#31 Flamingos, snow-covered mountains, and our conclusion on France

November 30, 2021: Gruissan

J. On our way to Spain, we stopped for one last night in France in Gruissan. Gruissan was not on our list and was not recommended to us, but it was conveniently located and reportedly had a free parking lot with Wi-Fi. The next morning, we visited the town anyway. Gruissan seems to be a tourist party place, as there were numerous restaurants and an incredible number of bars. In the summer, it is certainly busy here, but now the streets seemed deserted and all the bars and restaurants were closed. However, we strolled a bit further and finally discovered the true heart of the village, with much more beautiful and older architecture and some people on the street. There was also an old castle ruin on a small hill from which you had a good view of the town, the sea, and the many lakes surrounding the town. On one of the lakes, we even spotted flamingos! Although we had seen flamingos in the distance before, this time we were able to get quite close. So that was checked off and we could finally continue to Spain.

We headed straight for the Pyrenees. The mountain at the end of the road kept getting bigger and more impressive. Especially the snow-covered mountains, glistening in the sun, looked beautiful.

Before crossing the border for the second time on our trip, we each want to write a conclusion on France. We wrote it independently of each other, without knowing the other's content. So here are our conclusions about our first country outside of Germany:

Conclusion on France:

F. My conclusion on France is that surprisingly few people can speak English. If I hadn't had Jenny with her good French skills, the trip would have been much more stressful and complicated. Even in museums or on information boards for tourists, there were only a few English sentences to read, let alone having the entire text translated into English. Otherwise, France or at least the part of France we have seen is scenically beautiful, and for cheese lovers like me, it is a paradise on earth. I quickly got used to the roundabout rules and perfected them to the point where I could navigate through the roundabout faster than some French people. Since most roundabouts have two lanes, experienced drivers can cleverly overtake here. However, I couldn't make peace with the French expressway or highway. There was constantly an exit to the left of the expressway, where in Germany, the left lane is usually for overtaking, and traffic lights or pedestrian crossings are not uncommon with a maximum speed limit of 90 km/h. In the cities we visited, I would describe cycling as an extreme sport due to the lack of bicycle lanes, and when taking a stroll, it is advisable to look down at the ground more often, as the probability of stepping in dog poop is very high. But culinary-wise, France is simply amazing...

J. My conclusion on France: It is a beautiful country. I had only known Paris and Brittany before, but now we were able to learn about much more in the east and south of France. I found the Provence and the Côte Bleue, the coast west of Marseille, particularly impressive and beautiful, but I also liked some of the major cities like Lyon and Marseille.

France was also the first country (aside from Germany) that we traveled to with our van. So we also considered France from various other aspects: in the south, especially on the coast, almost all parking lots have a height limit of 2 meters, which made parking a bit more challenging for us. Although our van is big, it is fortunately not too heavy, as many roads here are limited to 3.5 tons. This allowed us to visit small towns and were not forced, like some huge motorhome ships, to take the highway.

One quite negative aspect for me was that there seems to be a crime problem here. In almost all larger cities in southern France, I read that vans and motorhomes are often broken into and robbed (even in broad daylight) on certain parking lots. So sometimes I expected the worst, but we were always lucky.

But it was really good that we started our journey in a country where I speak the language. (There aren't many French people who speak good English.) This way, we were able to get to know our van and solve all sorts of problems (workshop; what motor oil, coolant, etc. do we need?). Interestingly, you can buy everything here, even motor oil, in the huge supermarkets.

We really enjoyed the month (exactly 31 days) we spent in France. Especially the scenery was beautiful to me, but the small towns and numerous markets were enchanting as well.

Let's see what Spain has in store for us.

Day 45 - Total tour 3,651 km

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