We spent our first real day of vacation together with Phil, Jane and their three boys. After a nice little lunch we went to the Tyroliane Park. It is a climbing park where you are secured with a a harness and climb in the trees. Thanks to Ute and Holger we know this place since last year. For the kids it is a blast. They simply love it. It is a little exhausting but a lot of fun. Enjoy a few pictures:
A bientot
The 5 Engelkahles
My vacation has started. Of course this is also the slowly approaching end of a 2 year stay in france. Pretty soon Dagmar and the kids will return to germany. So we enjoy the sunny weather here in the south of france. Some friends already returned to germany, USA…and soon Scotland. So we had a small party for us from my great colleagues here and a party for Phil & Jane and their kids yesterday. BBQ, beer, wine.. won’t get boring here 🙂
Today Josefine had her second bath in the mediterranean sea. Wow, she really likes it. No problem at all with the salty water 🙂 Fabi, Jona and Daggie love that of course as well.
      
Temperatures around 30C and water temperatures around 23C are making the bath very refreshing. Not cold at all. We love it.
     
A bientot
The 5 Engelkahles
Was time for a new Familypicture…See it here:
     
    
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In germany they just recently were showing in the news, that the hottest day with 37C (98F) of the actual summer just happened and everybody was celebrating it. Here in the south of france this is normal. Since weeks we have temperatures above 30C (86F), no rain and lots of sun. Maybe we will get some rain and thunderstorms next tuesday, maybe. But til then it is hot and sunny. We just hope no fires in the close forrests will happen here. So far we are lucky.
        
The close distance to the mediterranean sea gives us a lot of possibilities to go to the beach. Of course we also use the pool of our Hotel. Especially when I come back late afternoon from work. During this peak season it takes sometimes too much time to get to the beach, so we just go to the pool. Jonathan is improving his diving and swimming skills. After saying „No I do not go into the water“ he nows asks „Daddy can we go to the pool, I want to swim“. He is not really swimming so far. He is more diving and he loves it.
Fabian is totally relaxed and he more enjoys the silence sometimes, he is not wild for the pool. Dagmar and Josefine also enjoy the warm temperatures. Josefine is very relaxed and quiet. She is totally cool, smiling, eating, spitting 🙂
        
Last saturday Josefine had her first bath in the mediterranean .. The water was warm and she really loved and enjoyed it. Even when she tasted some of the salty water she smiled…No crying, no shouting, just a relaxed girl. Holger took some pictures with his waterproof digital camera, so I will update the BLOG later with pictures.
Two days ago about 100km aways from here in Canet en Roussillion two sharks (2m long ,6.7feet) were seen at the beach and the beach was closed. They are probably not very dangerous, but can attack people. But so far nothing happened. We only go to the shallow water and have no problem with that fact. I guess in general the humans are a more dangerous problem for the sharks.
This weekend I am on duty and I can not do much. We might go all together to the pool for some time.
Pictures will follow. Formula 1 is also taking place in Valencia.. Let’s watch it.
A bientot
The 5 Engelkahles
This morning I saw a Clio parking very strange. Looks like the owner of this blue Clio forgot to use the e-brake. So the car rolled backwards and was stopped by the high border. One wheel jumped over and the Clio stopped 🙂 Glad that it did not happen on a open road.
       
August is the peak season month for the vacation time in france. Family and friends used that as well and started to visit us. First were Sabine, Chris and their 2 kids. They stay in a friends place for 2 weeks. Followed by Dagmars sister Kerstin, Daniel and the three kids Paul, Leonie and little Juliane. They stay at our place. So we have right now 6 children, 4 adults and another 2 adults and 2 children next to us. Lots of fun. We use the time to go to the beach, pool, Shopping, Aquarium etc.
We also visited one of our favorite Restaurants in Aigues-Mortes with our in laws. Le Galion is the Restaurant. Normally we go there of course in the off season. Much more relaxed. But now in the peak season the same staff has to handle a fully seated Restaurant which causes some delays. We had long long delays to get our drinks and food. That is not very easy with 6 children (where Josefine of course is not counted and also Juliane not). Well, we managed it and the food was still very good. Since we already accepted and like the french way of living we get used to that 🙂
        
We also had a surprise visit of our friends from Italy. Fabrizio and Sabrina decided spontaneus to drive from Trento, Italy to Tarifa in Spain. A trip of more than 2000km. So they also planned a short stop here in Montpellier to visit us. I saw the Email on Saturday noon with the info they want to be there between 10am and noon. So I called them and they were still stuck in traffic. At the end it took them 16 hours to arrive in Montpellier. For a 800km trip very very very long. They were exhausted. So we decided they will stay at our place for one night to recover, have a refreshing bath at the pool and a nice BBQ in the evening.
    
Fab also showed us finally how to drink the Parapampola liquor he sent us last year. Due to the lack of speaking/reading italian we did not understand the instructions and we drunk that coffee liquor cold. Well, it has to be boiled in a pot and then lit with a lighter. So it burns for a while in the cups and then you can drink it. Delicious 🙂
After a quiet night for them they took off again on Sunday.
Was really a pleasure and maybe they stop by again on the way back.
On Sunday evening we visited with Kersting and Family and our family the beautiful city of Montpellier. We took the tram and we had a nice evening there. Kind of sad, it is so far our last summer here in Montpellier, so we enjoy the full house with 6 children at home 🙂
    
Josefine is now 2 months young. Growing and eating, smiling…a little princess. She controls us with her smile.
A bientot
 The 5 Engelkahles