Després de l'excursió, volem seure i menjar pa prop del riu.

Because in Catalan, the feminine singular article la usually drops its a before a vowel or silent h. This is called elision.

So:

• la excursió → l'excursió

This is very similar to how French works with forms like l'école.

Here, excursió is a feminine noun, so the full article would be la, but before e- it becomes l'.

Després de means after.

In this sentence, it introduces what happens earlier:

• Després de l'excursió = After the excursion / After the hike

A useful pattern is:

• després de + noun
• després de + infinitive

Examples:

• després de classe = after class
• després de menjar = after eating

So here, després de l'excursió sets the time frame for the rest of the sentence.

The phrase Després de l'excursió is an introductory time expression. Catalan often separates this kind of opening phrase with a comma, especially in clear written style.

So the structure is:

• Després de l'excursió, = introductory time phrase
• volem seure i menjar pa... = main clause

English does the same thing very often:

• After the hike, we want to sit down and eat bread near the river.

Volem is the 1st person plural present tense of voler, which means to want.

So:

• jo vull = I want
• tu vols = you want
• ell/ella vol = he/she wants
• nosaltres volem = we want
• vosaltres voleu = you all want
• ells/elles volen = they want

In this sentence, volem means we want.

Because after voler (to want), Catalan normally uses another verb in the infinitive, just like English does.

So:

• volem seure = we want to sit down
• volem menjar = we want to eat

And with two actions:

• volem seure i menjar = we want to sit down and eat

This is very natural Catalan structure:

• Vull dormir = I want to sleep
• Volem caminar = We want to walk

Seure means to sit or to sit down.

Catalan also has related forms like asseure and asseure's in some explanations or dialectal contexts, which can make learners pause. For everyday learning, the important thing is:

• seure = to sit down / to sit

In this sentence, volem seure means we want to sit down.

English uses sit for both be seated and move into a seated position, but Catalan often uses seure for the action of sitting down.

Because prop normally combines with de:

• prop de = near

So first you get:

• prop de el riu

Then Catalan contracts de + el into del:

• de + el → del

That gives:

• prop del riu

This is a very common contraction in Catalan. Compare:

• de + el → del
• de + els → dels

They are very close in meaning. Both can mean near the river.

• prop del riu = near the river
• a prop del riu = near the river / close to the river

In many contexts, they are interchangeable. Learners will often see both prop de and a prop de. The version in your sentence, prop del riu, is completely natural.

Because pa here is being used in a general, non-specific sense: bread as food, not a particular loaf.

So:

• menjar pa = to eat bread

This is similar to English, where we often say eat bread rather than eat the bread, unless we mean a specific bread already known in the conversation.

If you wanted to refer to specific bread, you could use an article:

• menjar el pa = eat the bread

Riu is pronounced roughly like REE-oo, but as one smooth syllable sequence rather than two strongly separate English syllables.

A few notes:

• r in Catalan is not like the English r
• iu forms a glide-like ending
• the word is typically stressed on the only syllable sound group

For an English speaker, ree-oo is a helpful approximation, but the real Catalan pronunciation is smoother and more compact.

The main structure is:

• Després de l'excursió, = time expression
• volem = main verb
• seure i menjar = infinitives depending on volem
• pa = object of menjar
• prop del riu = place expression

So the core sentence is:

• volem seure i menjar pa prop del riu

Catalan word order is often similar to English here:

• we want to sit and eat bread near the river

The time phrase is simply moved to the front for context:

• After the excursion, ...

It can often mean more than the formal English word excursion suggests.

Depending on context, excursió can refer to:

• an outing
• a trip
• an excursion
• a hike

So in a sentence like this, many English speakers might naturally understand it as after the hike or after the outing, depending on the situation. The Catalan word is a bit broader in everyday use than English excursion often is.