The first day of the trip to France starts in Munich: two sporty girls taking the bicycles, going downtown to my favorite travel bookshop „Geobuch“: Lucky us they have one book about France in English (for Linda) and one further in German, so we both are well equipped for wherever in France the sun might lead us.

The next stop however leads us to the Viktualienmarkt: having a cup of tea and coffee in the sun, watching tourists and feeling just as being part of touristic travelling as they probably do. The day continues with sun, good food on the balcony and: the bar. The band. The dancefloor. Yeah!

On Sunday then, finally, we head off, direction straight south: feeling like Asian tourists („Come and see Europe in just one week!“), we pass through 3 countries in one day and even think about making a short sidetrip to Fürstentum Liechtenstein, just for having been there for a minute.

Meanwhile, Switzerland unfolds its landscape as a panorama postcard: rough mountains with snow on top meet green meadows, relaxed cows lazily take their daily sunbath while waterfalls rush down with the force of the entire ski-season melting down. The afternoon takes us to Lago Maggiore, where flying ducks show us the way to „Campo Felice“: located right at the lake and thus being the perfect place for the first common night inside Hector.

The first raindrops fall down just while brushing the teeth the next morning: lucky us, in different manner than the lazy ducks around, we are already awake and ready to quickly store the table, chairs and all outside stuff inside the van. The route takes us straight south, passing by the serpentine roads of Lago di Lugano, then passing by Lago di Como and Milano. By now, landscape and weather have changed: the severe style of Switzerland is gone, substituted by typical Italian mixture of postcard-villages and dirt yards. Approaching the Ligurian coast, we see light at the end of the tunnel some hundred times with brief outlooks on the deep blue see in between.

The travel lasts almost the entire day, but the roads lead through beautiful landscapes, so when we finally arrive at the campsite we are totally at ease. For the first minute, that is. Then we start wondering if this has really been a good choice: the campsite is supposed to be located right by the sea, but so far we are deeply within the hills and all we can see is forest, hills, and even more forest on hills. A short look at the map of Camp du Domaine (Borme les Mimosas) shows: we obviously have been underestimating the size of a 111 acres (45 Hektar) campsite: the area is huge and includes pine forest, vineyards, and – in the lower parts – 400m of sandy beach and millions of drops of finest blue water. Moments later, Hector comes to a halt just 30 meters away from the sea, including a wide view on the Côte d’Azur with all shades of deep blue.

The only possible complaint we can think of is abut the strong wind: the cold air is constantly fighting the sun’s warmth and Linda has to perform hard work keeping the carpet down until I have it fixed well.

The next days are supposed to offer relaxation, sports, swimming and just being. Then, perhaps, we will think of things to do and places to go, but this is now and that will be then…

France – Part 2