FranceBlog in English

Wow, the two years are passing by…almost done. I just returned without the family here in france. Since school started, Dagmar and the kids already stay in our house near Stuttgart. Not easy after such a long time without a break. Usually I spent some months in the USA the past 15 years. Now it was quiet and I stayed here all the time.
I had a easy travel on the highways, just took 8 hours with a little break. So I clean, sort…and play on my PS3 🙂
I just bought my first real new game. Need For Speed SHIFT. A great racing simulation with tons of cars, tracks etc. Very good game and it catches me 🙂 I am more tired than with the nights with Josefine 🙂
See a screenshot:
    

A bientot

I just posted a video from our Trips to Nimes, Pont Du Gard, Pic Saint Loup and Carcassonne… Enjoy:

The 5 Engelkahles

We did it, our last trip for now in france. We visited Carcassonne, the fortified city. Similar to Aigues-Mortes near our place here, but older and bigger. It is a about 1 1/2 hours driving time. Right after Dagmar finished her last morning coffee with her girls at the Hotel we took off. No big deal, since the peak season is over. Just some swabian people making their last days of vacation 🙂
  
Since the kids were not very happy about hourlong museum walks we decided to go there…watch the town and the enjoy the views, have something to eat and then drive home when we want to.
Well, eating was different. Lots of restaurants, since the kids wanted something they know we chose a pizza place. Nothing compared to the place in Nimes. It was probably one of the more expensive and less good restaurants in Carcassonne „Le Cité“. Well, we were hungry, so we finished the dishes and paid…
The views, small, narrow roads, the stores were really beautiful. The kids also enjoyed it. We also had to buy a sword and halberd for the kids 🙂 Was nice…almost every kid ran around with a sword 🙂
When we wanted to drink a coffee and have some icecream we chose a small restaurant. But it looked like the peak season already filled their pockets good enough. We were only 10 customers. Some other came right after we came and they already knew what they wanted and so they got their Pastis right away. But we had to look for the different ice creams. So the young „garcon“ was not very enthusiastic. We decided to leave after about 15 minutes and look for a better place. We found one 🙂
Before we left we also saw a juggler that used glasbowls. He balanced them on his bald head and also juggled several balls in his hands. A maximum if three balls balanced on his head. It was amazing to see what he did. Full control of his body. WOw. See the picture. A video is also now uploaded to Youtube. The other pictures…see the link at the bottom…
  
In two days we will return to germany. Another part of the assignment is ending. I will return for the final months of the assignment. But more is coming…
Pictures: https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/bigmek/France_Sept_2009

Youtube Video:

A bientot

The 5 Engelkahles

The vacation is going on and we made a short trip to Pic Saint Loup today. We drove to Cazevieille at the Pic Saint Loup. You can hike to the top of Pic Saint Loup but we decided to skip that for today. We just hiked a bit to have a better view to the mediterranean sea. But we had not the right shoes for that plus a little Josefine carried in front of me. But it was very nice and we had a great view. The way back home was through small roads, villages to the other side of Pic Saint Loup and Montagne de L’Hortus.
  
At one sightseeing point I took a picture of the writing that was done for Remi Gaillards latest Video prank where he welcomed bicycle riders like Tour de France winners. Very funny video.
See it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOur8qXvpnk

Our other pictures are still here: https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/bigmek/France_Sept_2009

Have fun –  A bientot

The 5 Engelkahles

We are travelling around more and more. Today in the afternoon we made our trip to the Pont Du Gard. One of the most complete and very beautiful roman aqueducts. About 40 minutes drive and we were there. Parking is easy, since peak season is over and only lots of germans 🙂 and dutch and some brits are here.

   
So we walked down to the site. Fabian took some Videos and we went to the river Gardons. Was not too cold there. With the warm temperatures of 28C it was nice. Just the wind was pretty strong again. That was also the reason for a bad sideeffect. There was a wildfire next to the Pont du Gard.
  
We saw it from the Bridge and after some time the firefighters in their yellow Firefighter Airplanes came to poor tons of water on it. After about 30 minutes they had it under control. Was a little scary, since the wind was strong and many many weeks without rain make everything totally dry.
On the way home we had to drive a detour, since the mainroad was closed due to the fire.
That was beautiful. Little, small winding roads in the hills and wonderful views. Really a great experience.
Pictures can be as well seen at:

https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/bigmek/France_Sept_2009

A bientot

The 5 Engelkahles

We spent a wonderful day at the sea. To help Phil & Jane we took their 3 boys and went to Le Grau du Roi to the Miniature Golf, Babyland… Was a very funny and happy day… Enjoy the pictures from today and from Nimes

https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/bigmek/France_Sept_2009

A bientot

The 5 Engelkahles

We finally made it to Nimes. A very old and roman city. Only 30 minutes away from where we live. But so far we had no time. We usually showed our friends the very beautiful sights here around Montpellier and we never had time to go anywhere else. But now we made it and we enjoyed it a lot. It was again 30C but cloudy. The only problem in Nimes is to find a parking spot for the 1.94m high Citroen Jumpy. Most Parking garages are 1.9m or 1.75m. So no way for us. But after 30 minutes we found a good parking spot. We walked throught the narrow roads in Nimes and went to the Maison Carré. Some beautiful Cathedrals and the Arena (a little smaller than the Colloseo in Rome but it is almost in perfect condition).
   
Of course we had some lunch a found a really good Pizza Place. Yeah we were desperate for a Pizza 🙂
The Arena was very interesting. We made a tour and had those Walkmen like Audio things. Was interesting to listen to the stories. Wow, very brutal those Fights and shows. They had to turn the sand and put in new sand a few times a day to make the smell of blood not too bad. Arghhhh.
Anyway, we enjoyed the wonderful day in Nimes and let’s ee what else we might visit in the next days of our vacation.
    

A bientot

The 5 Engelkahles

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