Merry Christmas Eve From France [Van Life Christmas Market Tour]

woohoo guys it got down to 20° last night but  our new Plumbing where we re replumbed some of   the van before we left South America to get it  ready for these winter temperatures held up fine   but there is one little downside to the really  cold freezing temperatures and that is we uh we   need to find showers at campsites or somewhere  else because we have to drain our shower tank   so that that plumbing doesn't freeze so today  we are hoping to find a campground where we'll   be able to shower and uh kind of clean up the  van rejuvenate from this past week of hitting   all of these amazing Christmas markets so today  is about errands and resting up and uh taking   care of the van a little bit maybe hopefully if it  gets warm enough taking the kitties for a walk but   we are right outside maybe 5 minutes outside of a  little town here in the southern part of the alace   region that is supposed to be the most beautiful  Village in this area of all I don't know how they   can do that but that's what they're telling us  so tomorrow we will take you for one final walk   through for a Christmas Market it rolls us right  into the amazing holiday season but first things   first guys we need a shower hopefully Kurt has had  some luck because this place looks slam [Music] packed all right I think it was like $32 so  priciest place place yet but they do have showers   they have fresh water which is what we need and  they got bread I got a baguette and I got some   breakfast uh chocolate pan so we have some food  we're out of groceries and we forgot that all the   grocery stores are closed on Sundays we've got  enough groceries we're not going to starve we're   not going to starve to death we probably skip  a meal or two anyway but did we get a spot with   electricity or no we got a spot with electricity  we have showers so we get everything caught up   done toilet cleaned everything and then hit the  road running tomorrow yep let's go get parked   good morning from a village that right now we're  going to call Ricky wear spelled very unusually   hopefully we can find a local to tell us how to  say it it is snowing it was not snowing when we   first woke up but as we drove here it started to  snow this is a small little village only 1,600   people live here so during tourist Prime Times  like the Christmas Market we just discovered it   is very difficult to find a place to park but  we did it we have a parking place and we're   headed to the market so from 9: to 7: we have  to pay to park 3 hours € 10 so we got 3 hours I've been eyeballing a new hat at all of  these Christmas markets where you from   We're from Florida from the United States  yeah I know it's beautiful yeah but more   warm yeah more warm yes and I finally  pulled the trigger on one I'll show it   to you in just a second so my old one is 10  years old and it didn't quite cover up my ears I got ears I uh and I got warm  real ears should have bought it a few   markets ago but I hated to spend the money when   I had one but this one just didn't  keep my ears warm look at this snow [Music] guys all right those are the  kind of Christmas tree ornaments that   I'd be buying if we had a house  those glass bobbles for something this is the perfect breakfast food booth  for me and Kurt on this side you got the   sausage and potatoes just like he makes in  his Skillet every morning come look at this   side Donuts sugar now I don't eat that anymore  after my heart I eat oatmeal every morning but   in the old days would have been something  like that donut every morning for breakfast   so in the last last Village we visited we were  fortunate enough to get some little snowflakes   and it was nice it was just a nice little dusting  but these snowflakes today and what is considered   to be one of the most beautiful villages in the  whole ala region we have these giant snowflakes   and to be honest with you this is probably  the most intensely decorated every building   has all these pine trees and Santa Clauses and  ornaments and mistletoes and poinsettas and big   bulbs and flowers and Santa and reindeers  and pine cones and just all types of stuff   and big polar bears along these timbered houses  what a gorgeous Place another thing about this   beautiful Village or small town in the Ala region  is that this is the most historical historically   preserved of all of them and there are several  buildings here that day back I don't know to   the 15 16 1700s oh 1200s and 13 14 and 15 but  there's some really old ones here did you tell   them how many buildings are here K all right so  this is one of the smallest Villages throughout   the region 1,600 people live here but it has  the third most historical building um Third   only to Strasburg and Kar which are big cities  so I mean for the size of the town they should   have like four or five of these buildings but  they have 48 or 49 I can't remember but it's   almost 50 of them so this Village is beautiful  for sure the Christmas decorations along this   Main Street and even the side streets are off  the charts look at these ladies stirring and   rolling getting ready to make some bread or some  cookies if you could smell it here I would tell   you it's cookies I was