4th of August is the calculated date on which Robert and I count together 120 years. It’s exactly ten years ago that I celebrated our 100th birthday in Starnberg with a surprise party during the Five Lake Filmfestival, where I showed my first movie called “Ohne Du kein ich” (Without you no me). Matthias Helwig director of the filmfestival supported me to show this shortcut in a morning session in the city hall of Starnberg where family and friends from all different countries joined to be the surprise guests for Robert who did not have a clue of what was going on.
Just to remember this declaration of love to the earth and our beloved ones I share with you this movie again: “OHNE DU KEIN ICH”
https://vimeo.com/136805473?share=copy
After one month being on the “Less-is-more-Tour” we needed a pause which we could take from the 4th to the 7th of August. Due to the wonderful invitation by our friends Günther and Daniel we had made quite a detour through France to visit them at their beautiful “Logis de la Fosse” just a bit inland from the French Atlantic coast. The Monday we just took a “Lundi gras” and slept in, harvested some plums and apricots in their garden. I was for an hour outside the plot and collected a kilo of blackberries which Daniel immediately cooked as jam after we had lunch and a Siesta.
The Tuesday we wanted to get fish at the market of Niort, but due to the holidays hardly anything opened the market. Only some kids by the river of Sèvre were lucky and caught a huge fish, but let it go again. Daniel would have taken it and looked quite disappointed after the beautiful dinner was swimming away again in the clear waters.
As Daniel was originally from La Rochelle, we planned for Wednesday to meet his sister who still lives there. On the way to the highway we stopped by a bike shop as I was already since days fearing that sooner or later my back wheel would have again a flat tire. We brought the wheel to “Culture –velo” and it was quicker repaired than Günther could buy flowers for his sister in law. Already driving into town we were stuck in a traffic jam and all the official parkings were already full. Daniel nearly didn’t recognize his hometown anymore as masses of tourists invaded the place like you only knew from hotspots like Venice or Amsterdam.
After a delicious lunch with Daniel’s sister in the restaurant “Ginger” they left to visit their mother and we had a look at the museum of the New World together with Günther. At least this place was more quiet than the rest of the crowded places in town. We joined Daniel and his sister again later by the beach of La Rochelle for a drink and had a far view over the Atlantic horizon with the glistening hot sun. At least we decided from our first impression that staying at the beach with these masses of people would not be our choice of vacation. It was making us think over our further destinations as we originally planned to take the Way of St. James along the Atlantic coast, but realizing that in the high season all the tourists could be found along the coastline we changed our plan.
Thursday I tried to get my Blog updated and worked outside in the nice shade at the dining table where the air was always moving a little bit. Robert and I were looking at the maps to discuss how we would further continue our “Less-is-more-tour”. We changed our plan to continue more inland and join again the “Way of Saint James” which we he had strated at Vezelay. So we prepared everything for an early start, because temperatures were supposed to rise during the following days.
Our hosts still wanted to show us the beauty of their region which is known for the swamp lands being mastered by the monks in medieval times creating canals and incredible abbeys like the one of “Maillezais” in the middle of pure nature. The name itself was the most complicated way to spell a word in French which sounds in the end just like we would pronounce the word “Meise” in German.
Daniel and Günther spoiled us for the last time with the French dinner ritual of Apero, Entrée, Plats, Fromage and Dessert while a nearly full moon was rising into a blue and pink sky.
