Last grocery shopping in the south of France. Filling up the car with lots of delicious goodies before starting our return road trip: back to Germany via the Provence and Switzerland.
A little village at the Cote d’Azur: 7:30am the locals go for a swim and we for a beach walk.
38C degrees in Avignon. It’s summer. And hot. Best invention: Cafés have parasols with misting water.
The Provence: smelling beautifully. Lavender everywhere. Purple gold.
The view from a spectacular hilltop village (and lots of Chinese tourists…).
Aurevoir, France! See you soon again… it’s not so far anymore. Lucky us.
…from the Provence… to Switzerland.
Swiss bliss on 1150m altitude. Overlooking the Geneva Lake and surrounded by the Alps. Pure nature including many wow moments how steep a street can go up… nice ride on the motorbike.
Relaxed, sun kissed, smiling, the car smelling like lavender and packed with French beer, cheese, wine, foie gras, Spanish ham & our heads filled up with many happy memories…
We are now on the way home (unfortunately). Ready to start our new life in Germany.
We arrived. Arrived in the southwest of France, nestled in the Midi- Pyrenees, one of the least populated and unspoilt regions of France: little villages, the smell of roses, saucisson and locally made cheeses, fresh baguette & croissants from the local corner shop, windy roads, cypress trees, in the middle of the Pyrenees, the blue sea, snow on top of the mountains, hiking up to old chateaus, creperies… Charming. Beautiful. Delicious.
Favorite spot:
Shopping local products: we cannot get enough.
Cite de Carcassonne:
Charmingly French:
Meeting family.
And friends.
Hiking up Chateau Montségur.
That view from top…
The south-east costs famous for art & anchovies. Collioure – a small town in the south of France with a Catalan vibe.
Those views… spectacular.
It needs a French friend to show us the best cheese in the world and a picnic:
The south of France means natural beauty, stunning landscape, superb local cuisine.
And those desserts… now I know what I have missed in China. We have eaten a lot. And enjoyed every bit. Croustade aux Pommes – a specially of the Ariège. Creme cathare a la feve de tonka – Creme brûlée – something like burnt cold custard but 100x better. Foie Gras… And than you need a siesta from 2-5pm. French southern life – we could get used to that.
Bon Voyage! We have been looking forward to this trip since quite some time. After storing our many suitcases (from Shanghai) at a friends house, we were ready to go. New motorbike, new car and dog on board. We haven’t been in the south of France for 8 years… and we haven’t been driving a car or motorbike in 3 years… (after the first 1500km I think we got enough practice and are back on track – so far no falling off or crashing…).
The start on our first day in the morning in Germany was a little rough: battery of new motorbike flat… but the new mini (our new car) helped with a jump start after purchasing the right equipment (and the following mornings as well…). While we fixed the battery my hubby’s Chinese smart phone broke (not sure if that was due to wrong handling or bad quality…).
Anyhow, at some point we were on the road and on the way to beautiful France.
Shanghai was nice and young (Pudong, the area where we lived is about 15 years old…) and everything was new. Europe is the opposite and France is historic & beautiful. Those stone houses decorated with beautiful flowers… I’m in love. We missed Europe and are very happy to be back.
We traveled for 3 days towards our final destination: the south of France. On the way we stayed in little villages and towns. So beautiful. And only French speakers (No German. No English. No Chinese. No Spanish… well, obviously.). We are quite good and survive with basic words (my husband mixing a bit of French with Spanish (which seems fine in the south)… and (I thought) I had ordered 1 Cappuccino and got 3…). I love the language – it sounds like love.
Our first overnight stop: the area of Comte, producing one of the best cheeses.
France on a plate:
Aperitif (…Ou plutot d’un aperitif local…)…
Entre…
Plat…
Chariot de fromages locaux…
Dessert…
Soooo French. Soooo good.
The best time of the day: breakfast and dinner. Choosing the food & drinks from the menu was already a wonderful challenge (correct translation and to make a choice without ordering the whole menu). And later eating it… pure joy. So delicious! We feel like surrounded by many Paul Pairet. Bon Appetit!
Next to food we enjoyed the ride with many photo gorgeous stops along the way. France is so charming.
Little beautiful villages.
