FranceBlog in English

We are back in Baillargues. After a little bit more than 900km (560miles) and several hours driving time through rain, hail, sun we arrived fine and relaxed with our Jumpy. Relaxed driving. The weather here in france was not as good as the weather in germany, so the kids put the sun in the trunk and released it here in  france. Et voila, today we have a sunny day, with blue sky. 🙂
At home the heating is not working, as soon as you turn it on the fuse trips, but since we have no more frost at night it is not that bad.

Have fun, a bientot

The 4 3/4 Engelkahles

What a crazy weather. For weeks we had no rain, it was mild and sunny and it was perfect. So we planned Jonathans Birthday party in the Tyroliane climbing park. Unfortunately the weather changed and the ONLY day it rained the whole day was Saturday. Not just that, but Jonathan also got sick. Fever, sour throat and he slept the whole day. So we canceled the event.
So on sunday we first watched Formula 1 race (only the rest) and were surprised about this new season. Brawn GP is brandnew and won the first race.
           
Jonathan, and that was more important, was fine again after a whole saturday in bed. So we could at least go to visit our friends Antti and Anu. They invited us for a BBQ. That was fun. It was sunny and mild again and Antti used his charcoal Weber BBQ Grill. Yeeha.
       
Was a great dinner and the kids also had some fun.
Next week it is time for vacation in germany. Yeah.

I finally managed to produce a little video from my trip to worlds largest Aquarium in Atlanta last year in April. I uploaded it last night (with the 50Kbits slow upload speed) to Youtube.
See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9w211Ew_jM

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles

Time to say good bye soon to our beloved 1995 Renault Clio. Since July 2008 the little white Clio was reliable „familymember“ and we drove to spain and back. Never had a problem. More than 8000km were driven since July. Since we are forced to go back to germany later this year I decided to put the Clio back on the market to see if someone is interested in the car.
Well, I found a buyer that will take care of this sweet Clio now. It is not a expensive car. But before I can sell it I have to bring the car to the CT = Control Technique. In germany we have the TÜV. Every two years (every4 with a new car) a car has to pass the CT. In case you want to sell you must do it, if the last CT is more than 6 months ago.
So I went to my appointment with the AutoControl in Maugio at 9:00. Found out, that it is at 9:45. Anyway.
The CT was very accurate and sometimes even more detailed than the german checkout.
       
But no problem for my little Clio. Even after 14 years only minor, age related things were obvious. Nothing particular. So I got my new sticker on the Carte Grise and the new CT sticker on the windshield.
It was really a great car. Small but very reliable. No much electronic gadgets. It was perfect to drive from A to B. Very economic.
Au revoir mon petit ami.
If you want to see cars that are definitely not passing the checkout or should no pass the checkout see here: http://www.europanto.be/jackytouch/

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles

Daddy had a wish. A carshow was on the list. After a long time without a carshow it was great timing, that the AVIGNON MOTOR FESTIVAL took place in Avignon. Every year thousands of cars and motorbikes are shown. My family supports my car enthusiasm. Of course Avignon has much more to offer, the Pont du Gard, the popes palace and the medieval city. Beautiful town. Beautiful day, mild temperatures and lots of sun with lots of wind. That was a problem today.
             
The carshow was at the Exposition Area near the Airport. Some parts were also outside. Many nice, beautiful cars were outside but now covered with dust. The wind was blowing strong and the dust was coming into every single corner. Our hair looked grey.
         
But all these VWs, Renault, Peugeot, Ford, Porsche, Ferrari, Bugatti… they were still looking beautiful.
Even in the Exhibition Halls the dust was blown in. Renault Alpines, Formula cars were dusty.
At the outside areas we also heard a well known noise. The noise of a 2-Cylinder 2 Stroke Trabant engine. Yeah, unbelievable, there was a Trabant 601 S in green.
All the other cars were good old known cars like Porsche 914, Talbot Matra, Simca, Citroen DS and many more.
        
Motorbikes were also shown and on the outside track a Show was taking place every hour. Stuntdriver. Driving on the rearwheel, frontwheel.. Amazing what those guys did. Jonathan of course likes the Burnouts most (like me).
       
