Back to work

We got almost 7 hours of sleep, were 30 minutes late for work (which was OK though - will only have to work 30 minutes longer) and guess what: My PC is gone, my notebook was missing and the office is being refurbished, so a wall was missing and my colleagues were scattered around - or on vacation. Of course, the technical department are sick and/or on vacation, so I won't get a new PC today, and I'm sitting here with a dinosaur notebook which lacks some of the software I need, and I don't have access to my mail. I love my job.

Homecoming

Big bisous to Charlotte (and Rodolphe who is in Bordeaux) who let us stay in their really neat apartment in Paris. We will walk the walk today before going back to Oslo. Boo hoo!

*** Happy birthday USA ***

Cote d'Or and Chablis

Slept by a lake, expected thunder storms which never came, "finished" Burgundy (Borgogne) by going through Cote d'Or and Chablis, and arrived in Paris were we had a Jewish meal with Charlotte (who is probably Catholic like most French people)...

Rhone

Visited Cote de Rhone. More to come.

Honk if you're happy

We did not get as far as we expected, but we did reach Grenoble for dinner after driving through the alps (Haute Provence) - just in time to see and hear myriads of Portugese people driving around with flags, honking their horns like crazy. Guess who won a game in the FIFA soccer world cup... Later the same night, about 11 pm, we had just arrived in a tiny village in the mountains, and guess what happened when France won the last game of the day :-) Oh and the night was cold. Br.

Next city: Unknown

We're leaving St Martin Vesubie today, and would like to give thanks to the Vieil family for letting us stay in our own house (!) at their summer place, and special thanks to Thomas and Iselin for everything they provided us: Clean rooms, made beds, great food, fun trips, and wonderful company. We don't know exactly where we're going today, but we're heading North and might visit Grenoble, Lyon, and some wineries around the Rhône and in Borgogne. But who knows where we'll actually end up?

Monaco

4 persons, 2 cars, 1 country with just about room for all of us: Monaco. We had creppes and visited the aquarium. After a short visit to the beach, we had dinner in the medieval city Eze and went to Nice for ice cream with the following tastes: Candy, bubblegum, passion fruit, kinder chocolate, coco, pistachio, rose, raspberries, beer, basil tomato, and some sort of tree (yes, tree). This place topped Baskin Robbins!

Honey honey... sugar sugar...

Anders & Astrid have been married for 4 years on June 29 2006! (The picture is from Chateau Chambord - see June 22)

Zzzzaint Martin Vezzzubie

Relaxation day - We had breakfast and lunch "a la maison," caught a snake (viper) before breakfast and a lizard after lunch.

Cannes

Found a tiny little scorpion under the bed, made a temporary terrarium (?) for it and went to Cannes for snorcling and dinner. (We saw some nice fish and got a beautiful tan :-)

French and Italian Alps

Walked in the mountains, from about 6000 ft to about 7500 ft and passed the border between France and Italy. Saw something that looked like beavers (Marmots) and goat-related animals.

The French Riviera - Fast Forward!

Drove to Marseilles after the morning bath, and stopped in time for the lunch bath. Took a motorway shortcut to Cannes, and continued along the coast past Antibes and Nice before we cut into the countryside and valley of Vesubie. The roads are narrow and the hills are steep!

Bordeaux & Beach

After a night at the campgrounds of Saint Emilion, we visited a winery there (or one of the many "chateaus" of this famous city of grand crus). We joined in on a wine tasting and bought a few bottles before we continued to Anders' wet dream - a mediterranean beach!

Cognac

Arrived in Cognac, visited Hennessy - the picture shows some old, but not yet matured, Eau de Vies, barreled as far back as the eighteen hundreds. Also went by Braastad ("Norwegian" cognac) - but they weren't home. Afterwards, we drove down to Saint Emilion - a village outside of Bordeaux famous for its grand crus.

Paris - Loire - Camping

Left Paris, drove through the Loire Valley, stopped by a magnificent "chateau" after some hot tips from FRED. Continued down towards Poitier, had a minigolf tournament (with a loop!) See 29th for a romantic (medieval) picture... What you see to the left is a so-called turkish toilet (never saw such a thing in Turkey), which is a thrill to use - especially for the ladies?

Leaving Oslo Always Easy

Left Oslo, arrived at Orly airport in Paris, picked up rental car. Nearly crashed in the roundabout at Place d'Italie on the way to FRED's apartment in Boulevard du Port Royal. Ate muscles and drank Belgian beer - enjoyed the day of music, where everyone who wants to may stand up at the microphone and sing...

Intro

We're back in France! After our visit to Paris in November '05, we decided to accept the invitation we received from Thomas last summer. He sent us a postcard from Saint Martin Vesubie, a little village at about 3000 ft above sea level in the South of France, which was also a ticket to "paradise".

Ready, set...

We've ordered plane tickets from Sterling or Norwegian (can't remember - might even be a Sterling flight operated by Norwegian) from Oslo to Paris (Orly), the cheapest rental car from Budget Delivery from Amazon.co.uk: AA Road Atlas France, AA Caravan and Camping France , and The Rough Guide to French (which Astrid thinks was totally unneccessary to buy).

So, we're ready to plan our trip! The main target of the trip is to visit the Vieil family's summer house in Saint-Martin-Vésubie, which we've been invited to by Thomas. He and Iselin will meet us there around the end of June - beginning of July, and we'll (hopefully) have some fun visiting Nice and Monaco and enjoying the small area between the French Alps and the Mediterranean, close to the Swiss and Italian borders.

A useful tool for road-trips in Europe is ViaMichelin, which provides driving directions from A to B with tollroads (and the toll amounts, which proved to be beyond insane in France), speed traps,

Note to selves: First stop after our arrival in Paris on June 21st could be in the town Limeray (directions), at the campground named Le Jardin Botanique/113 (the botanic garden). It's an approximate 3 hour drive from the Orly airport in Paris. We could also go to Velles, to stay at Les Grands Pins/110. It's almost a 4 hour drive from Orly, if we stay away from the motorways.