right it's a Cookie Shop  oh and it smells good look at this gingerbread house oh how I wish you guys could smell it in  here it smells [Music] incredible all right this   has been a beautiful but short little visit  to this little town and the main reason we're   going to cut this one a little short guys is I'm  sure you can see this snow in the video but it   is coming down not only are the flakes giant  but there is accumulation on these streets so   I'm sure there's accumulation out there and well  we're not used to driving in the snow we've been   on some crazy dangerous roads in South America  hanging off cliffs and bouncing and rocking and   rolling but the ice and snow is a new thing and  so Snow's a Florida girl and uh well she'll be   a little panicked if we're driving in the weather  and it doesn't make sense to anyway so we're going   to try to get on the road before the accumulation  gets too bad we're completely out of groceries so   we need some food so if we need to hunker down  we need to supply up before we do that so we're   going to head out of this beautiful place but I do  have to tell you thank you guys so much for being   through the holidays I think one of the guy things  that may not be apparent as we travel in a van is   that you know we're often times by ourselves and  of of course we meet people along the way but we   are a long way from our family and our friends  and our Social Circle and we certainly miss that   portion of our life and it becomes more apparent  around the holiday times than any other and so   we just really appreciate you guys being along  for the journey we appreciate your comments and   thank you guys for watching en joining the journey  and it's so great to have you guys here so cheers   merry Christmas happy holidays Happy Hanukkah  whatever snow I says whatever holiday you're   celebrating in for whatever reason we're with  [Music] you should make a snowball pounds Kurt   all right snow has been eyeballing these things  since strawberg really I think is when she saw   him Roasting On the Open Fire yeah I've never  had a chestnuts roasted like this now it looks   like here they call them mcon Maron I thought  it was Cron's Maron Maron eat them when we get   in the van or at least one we may try a few  more let's try one now all right I don't know   how the mystery how do you open these things  oh they just kind of peel off pretty [Music] [Music] easy here we go Big T they good they're good open up well we never did find out how to properly  pronounce that town but just to recap we'll   spell it because it's really really an unusually  spelled name but I think everybody was right as   far as architecture and the buildings that was  a stunning Little Village I can imagine that   visiting it any time of the year is amazing but  they really do it a good for the Christmas Market   more of a traditional Market a lot of things for  sale a lot of very interesting artsy things and   all the foods we've been seeing along the way  and the smells in the air and then the snow I   mean we had snow at the Village the other day  but this was like big fluffy snowflakes which   made it really really pretty in the background  you got Vineyards everywhere on the Hills going   up around this Village but this much snow was  not forecast I think C may have told you that   so we are going to hit the road we are out of  food our first stop is to head to an allies to   stock up on food and we'll regroup based on the  weather so let's go for a ride on the snowy icy   roads so it had stopped snowing when we were in  the grocery store but as you can see Vana on the   dash watching the snowflakes fall again got to  get some fuel that's four or 5 minutes away then   we're going to head to our campsite and then do  a check on the weather but we're headed to the   city of kar which is supposed to be a bigger  city not quite as big as Strasburg where we   started out up here but bigger than these little  Villages we've been to and it's supposed to have   some amazing architecture right Kurt yeah it's  supposed to be a cool another one of these cool   uh sort of Timber City I think Beauty and the  Beast Beauty and the Beast sort of a a backdrop   or what Disney kind of themed their stuff after  I guess I mean it's just already pretty territory   so I think this is going to be our last City in  this region so hopefully we go out with a bang   so the snow seems to be turning to rain as we get  closer to Kar Kar is known as the capital of the   wine route through the alace region here it is  the biggest city of all of these it's not as big   as Strasburg but strasburg's technically not on  the alus wine route but uh we're excited to get   to this city there should be some really cool  stuff to show you here we can't go right here   Kurt got a little thing there that tells us we're  too tall to go where it wants us to go 800 right fr30 our first camping parking lot option in  the city was full solid so we're headed to   the second one y'all cross your fingers to  stay on rud J option number two solid full   of Camper vans oh my God this is ridiculous  all right guys our third option kind of tells   the story there are too many motor homes in  the city of gar right now so we pulled back   into this camping spot there