Even dragster Bikes and cars where there. The sound was amazing. Our baby definitely got goosebumps 🙂
In the mainhall A was the major exhibition theme the BUGATTI cars. From those very old race Bugattis to the latest Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4. 1001HP, 407km/h. Unbelievable and unreachable.
        
A friend from work also came. Jerome with his brother and wife. Unfortunately we were ready to go when he came, because after almost 3 hours cars and strong, dusty wind the kids were exhausted.
So we drove home. I took many many pictures and you can see some of them here: http://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/bigmek/AMF2009
Video is available on Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74C54FHNSyc

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles

It is amazing. Exactly 5 years ago Jonathan was born. Now he is going to Ecole Maternelle and he learns english and french, number, the alphabet and much more. He is little big man now. This is his second birthday in france. Once more we have gorgeous, sunny day with more than 20C (68F). We just prepared some waffles. Fabian and Jonathan are playing with the presents (Playmobil, Cars and more), At school he already had a small party today. The big party will be Saturday in one week. Was no other date possible for his friends. Anyway, he is happy.

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles

Time flies by. It is already more than half a year ago that we went to the Aquarium in Le Grau du Roi. It is a smaller Aquarium but nice. Usually the new extensio a bigger Shark Tank should be opened already. But sometimes things are a little slower here in france. The Webpage was also not very helpful, so we jumped into our Jumpy, lowered the windows and drove through the wonderful area to Le Grau du Roi. Mild temperatures, warm sand at the beach (the water was still only 13-15C / 55F-60F). Perfect for the Aquarium anyway. The kids also like the „old“ stlye. „old“ Friends like Nemo, turtels and of course sharks. We love sharks. They look mysterious and beautiful. We could watch them for hours. It is a pitty that people always think that sharks are dangerous. Of course they kill a few people each year, but that is countable with two hands or so. We kill millions of sharks each year for soup, fun and horny people that think a shark fin makes them last longer .. Yeah sure
I hope we can stop that one day.

We can’t wait to see the new exhibition now opening (maybe) end of April. We will be back then. More sharks to see then.

Back at home we played a bit Pirates of the mediteranean.

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles

It is so unbelievable wonderful here in the department l’Herault. Temperatures above 20C (68F), blue sky…Wonderful. The bees also enjoy this spring. Thousands of them are at work now. Wintertime is over. So I took some pictures of the blooming trees and flowers. I catched a bee at a tree with my Camera here at our apartment.

It is spring here in the south of france. We enjoy this wonderful weather as long as we can. One day we have to go back to germany and we are back to normal. This winter is pretty long and strong in germany, so this mild weather is unbelievable.
          
After a few new administrative issues with our Carte Grise for the car (we needed another document that tells that Dagmar is living with me in the same apartment. It is not common in france, that couples have two different familynames !! Keep that in mind when you think about moving there), we finally entered our weekend.
It is breathtaking when you wake up in the morning and you see the blue sky, feel the warm air and the sun is hot.
         
We had to clean up the kitchen (we had a „little“ Ant problem, hundreds were walking through, not anymore, thanks to a Antkiller).
This sunday Dagmar went with Ute to the market in Maugio and she bought some Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, fresh Strawberries.
The breakfast was relaxed.
           
We decided to go to the Zoo in Montpellier. It is free of charge (only the amazonas house is with admission). A great thing for the kids and us. Our last attempt a few weeks ago went wrong, because all parking was closed due to a Handball event. This time we had enough parking and a sunny, warm sunday. A little above 20C (70F). Warm enough for me and the kids to wear not just T-Shirt but also Shorts. Of course it was warm enough. The people in the south of france of course have a different temperature feeling than we have. We saw some people running in wintercoats. Even a kid was running in the zoo with a snowsuit. Hello ? It was 20C and not -2C. I felt a little bit like a Alien.
         
Whatever. The kids enjoyed the walk with us through the zoo and many animals were relaxing in the sun as well.
In the evening we finished our sunday with a delicious Dinner at the La Lucques Restaurant here in Baillargues at our Hotel.
We have been there a few times already. They have a new Menu now for Spring 2009 and it was delicious. More than delicious.Beef for Daddy and Salmon for Mum. The kids had Steak Haché with fries.
I can’t tell it in words, even the entree was breathtaking.
Savoir vivre.

A bientot

The 4 2/3 Engelkahles