrive about an hour later, thankfully with their checked luggage!
We chatted for a bit, then all went to bed. My parents had been traveling for 24 hours and needed to get on Europe time quickly! We didn’t see much of Sevilla that day, but we have a whole week ahead of us.
The next morning, we all woke up and got around slowly. It’s still pitch dark at 6:45am, which is usual compared to our last two cities, so I decide to look it up. All 3 cities we have visited are in the same time zone, yet the sun rose in Florence at 6:15am, Saint Remy at 6:45am and Sevilla? Doesn’t rise until 7:30am!!!! Now how can we get our kids to sleep in a little later here?!
Silas was thrilled to have his Deedee and Pappy in his “Spain house”. We had tickets to get into the Catedral de Sevilla and Giralda Tower at 11:15, so we wanted to make sure everyone had a good breakfast and Clementine had her nap before we left. As she napped, everyone went downstairs to a little cafe to eat and I stayed in the apartment with her, working on my full-time job (this blog). When she woke up, it was time to walk over to the catedral. Unfortunately, it was raining (the only day it was supposed to rain in Spain), but luckily I had my waterproof stroller cover and we had a few umbrellas too.
My mom mentions it first - the sweet honeysuckle-esque smell as we are walking on the sidewalk lined with blossoming orange trees. Sevilla has orange trees and palm trees all over the city and it’s also incredibly clean (especially compared to Florence).
We get to the Catedral and while we have timed-entry tickets, we get in a pretty long line to get in. Luckily, it wasn’t pouring, just an annoying drizzle. Silas is happy he has his waterproof boots on so he can splash in the puddles. Of course Clementine gets hungry as we are waiting in line, but we are always prepared for that!
We finally get into the cathedral and start exploring. I didn’t book a guided tour but between the signs and Claude, we learned what we needed to know.
The cathedral is the largest gothic-style cathedral in the world and 3rd largest cathedral overall. It took over a century to complete and was finally finished in 1506.
There are 80 chapels in the cathedral. It was impossible to explore them all, but we did our best!
Another fun fact about the cathedral - it houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus! Remember - he sailed under the Spanish flag when he discovered the Americas.
We then decided to climb the 35 ramps up the Giralda Tower - now the church’s bell tower, originally a 12th century mosque’s minaret. It was built with ramps so that a rider could quickly ride a horse to the top five times a day to call the city to prayer. There is no chance Silas would’ve climbed 35 flights of stairs but he gladly walked up 35 ramps, stopping in as many windows as he possibly could.
We got to the top and it was super crowded! Snapped a few photos before we went back down. I got the luck of the draw to carry Clementine the whole way down while Brennan carried Silas…I think I got the better deal!
When we got back to the ground floor, Clementine made sure we knew it was nap time. We snapped a few more photos before walking the 7 minutes back to our apartment.
As we left the cathedral and walked back toward our apartment, Brennan and I agreed that if we didn’t know any better, we could be in Coral Gables instead of Sevilla: Giralda tower (the real one), palm trees and fruit trees, an old hotel that reminds us of the Biltmore, Spanish architecture, men in suits chatting away in Spanish as they walk to lunch…and I start to wonder if I had never studied abroad in Sevilla, would I have ever moved to Miami by myself? Would I have the life I have today had I not lived in this beautiful city 15 years ago?
As we kept walking, I started to worry about lunch. In France, the kitchen closes at two — no exceptions — and we were cutting it close. I mentioned it, but there was no debate. Clementine needed her crib nap, and Silas, without any prompting, was thrilled at the idea of napping with his Pappy. Brennan and my mom went to the grocery store and bought sandwich stuff, chips, more waters, some beer and wine…for a grand total of €42! Just can’t get over how cheap everything is here. We sat down at the table and ate our sandwiches and my favorite chips — which Silas immediately claimed as his own. Totally my son.
I think our lunchtime agreement was 3 bites of yogurt then 1 chip 🤣 he was okay with it!
He fell asleep with his Pappy and Clementine snoozed with Brennan until 3:30. Once everyone was up and around, we headed out to explore more of the city. We quickly learn that lunch is served from 2-4 in Sevilla…2-4!!! And that most kitchens are closed from 4-8:30pm. Lunch had slipped past us entirely, and dinner was still hours away — so we did the only sensible thing…just surrendered to the city.
