Second Part Of The Europe Road Trip - France
After spending a few wonderful summer weeks in the north of Germany with family, friends, the conversion of Lenny and unfortunately some not so nice moments, it was time to say goodbye to the north and from now on our journey was only southwards. But first things first, because we met up with our friends and marriage witnesses Nina & Manu in beautiful Alsace, where they have rented a lovely shack with its own lake.
During the drive from Northern Germany to Alsace we got more and more excited to see them again because the last time we saw each other in real it was at our wedding in Cape Town in 2017 where they were our witnesses. All the more we were looking forward to two amazing days at this idyllic place (apart from the mosquitoes ;-)) with lots of time to talk and relax.
As we had so much to talk we wanted to stay at that beautiful Airbnb. That’s why we just went quickly to the next supermarket to buy some food.
We didn't want to prepare anything big to eat, everybody agreed to get some delicious baguettes from the the local bakery and of course a lot of cheese and wine. So we could spend loads of hours with good conversations and laughters without much action. Oh how we have missed that kind of nights. Besides we were allowed to finally meet Kiwi, the charming and beautiful lady dog of Nina & Manu.
Next day we enjoyed the little lake by the house and having a lot of swims. It was so romantic and quite, just perfect to relax. In the evening we got local Flammkuchen, which is a delicacy in that area of France and of course more wine.
The next morning and after two wonderful days in Alsace it was time to get everything ready to hit the road again and to say goodbye to our friends. Sad that the time with those lovely people will end soon, we have filled up our water tanks and at noon we continued our journey southwest across France direction Dijon.
After only a few hours on the road, we found a quiet and beautiful campsite between Dijon and Chalon-sur-Saône, directly on the river named Doubs.
Although we had found a nice spot directly on the riverbank, we decided to move the car because after a short walk in the area, what I did when Dani had a drone session at the river, I had found a marvelous spot directly at a small lake and in the middle of a meadow with free-range cows. This spot was only reachable by a small field path. Since the first spot was nice but directly on a gravel path, we decided, after Dani’s drone session, to quickly wrap everything and to drive to the lake. It was worth it in any case.
Now it was finally time to try out our new kitchen set up for the first time, what I have been keenly waiting for. What can I say, it was so much better, more comfortable and so much more fun to cook like never before, not only because of the beautiful surroundings but mainly based on their own gained experience of the guys from “Die Bootsmaufaktur”. They were able to produce a well considered camping kitchen by created 2 large and long drawers on heavy duty drawer slides, so that the drawer on the left side can be filled with the complete kitchen utensils plus enough food and in the right drawer is space for the sink, fresh water, grey tanks and the gas stove including several gas bottles.
The left drawer is internally divided into different sized sections, which was made by sliding wooden dividers.The backmost box is the largest, where all our kitchen utensils are stored. Then we bought a bamboo flatware box and a small spice rack, which was attached to the upper part of the dividers of the front boxes.
Since there was almost no more space to integrate the gas stove in the right drawer, the guys from the “Die Bootsmanufaktur” have built another smaller sub-drawer, in order not to give away the free space that was under the sink, which was a really good idea! Because the gas stove fits exactly in there and could be placed without being fixed, due to the fact that the drawer was measured and build for the stove. What I particularly like is that the gas stove is not fixed installed, so we can take it out and put it depending on the wind direction somewhere else. That’s great! Also a good feature is, when the left drawer is completely slide out and the right drawer is slide in, while the sub-drawer, where the gas stove is inside, is still open, the gas stove is from the left drawer protected from the wind. You can’t see it here on the pics, because we had a windless evening. But I can tell you, instead of no wind we had some real mosquitos issues.
After we had successfully inaugurated our new kitchen and had a delicious sunset dinner by the lake with mosquitos, night fell and the cows, which were still grazing on the other side of the meadow came closer during the night. Early in the morning they even crept around our car, so that we woke up from their smacking. But the frogs also performed not a bad concert.
Thanks God, we now have the possibility to sleep inside, so the frog concert didn’t bother us.
Wonderful country life!!!!!
Therefore we woke up earlier than we thought so we were sooner on the road towards Bordeaux than we planed, which was actually quite nice. Because we would like to stay overnight at a vineyard, as we had heard that it’s possible to get a pitch on the property of a vintner for free, in return you should join the wine tasting and buy some wines. Since I’m a real wine lovers, this seemed to me like a good plan. That’s why it would be great if we have some time after we arrive.
Off to the next stopover we continued westward after the breakfast. We passed the Volcans d’Auvergne Natura Park with the Chaîne des Puys, chain of volcanic mountains.
Just before Bordeaux we left the highway to avoid the heavy traffic jam of the big city and to get to our new campsite, which will be at a vineyard in the middle of the world famous wine growing region of Bordeaux.
We have found a nice place at the estate of the vintner Arnaud de Jacquemeau winery near the medieval town of Saint-Emilion.
After we were kindly welcomed by an old lady and instructed where to park, we visited the wine tasting. We could taste three organic wines, which were very delicious red and rose wines.
After the degustation we could acquire a few bottles of rose and one red wine. The prices were on average 15€ each.
We could spend the night free of charge directly on the vines and we could even use the toilet. In the evening at sunset we took a walk through the vineyards along old stone houses so that took us back into the past.
If you want to discover the real France, then this place is just perfect for a stay of one or two nights. You also have a 30 min walk to the very old town of St. Emilio. I can highly recommend to visit that location. It’s a real pleasure having places like this, when you are traveling overland.
Our next stop will not be so country life loaded, since we would like to visit the Outlet Mile of Hossegor, a big shopping mile, where you can buy surf clothes, surf boards, wetsuits and everything the surfer's heart desires at favorable prices.
There we shall meet Daniell’s brother with his girlfriend and their dog Kalle.
Wish you all a safe trip,