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| Time to relax & ruminate |
The day after the final celebration at the Chateau was my birthday and we departed with muzzy heads and without much of a plan other than to head South. That was a week ago; since then I've had time to reflect on our journey and thought I would share some of my observations and insights.
Priorities have become entirely different occupying a small space and living on the road. Water is a key concern, making sure the tank is topped up, trying to use it as sparingly as possible and finding a park up where there is a tap is a luxury. Power is also crucial, and whilst we have a solar panel to charge our leisure batteries, our fridge which is 24v virtually drains them if we are not moving for a while, so we have taken to using cool boxes instead and turned the fridge off. In time we'll get a three-way fridge which can be switched from gas to 12v to 240 mains, or maybe an additional solar panel - we've had a few nights with nothing but a head torch to light us up!
There have been a few casualties along the way - we lost our awning, which got totally ripped when it got blown on to the bus roof during a couple of days of bad weather, it did not look easily fixable so we got rid of it; we still have the side panels so hopefully we might find a replacement at some point. We broke some glasses and two wine carafes in transit as well as a teapot. Every now and again we go through our stuff and bin a few objects that we realise are redundant, such as oven trays that are too big to fit in the oven!
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| Best mural, but worst machines in this launderette |
I have become slightly obsessed with launderettes, and look forward to checking each one out when we reach a new destination! I get many more wears out of my clothes than before and my wardrobe is about a tenth of the size it was previously. I have also given up wearing make-up (except for lipstick), I can't be faffed to take it off every day and have now got used to myself with out it - it's one less daily ritual to carry out; I love how things are simplifying in a lot of ways. Dying my hair was a real palaver, I'm thankful that I had a short hair cut before we left otherwise I reckon it would have been nigh on impossible.
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| Luxury (for us) toilets and a tap! |
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| We can put with a bit of sand with this view |
Sand is currently a bit of a problem and I don't know if you have ever noticed, but brooms tend to unscrew themselves really easily, and I'm constantly tightening ours up. I've found that keeping the bus clean and tidy is no less a chore than keeping a house spic and span. A dust-buster is definitely on my wish list, which brings me to my next topic, shopping. In England it's so easy to order some thing and either get it delivered or 'click & collect'. I have a growing list of things I would like to buy, but as yet have not worked out how to order items online and collect them, in France; if anyone knows, please enlighten me!
I thought that I would have a lot more time on my hands than I do, I have been woefully poor at practising my mandolin (sorry, Ian Mandolier if you are reading this), I have not yet opened a book to read, I only got my art materials out once, for a fairly unsuccessful sketch of some boats, I've hardly done any yoga; I'm really hoping to rectify this situation and devote more time to these pursuits. We get up later now than in the UK and go to bed earlier so maybe that accounts for some of it. However, we have done tons of walking, exploring each new place we stop at on foot, with Nina of course, most days I get in 15,000+ steps according to my phone, which is satisfying. I've noticed that in France most people let their dogs walk themselves; all over the place dogs are off the lead doing their own thing, moseying about in a well behaved, relaxed manner - I did attempt to see if Nina would adopt that attitude but she simply legged it off up road and I had to run after her and tell her off, which was embarrassing.
I've observed that the French are very direct and blatantly stare at you if they want to - we often experience people peering into the bus, they don't realise we can see them because of the tinted windows. Some are outright rude, for example, a woman stopped me to ask for directions, and when I said I didn't know and I was English she gave me a withering look, raised her hands in disbelief and moved on without further ado. The young French certainly aren't shy of public displays of affection, from snogging on the beach to slow dancing in the launderette. We have upset two people with our drone, so far, which has made us cautious about when and when to use it - one guy came running at us screaming 'interdite' which means forbidden. However, we have met many lovely French people, who by and large have been warm and welcoming once they realise we are making an effort to fit in and get on. At the grape picking it was hard to remember everyone's names so we assigned nicknames (to use between ourselves) when talking about them - there was 'Gene' who bore an uncanny resemblance to Gene Wilder and 'Metal Mickey' a thrash metal enthusiast with many piercings and tattoos - we never did discover their real names! We later found out that Bernard our boss referred to us jokingly as the King and Queen of England! We do miss speaking to other Brits and so far have only seen and spoken to one other Englishman, a scouser who asked us for directions to the beach - we are hoping to meet more English along the way so we can have a conversation that isn't in stilted pigeon French!