As we were walking the narrow streets, so many emotions and memories came flooding back to me. The streets are TINY and street names are hard to find. 15 years ago when I was here studying abroad, I got lost every single day trying to find my school for at 2 weeks! Remember, GPS on phones didn’t exist back then. Not only did the memory of getting lost on Spanish streets return to me, but so did the charm of wandering the ancient streets of Sevilla. Again, I’m going to lean into the spiritual feeling of this experience. The streets are alive with laughter, socializing, smoking…and buzzing with life, not unlike Florence a couple weeks ago.
If you imagine right now what you think walking through Spanish streets would be like…what do you envision? Probably what you envision is exactly what we were experiencing. Beautiful architecture, tiny streets that a standard car can barely fit through, bodegas and cafes lining both sides of the street. Before long, we come to a plaza with a kid’s playground in the middle, surrounded by tapas bars. I do faintly recall this neighborhood being a divey bar neighborhood when I lived here 15 years ago, but it’s definitely been cleaned up to be more of a family area now.
As Silas explores the playground, mom and I walk to a cafe with Clementine. I order two “tinto de veranos”…what I recall as the signature drink of Sevilla. The bartender eagerly pours two glasses mostly filled with of red wine on ice, and then tops it with lemon soda.
Silas comes over to the table after playing for a bit and does a bunch of silly things to make his sister laugh. He is really the only person on earth that can get a belly laugh out of her. He says the funniest things and does the silliest dances, and she just eats it up and cackles. Clementine is also very vocal lately, making her presence known everywhere we go. Sometimes she growls (I faintly remember Silas also making some sort of growly monster voice too), sometimes she yells MAMAMAMA (may be the first baby ever to say mama before dada), and a lot of the time she just says LALALALA (her Lala is proud)!
We’re all getting hungry and this cafe’s kitchen is closed until 8:30pm, so I ask the waitress for the check. She brings it and the total is €4! I’m a little taken aback by how cheap it is, and then I just get wound up about how expensive everything is in America and how everyone is okay with it! Truly, we forget how most of the world lives - with small inconveniences and a much cheaper cost of living overall.
We walk around until we find a tapas bar with their kitchen open. It might have been a bit touristy, but we didn’t care. We ordered a few tapas plates (Spanish tortilla, croquetas, duck, tuna tartare), the kid’s chicken nuggets for Silas, and 2 bottles of wine. Of course during the meal Clementine needs a diaper chance and we have yet to find a baby changing station anywhere in Sevilla…so we rolled the stroller to the back of the restaurant for some privacy as we changed her. Silas enjoyed his nuggets as well as the Spanish tortilla with shrimp, and Clementine even indulged in the chicken croquetas! Alas, it was time for the check and we all agreed that €80 for multiple tapas and two bottles of wine was the best deal we’ve had in a long time.
The sun is finally starting to set as we walk back to our apartment. We pass no less than 6 ice cream shops (all busy) on the way back and finally succumb at a shop close to our apartment. This is when Clementine gets her first bite of ice cream…coconut - mommy’s favorite.
Both kids get a bath (or really just a spray down with the shower head since there is no drain plug here), and Clementine is off to bed. We put on 101 Dalmatians to watch with Silas as the fsmily movie night vacation tradition continues. He cuddles with me and Brennan, and then with Deedee on the couch. These are truly the moments I want to bottle up and keep forever.
Once the movie is over, he gives his hugs and kisses and starts to run off to bed, but not before he stops at the couch, sticks out his butt and toots! Everyone laughed so hard - my parents thought he was behaving just like a Bowsher but little do they know he’s behaving exactly like his father too 🤣
I’ll admit, I was worried about Sevilla being our last stop — and I know it wouldn’t have topped my parents’ travel list had I not asked them to come with us a few months ago. I explained to them that this will likely be my last time visiting this city that was so transformative in my life, and it would mean a lot for them to experience it with me. They agreed to come, I think a bit reluctantly.
But this city has yet to disappoint. The cathedral alone stopped us in our tracks, its history and sheer mass emanating over the entire city. The aroma of orange blossoms followed us all through the pristine yet bustling streets. And the energy - I realize that’s become something of a theme in this blog - that particular charge of an old, powerful city has given us exactly what we needed to close out this long European journey.
¡Viva España! 🇪🇸💃🏼
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