#Caravanlife

I'm biased here, please consider my contribution from Camper or Caravan.

Christian and I have been touring in the caravan for three months now, and we are now almost the exotics. There are a variety of motorhomes, campervans or simply converted vans that travel around the world, but from October onwards the number of caravans will become manageable.

I don't want to start a new trend, but the hashtag #vanlife has been around for a long time, and I miss #caravanlife a little in comparison.

I admit, I'm not in my mid-20s, a vegan, a die-hard surfer, an influencer on Instagram, I don't have a converted van, I have a mini dog and I'm self-employed, but I have a permanent job that I can go back to in a few months . My fan base has definitely shrunk with the words typed above, but I think that people of older age can also have an alternative life.

Here on the Île de Re it is more the older people, some retired, some still on vacation, who spend a stormy October evening here. It's the weekend, the weather is still a little too warm for the season and the vanlifers aged 50+ are not here to surf, but to enjoy their savoir vivre . They are currently washing almost all of their fresh mussels and oysters, which they will prepare themselves. There is either a Brut or a dry white wine from the region. That is life! Not the report about a ferry trip that didn't work out, or how bad the internet reception is at a certain beach in Portugal, which is a must-do if you're a surfer.

I learn a little lightness of being from the French vanlifers, because they have no compulsion, they go wherever it takes them, they haven't given it any thought beforehand. They're all nice, they say hello, they don't have any prejudices among us Germans, they put up with my poor French, they're probably not on Instagram or looking for vegan delicacies, but they just take in what the landscape has to offer.

Please don't get me wrong, I can understand vegans, I'm more of a pescatarian than a meat eater, I don't like pork in a very un-Bavarian way, so I can't criticize at all. Instead, I'm fascinated and impressed by how people here take everything with them, try everything, certainly don't like everything, but are always open-minded. That's life, that's just good.

So I'll try ham in Spain, even though I definitely won't eat foie gras, that's just my loss. I want to be more open-minded, I don't want to be limited by a hashtag. We collected the first chestnuts in GB, tasted the first ones in Normandy, collected them again in Brittany and now the delicacies will be processed again. I ate a lot of blackberries in the UK because there are so many of them. On the beach in Calais we discovered and processed wild rocket (ruccola). Today we go through the world a little differently. In Carnac, Christian picked a strawberry tree for me because I like the fruit so much. But that's no comparison to what the ladies and gentlemen know in their motorhomes!

The first generation vanlifers, the first van owners with T1 and T2 buses, are still here today, they show that you should always be open-minded and open to new experiences. They had the cars that needed a day's break and lots of water when they overheated; they learned to be calm.

As open-minded as I would like to be with our caravan life, why not a separate hashtag for a couple who can also integrate a little more joie de vivre into everyday life, which until now has been dominated by "where can we find something for the dogs to run?" We're slowly arriving at this ease, we're finally going to a market instead of the Carrefour on the corner. It's getting slow, I'll keep you updated!