After visiting the carwash it was quite a long drive through the glorious sunshine to Campingplatz am Tor zum Hainich (***** €32) next to Hainich National Park in Thüringen.

A warm and friendly evening.

It was a beautiful day for a walk in the forest today – Hünenteich Wanderung

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A busy spider.

A shady character.

What a chaotic spider!

A secret pool in the middle of the forest.

The boys.

Jacko.

The house.

Eine Bank im Bankenviertel.

Today there was a Volksfest in Lauterbach, which is a town with lots of timber-framed houses.

A nice detail in the town.

Oi! Let go of my nose.

Time for these 3 to go…

Today was very hot and the pool full as we arrived. As the sun set, the swimmers melted away.
Odenwald-Idyll (**** €24 / day).

The great white Odenwald Idyll shark.

A nice cool spot for a cool fellow.

This is apparently a „UNESCO assisted“ forest.

A sleeping dragon waiting for a kiss to be woken from its long slumber.

A fine forest for photography.

Our evening entertainment.

A happy reunion between a nephew and his favourite aunt.

A niece and her favourite aunt.

Deep in the forest.

A great place for a cuddle.

Tree stump with tourist.

A green meanie is after us!

Odenwald in the autumn.

Kim lazed around while Gerhild visited Silva in Darmstadt.
Read a spy book by Ava Glass

Beautiful day today.

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Wedding anniversitree.

The ruins of Rodenstein Castle.

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The humans moved out and the trees moved in.

A great day to dry the washing.

Schloss Lichtenberg in the afternoon sun.

Fischbachtal and two friends.

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The great white shark wanted to be in the picture too.

M. told us about her childhood in Château Thierry, home of Jean de la Fontaine who wrote the poem “The Crow & the Fox”.

The crow and the fox by Jean de la Fontaine

At the top of a tree perched Master Crow;
In his beak he was holding a cheese.
Drawn by the smell, Master Fox spoke, below.
The words, more or less, were these:

“Hey, now, Sir Crow! Good day, good day!
How very handsome you do look, how grandly distingué!
No lie, if those songs you sing match the plumage of your wing,
You’re the phoenix of these woods, our choice.”

Hearing this, the Crow was all rapture and wonder.
To show off his handsome voice,
He opened beak wide and let go of his plunder.

The Fox snapped it up and then said, “My Good Sir,
Learn that each flatterer lives at the cost of those who heed.
This lesson is well worth the cheese, indeed.”

The Crow, ashamed and sick,
Swore, a bit late, not to fall again for that trick.

The birthday girl.

Drove to Camping Clerveaux (***** €27.50) via Bernkastel-Kies and the very unsightly High Moselle Bridge which IMHO wrecks the beautiful Mosel valley . . .

Nice campsite next to the river Clerve.

Look what the “Algorithm” suggested today! Fabulous!!

The exhibition.

Chateau Clervaux.

There is only one man in the world
and his name is All Men.
There is only one woman in the world
and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
and the child’s name is All Children.
CARL SANDBURG

Romance!

Marriage.

Children.

Living with children.

School.

Shopping.

Gardening.

Celebrating.

Ageing.

The next generation.

Excellent design in the exhibition.

Couples.

Another couple.

Today we left Clervaux

to go to Camping Du Mont Olympe €15,88 walking distance to centre and

the festival. (Festival website )

The Great Puppeteer clock, solemnly announcing that it’s 6 o’clock.

What’s that?

It’s a dragon!

But quite harmless really.

Habite-moi in a theatre.

There’s tons of stuff going on in the street, some large

… some small.

Some on stilts.

Some waiting to be called.

Ding in a theatre.

Got up really early for this very poor show.

Pinocchio looks a bit worried about this strange man.

Rats doing some classic songs.

Very stylish skeleton girl.

Last show Avatara.

Today we drove to Camping Esperance (€15 *****) in Villers-sur-Meuse.

Of course, we had a delicious picnic along the way – some baked bread with goat’s cheese and herbs.

This is our new campsite, Camping Esperance, right next to La Meuse. If you look very carefully you can see Kim and the camper.

“Tales of the Riverbank” from Kim’s childhood.

Nothing special today.

Just lazing around in the shade of the trees next to the river Meuse.

This walk is part of a long term art project called Vent des Forets. Some of the works have suffered a bit over the years.

We had a good walk around the forest, it was a bit hot, but in in the shade of the trees it was nice and cool.

Shrapnel Galeries

Nature’s art.

Picnic in a 100 year old bomb crater.

Champignons (made of barbed wire!)

Belladonna

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Salut pour tous . There is a video to go with this.

Stay to play

Kim is reading “The Man Who died Twice” by Richard Osman.

Gerhild’s reading “Gute Nacht Tokio” by Atsuhiro Yoshida.

We listened to an interesting podcast featuring Ferdinand von Schirach.

Today we did the shortest walk from Vent des Forêts Court Circuit.

