Smells like France

We start our journey in Alsace after having a great time with Jannis' family and attending a wedding of friends. If you have never been to Alsace - go there! We have only seen beautiful places there so far. Strasbourg, Colmar, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg - all with the typical Alsatian charm, surrounded by vineyards and with a view of the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest, depending on which direction you look.

But let's not fool ourselves, at this time of the year it is already autumn-like and somehow we long for warmer temperatures. On Tuesday, it is forecasted to be 26 degrees Celsius at the Atlantic. Enough incentive to hurry there. We decide to take the toll-free route, which of course takes a bit longer, but it's free and certainly much nicer! We drive through many cute French villages and at least get to see some of France from the car. And the closer we get to the Atlantic, the warmer it gets. With an overnight stop in Moulins, we arrive at Plage du Petit Nice on Tuesday afternoon. We are in the middle of a pine forest on an official, free pitch. Not alone, rather the opposite, but that's not a problem at all! The smell of the pine forest immediately reminds us of childhood vacations in France - who can smell it? We immediately rush to the beach and Fiete is the happiest dog on earth. He just loves the beach. And so do we!

But we are not only here for fun - we have firmly decided to improve our surfing skills a bit. Not far from us, in Hossegor, a Surf World Cup will take place from Thursday. Let's go there. Let's see what else we need to learn. In addition, there is a large outlet near Hossegor, which my friend Janne recommended to me. Because we also want to get wetsuits and surfboards.

Jannis picks out a pitch, not beautiful, but practical and right on the beach, with toilets and showers. Everything you need and more, as we will soon find out.

We drive to the outlet and at this point it is probably worth mentioning that for several months now I have been following an influencer account on Instagram - @hannahliza. There you can see Hannah and her boyfriend Tim, with their dog Wilma, also traveling in their van. For the generation that doesn't know what I'm talking about - simplistically speaking, Instagram is today's television and influencers are today's advertising stars. While following their stories, I have noticed that they must also be somewhere very close to us. And behold - in the outlet, we park almost side by side. Their van cannot be overlooked, as it is an old Düdo, which stands out clearly among all the other self-converted vans. On the parking lot, we also see the two of them with their dog Wilma. Fiete immediately casts adoring glances at her!

We first stroll through the outlet, get an overview, but still hold back! The whole stuff is not really cheap unfortunately.

Back at the old pitch, when we drive in, we already see "Oh, @hannaliza is also here". Funny. And somehow it's of course also strange when you regularly watch their stories and they are walking in front of you.

In France, all dog owners are more laissez-faire. Of course, you quickly join in and Fiete zips across the parking lot, greeting all the dogs, including Wilma. He also takes a look inside Hannah and Tim's van. Embarrassing. But also a classic icebreaker. Tim apparently discovers that we are German and comes over to us because he needs a power cable. Of course, I reveal myself as a follower during the small talk and that's how we get into a conversation. Two pitches next to us, there is also a German couple from Oldenburg, who have also started a conversation with them - also diligent followers, of course. And so it happens that we all go to the beach for the sunset and we also get to know the dear Oldenburgers Lara & Timo with their 3-month-old baby Bo - Bo is definitely the coolest name, it even fits on the license plate! And from a nice, casual introduction, it becomes 1 1/2 weeks of vacation camp. We get to know each other better, do something together every day, and eventually arrange our vans in a square with our own courtyard. Our group gradually grows even larger, so that for several days we are a group of 10 + baby Bo + 3 dogs. So cool! During this time, we all go together to the Surf World Cup, go to the beach again and again, surf, do yoga, have barbecue evenings, pizza parties, and much more... We also celebrate Fiete's 2nd birthday in between! Hard to believe how time flies. And he is still quite inexperienced... As a gift, Hannah and Tim give him a snack in the morning and we also give him a big bone! We also receive a nice surprise from my sister and family from Bielefeld. Since we are surrounded by a lot of active Instagram people, my sister quickly contacted Lara and organized a breakfast for us. Here on the pitch, a mobile bakery with fresh baguettes, croissants, and pain au chocolat arrives every morning around 9 o'clock. Just on that morning, we were too lazy to get up and there it is - a birthday breakfast is hanging on the Sprinter. Delicious!

As it slowly comes to an end for everyone after 1 1/2 weeks and our camp is breaking up, we feel quite nostalgic. It was so beautiful and so many lovely people we were able to meet. Exactly what we missed a bit on our first route in the north. Our agreement: Next year - same time, same place! We are curious if that will work out!

But luckily we only have to separate from Lara, Timo & Bo for a few hours and meet again in Biarritz in the afternoon, where we spend a few more wonderful days together. It's not easy for us to part from the three of them! Traveling in such good company really suits us, especially the shared game evenings with the game 'Noch mal' (One more time). We are already making plans for next year - ideally, Lara, Timo, and Bo will also go on another trip in spring 2022.

But who knows - maybe we won't be alone for long and we will meet Hannah, Tim, and Wilma again somewhere on the coast - that would be nice! The rest of our camp group has unfortunately returned to Germany or has a completely different route from ours. But - next year. Same time, same place!