Is there anything better than baguette with cheese (and of course a glass of red wine…)?
Or a pana chocolate…
We love it… and all of that and more for the next 3 weeks… life is superb!
Arrived. Arrived in Germany. In Schwabia. In the “Laendle”, how the Germans call it. Well, physically arrived. Not mentally yet. And all we see: Porsche & Daimler cars. Welcome to Stuttgart!
We arrived and summer has started – sunshine, 32C degrees and blue sky. All of that in repeat mode for the last 8 days. It’s wonderful! I don’t remember seeing so much blue and green in the last 3 years. It’s a feast for our eyes.
8 years abroad… quite a long time. We are experts for USA and China, not so much in Germany. We had and have to search a lot of things online… No surprise we found a few odd things in our first few days back in Germany:
⁃ you have to pay (1€) to use a baggage trolley in the airport. At least EC card payment is accepted. Where’s our driver Mr Xu, greeting us with a big smile and carrying all our suitcases? Missing him already.
⁃ The traffic lights are set up in a funny way: too close to see.
⁃ You need 50cent or 1€ to pull a grocery trolley in a supermarket… alternatively you try to not shop too much or keep groceries balanced on 2 arms.
⁃ We enter a Café or restaurant and we wait. And wait. Waiting to be seated… Until we notice that in Germany you find yourself a seat… and then we waited again: for the waiter to bring the bill… no screaming for the waiter like in China…
⁃ we have to drive again. And try to follow German rules… Well, hubby got already flashed… No calling Mr Xu to be picked up. Mr Xu, where are you? We miss you…
⁃ Recycling: it’s very complicated. In the last 8 years we had one! bin. Now we find 4: blue, brown, black & green. And have no glue what goes in which bin… WTF! We need a training (after a friendly reminder for “wrong” recycling from the airbnb landlord).
⁃ Bed duvets: 1 bed, 2 people, 2 separate duvets. One for hubby. One for me. We haven’t had that in 8 years.
⁃ A Chinese restaurant. So far nothing wrong. The name: Mr Xü. The funny part: Germany spelling Xu with “ü” for correct pronunciation. And it’s our drivers name. PS: we did not go inside, we are afraid of “germanized” Chinese food.
⁃ The airplane is about to land in Budapest and nobody is getting up to open baggage racks to be the first out – no Chinese guys on board.
But don’t worry there’s a lot of things we love 🙂
⁃ our first grocery shopping experience: we can read again (it’s all in German). We understand what’s inside the products. We find local products. We are impressed by the huge choice and affordable price for veggies and cheese… loving it.
⁃ The potatoes and I have the same name 😉
⁃ First dinner (and many more in the last few days): white asparagus with a local beef steak (happy cows from in and around Stuttgart).
⁃ Sitting in a beautiful garden, breathing fresh air and all we can see: green everywhere. What a panorama.
The street definitely deserves its name:
⁃ My favorite lettuce is already available: Feldsalat
⁃ showering with good quality water
⁃ Spontaneous BBQing with family & friends:
⁃ The dog loves to be outdoors (she tried already twice to run away…).
We were quite busy in the first days: we successfully registered ourselves, our dog has a new vet, a dog sitter and an European passport (ready for France). We finally purchased a car (more difficult than expected, emission control in Stuttgart…) and a motorbike. And our future town where we’ll life has a beautiful old castle.
We arrived in another new part of the world. It will take a while. It feels like another assignment abroad. And we have to figure out things first: where to buy, where to eat, etc. but we have time. And it’s fun. And thanks to the internet the integration goes fine.
Beside all the organizational things, it feels like being on holiday. We visited already quite a few beer gardens. And met already some family members, friends from around Stuttgart and around the world: Mexico. Stuttgart – der Nabel der Welt.
I also finished my handover to my Chinese successor with a trip to beautiful Budapest.
My laptop went back to China and I flew back to Stuttgart. 3 weeks vacation, the best time between the end of one assignment and the start of a new one.
Thanks to our amazing airbnb the first few days were not as shocking as expected 🙂 We are very much looking forward to move into our farmhouse.
We are off to the South of France: with the new car, the new motorbike and our dog Charlie – a Road Trip 🙂
