Holidays finally came and took me away from work obligations and moving and renovating stress. Clément and I moved our stuff from two into one flat a couple of days ago and leaving a big mess behind, we got behind the steering wheel to drive the 1200 km from Ulm to Oleron, where Cléments mum lives. The sore muscles on the other hand stayed with us some more days reminding us constantly of the chaos that is awaiting us on our return. We took a break in a shitty Formula 1 "Hotel" which could not have been located closer to the highway without being ON the highway. But even that could not interrupt our sleep after all the boxes, furnitures, fridges and washingsmaschines that we moved up and down several flights of stairs.
The money we saved by not using the roads that you have to pay for and by staying at the Formula 1, we spent on lunch. We ended up taking a break close to a little lake and the only restaurant there was a five star Hotel
Château de la Cazine where the waiters are wearing uniforms and exchanges your knifes and forks after every course. We enjoyed being pampered eating an awesome desert while trying to look as if we belong there under this enormous chandelier on antique funritures.
We arrived on Oleron in the evening taking our first walk on the beach and reunting with Cléments family.
The next days where full of family activities and my ears were ringing because of all the fast french that was spoken around me. Cléments sister arranged a little get together with a part of the family in St. Trojan so I could meet some of them before the big family party. It was very nice, we had the perfect weather and a tasty picknick, just the waves where a little to high even for us to go swimming.
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| Hugo, Cléments nephew, fixing his bike with the help of the firefighters. |
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| French kid, crazy about baguette :) |
And then, on Monday evening, my little accident happened, when a wave caught me and I smashed my nose against Cléments ellbow. It made a loud cracking noise and I was really scared that it's broken. After a quick assessment by the life guard and the pharmacists it was decided that I would take some pain killers and rest to see how if its better the next day. Because it still hurt a lot and I felt dizzy and tired all the time we went to the doctor and finally to the x-ray. My nose is not broken so I am very relieved. Today, four days after it happened it still hurts me a bit and I rest a lot but I am sure I will be okay :)
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| Clément diving back into his childhood as a LEGO-knight. |
The rest of the time I help Clément packing boxes for Ulm, taking pictures of his beloved LEGO and putting them gently into a big box so nothing can get destroyed, and going through his papers and books from primary school deciding which are worth keeping.
We see a lot of Cléments friends and its nice because they all make a great effort to speak English. Even Cléments mum tries really hard and our mix of French and English can almost be called a coversation.
We will leave tomorrow so we can take our time to get back to Ulm and do some hiking on the way. We don't know yet which way we are going to take but we will figure it out on the go, I guess.
I hope you all have a great vacation and whenenver you want to come and
visit us in Ulm, you know you are welcome and a spare bed is waiting for
you! <3