are literally 10  10 camper vans lined up to get in waiting we   drove past the line cuz we thought they were  parked on the way out we saw that they were   not they were waiting the place is already  full to the hillt and I'll be honest with   you guys I know some of you have been around  here in Europe traveling for a long time keep   saying drop eye Overlander and go to park for  night but our experience in this little bitty   short time has been if you want to find the  RVs use park for night if you want to use if   you want to find parking use the Google or I  Overlander or another method maybe it's just   because of the ala's Christmas route but this  place is overloaded with camper vans so that   means we will not be showing you the city of  kar at least on this time through here we have   to zigzag back and forth across Europe numerous  times to maintain our visa requirements who knows   maybe we get back here in the future sorry  guys let's see what's next starts doing some researching so we plugged in the town of Thon  th NN which is south of here it is about a 40   minute drive what is special about Tha is  it is the very southern end of the alaan   wine route so I guess it's a good place to  wind this this whole alation tour down so   that's where we're headed hopefully we can  find somewhere to park the van there all   right G is out in the snow we'll see what he  thinks what do you think your feet are getting [Music] cold [Music] aren't your feet cold aren't your feet cold [Music] buddy we made it to thawn and we found the  perfect free campsite just a short walk from   the downtown City square and backed right  up to a pretty river right Kurt it's right there this little parking lot is designed  for campers and there are four of us here   right now and you may notice that there  is a quite a bit of snow down here I   think they've been getting a little  more snow than we've been getting to   the north this Florida girl's got to  figure out how to walk in this stuff Kurt so unfortunately guys it looks like this Market  is not open it's a small Market maybe it's only   a weekend Market but the websites I found said  it would be open but we can tell it clearly is   not but it does not take away from how pretty  these trees are and look at this church so I   can imagine this would be bustling if it was  open each one of the these shops would have   some something it was selling some craft some  food some drink but we've taken you guys to   enough of the markets that I think you can use  your imagination and know what this place would   be like if it was booming but like Kurt said it's  kind of nice just to see it all nice and quiet and   enjoy just the pretty of the decorations the Town  architecture is amazing and this beautiful church   this might turn out to be just the perfect  way to finish our Christmas Market tour off   so many Christmas trees some of them look like  they've probably been decorated by the kids that   live here in this town oh wow wait till you guys  see the front of this church [Music] oh [Music] de the HS with bows of H la la la la la la  la la is the season to be J la la la la la   la la la don't we now our gay appar la la la  la la la la to the Ang you car la la la la la see the Blazing you before us  F la la la la la la la la strike   the heart and join the chorus la la la  la la la la la follow me in Mery Meer   la la la la la la la while I tell  of your treasure la la la la la la la fast away the old year passes F  la la la la la la la la hail the New   Ye Lads and laugh la la la la la la  la la sing We joyous all together la   la la la la la la la heedless of the  wind and WEA la la la la la [Music] la it is almost time to wind this video down  H we are rolling right into Christmas and we   hope you enjoyed this Christmas Market tour  through the alace region of France a couple   of things first maybe we do this again next  year but pick a different country maybe we   do it German or swiss or Austria tell us if you  enjoyed this this burst of Christmas videos to   kind of bring the holiday spirit into everybody's  house if you did maybe we'll do it to get next   year and second we want to wish everyone happy  holidays uh we love sharing this journey with   all of you guys out there and uh we may not  all know you all personally but our YouTube   family feels a lot like family to us we really  enjoy the interactions and the comments and uh   all the good graces y'all send to us the prayers  through the hard times the Goodwill wishes it's   just really nice having you guys here with us  so we are thankful for you this holiday season   and no matter what holiday you you celebrate as  you know it's quite clear for us it's Christmas   but be kind spread good cheer love your neighbor  all that good stuff the next time we see you guys   it'll be after Christmas and almost time to roll  into a Brand New Year happy holidays guys we'll   see you in a few days cheers if you like this  video be sure to subscribe to our Channel and   hit that notification Bell so you guys know  when we put out new videos and don't forget   you can always follow us over on Instagram to  see what's going on in between videos cheers guys [Music]

2023-12-26 00:16

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