Despite the rich food and wine the French seem like a very healthy nation, there appears to be a large elderly population but all as fit as fiddles, riding bikes, walking with poles and yesterday we witnessed the bizarre sight of a group of OAPs in wets suits, doing what I can only describe as swim/walking, striding in the sea at waist level wading along in a line across the width of the beach! I have only seen one mobility scooter.
I thought that I would have a lot more time on my hands than I do, I have been woefully poor at practising my mandolin (sorry, Ian Mandolier if you are reading this), I have not yet opened a book to read, I only got my art materials out once, for a fairly unsuccessful sketch of some boats, I've hardly done any yoga; I'm really hoping to rectify this situation and devote more time to these pursuits. We get up later now than in the UK and go to bed earlier so maybe that accounts for some of it. However, we have done tons of walking, exploring each new place we stop at on foot, with Nina of course, most days I get in 15,000+ steps according to my phone, which is satisfying. I've noticed that in France most people let their dogs walk themselves; all over the place dogs are off the lead doing their own thing, moseying about in a well behaved, relaxed manner - I did attempt to see if Nina would adopt that attitude but she simply legged it off up road and I had to run after her and tell her off, which was embarrassing.
I've observed that the French are very direct and blatantly stare at you if they want to - we often experience people peering into the bus, they don't realise we can see them because of the tinted windows. Some are outright rude, for example, a woman stopped me to ask for directions, and when I said I didn't know and I was English she gave me a withering look, raised her hands in disbelief and moved on without further ado. The young French certainly aren't shy of public displays of affection, from snogging on the beach to slow dancing in the launderette. We have upset two people with our drone, so far, which has made us cautious about when and when to use it - one guy came running at us screaming 'interdite' which means forbidden. However, we have met many lovely French people, who by and large have been warm and welcoming once they realise we are making an effort to fit in and get on. At the grape picking it was hard to remember everyone's names so we assigned nicknames (to use between ourselves) when talking about them - there was 'Gene' who bore an uncanny resemblance to Gene Wilder and 'Metal Mickey' a thrash metal enthusiast with many piercings and tattoos - we never did discover their real names! We later found out that Bernard our boss referred to us jokingly as the King and Queen of England! We do miss speaking to other Brits and so far have only seen and spoken to one other Englishman, a scouser who asked us for directions to the beach - we are hoping to meet more English along the way so we can have a conversation that isn't in stilted pigeon French!
Despite the rich food and wine the French seem like a very healthy nation, there appears to be a large elderly population but all as fit as fiddles, riding bikes, walking with poles and yesterday we witnessed the bizarre sight of a group of OAPs in wets suits, doing what I can only describe as swim/walking, striding in the sea at waist level wading along in a line across the width of the beach! I have only seen one mobility scooter.
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| The lake, feels likes ages ago |
Time feels completely different now - as soon as one experience is over it seems like a distant memory; it feels strange that a few days ago we were at the lakes, where I felt a bit claustrophobic by the second day. Beautiful though the lake was, I found the pine tree setting a bit dark and oppressive - it was too quiet, bordering on eerie - we barely saw a soul, and once we had admired the lake and taken some walks around it, we craved some action - it would have been good if we had a paddle board or boat, and it didn't help that it rained. Here at the beach it's much more vibrant and entertaining plus the weather has been lovely.
Our loose plan next is to spend about a week exploring more of the villages around the Arcachon Bay or 'Bassin' as they say here. Then we will pootle down to Biscarrosse, Biarritz and then Bayonne (where there is an IKEA and intend to get a new teapot plus some other bits and bobs). Following that we'll head in to Spain, where I'm looking forward to enjoying some tapas and cheaper prices.
So all in all, it's been pretty plain sailing in the grand scheme of things, and if sand is currently my biggest problem then I'm laughing all the way to the beach.
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| Arcachon Bay |
So all in all, it's been pretty plain sailing in the grand scheme of things, and if sand is currently my biggest problem then I'm laughing all the way to the beach.
Au revoir for now!
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