Nice parking spot in the forest.

A magic tree to start off. Table des vents.

A non walkable circuit.

Gerhild’s favourite – Ad Agio for Swings.

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Great trees in this forest.

Un jour sans fin

Cartouche

One of those who were too long in the woods

After a peaceful night, we had a misty start in the forest today.

Looks a bit autumny out of the window.

Is there such a thing as a fog rainbow?

Now what is in there?

Mmmmmmm, that looks good!

Just as we were starting to relax. Gerhild complained that the kettle wasn’t working. An ultralight aircraft with 2 people on board had cut an overhead high-voltage line with a huge bang and then fell into the Marne river near our camp site (€25 ****). One of the victims was rescued by bystanders, then the fire brigade arrived really quickly with rescue divers. Relax, huh!

Today we drove across the hills where Champagne vines grow, looking down at the river Marne.

We parked next to the Salle des fêtes in Mailly-Champagne.

Here’s the walk.

The grapes have already been harvested.

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Great autumn colours.

Some fantastic work by David Lachavanne.

They used to make bricks here, so this is the Venus de Mailly.

The grand entrance steps down to the Vranken Pommery cellars, cut out of the limestone beneath Reims. The Romans started digging pits for building materials and Madame Pommery had tunnels dug between the pits. Cold and moist, just right for storing champagne.

116 steps down, which is about 30 m underground.

Mme Pommery employed a sculptor to brighten the place up for Victorian visitors.

Who knows where these bottles will end up?

The snazzy overhead conveyor system to carry the wicker baskets loaded with bottles.

Some modern art in one of the enormous pits to entertain 21st century visitors.

Mixing the old with the new.

A heart still beating 30 metres underground.

No, not snow, feathers!

Relaxed after a cool glass of Pommery champagne.

Today we leave Reims and its cathedral.

Bye, bye.

OUCH! Paid €41,90 to drive for 2 hours on the motorway today. Have reprogrammed the Sat-Nag to stop that from happening again.

Checked in to Camping Du Lac Kir (€17,34)

Now we have left the Champagne region for Burgundy, so we had to try the local wine – quite fine.

The sun was shining today, so we walked beside the lake and did a bit of reading.

In the river Ouche this morning.

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Kim is reading “A dead man walking” by J. D. Kirk.

Gerhild is still reading “Gute Nacht Tokio”.

The river Ouche offers a quiet route into Dijon, if you ignore Gerhild’s loud new bag.

Nice leafy head in the old town.

Posh house.

Interesting puzzle for rue Musette.

In the Palais des beaux artes (free entry).

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Why are images of baby Jesus never childlike?

So what time is it?

Time to walk back to the campsite.

Nasty yellow light lit up just before we arrived at the Arc en Ciel campsite. (€17,50 ****)

A charming French mechanic in the village fixed it promptly with his automatic diagnostic box. Let’s hope it stays fixed!

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Lunch is ready.

The trees are nicely wrapped up although it’s quite warm today.

Nice view of the Chartreuse national park.

Blue sky all day!

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25°C and a blue sky from dawn to dusk.

We lounged around most of the day and strolled around in the evening.

The river next to our campsite.

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Walking across the valley.

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Kim snapping the „pont romain“.

Until 1860, when the Duchy of Savoy was annexed to France, this bridge served as a border between the States of Savoy and the Kingdom of France.

Great to be in the forest again.

Friendly trees.

The entrance to the 1st cave. (Saint Christopher’s Caves)

Mind your head!

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This way?

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Just produced by dripping water.

Good to come out into the sunshine.

Move to Camping 3 Pucelles. (€23,44 ***)

Today was hot and stressful as we tried to find a Peugeot dealer with time to mend the camper. Our next free appointment is in one month…

The online Peugeot booking system.

Next Peugeot workshop SBLP AUTO Peugeot tells us we may drive back to Berlin and have the camper repaired there. It may take up to 3 weeks to get spare parts…

There is a regular street art festival in Grenoble. https://www.streetartfest.org/

Some are huge.

Some are not.

Can you believe your eyes?

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Even the youngsters have a go with a stick-up.

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Street art on corten steel!

Street art on a scruffy old wall.

How to make a harp from a boring chimney.

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My favourite.

Grenoble is surrounded by mountains.

Driving through the Chartreuse Massif.

Lausanne beach looking out over Lake Geneva.

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Today, Mr. and Mrs. Flexible decided to get up early and head in the direction of Berlin.

The sky over Lausanne early in the morning.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in Marburg (https://www.marburg-tourismus.de/camping-und-wohnmobile/pois)

Marburg was quite cold when arrived so we dived into this cosy restaurant to warm up.

Spider-Man just hanging about, outside the restaurant.

Marburg looks like a nice place.

The river Lahn in the evening.

The camper now greets us with Kein Neustart in 351 km
which is boring as it’s 471 km to get home… Time to find another Peugeot garage.