VAN LIFE CHRISTMAS MARKET TOUR IN FRANCE [Snow and Curt in Europe]

all right we are witnessing some farming this  morning this late in the year they are picking   potatoes and you can see the big machine here  and he's about to dump the pile are they potatoes   or are they rud to Vegas I think they're some  sort of they're big giant things whatever they   are I no they're like rudas or something  look at that guys it's got a big augur in there [Music] woo today as we drive south towards  France we'll be leaving Belgium pretty soon   but we decided to take the Country Roads instead  of the interstate like yest yesterday if you've   been following our journey for a while you  know we like the back roads even if they get   a little adventurous now as we were mapping  out our plan last night Kurt spotted a castle   along the way that we could pull off and get a  look at but what's cool about this Castle is it   is privately owned somebody lives in this thing  so we can't take you up there to see it because   it'd be like walking up in somebody's front  yard but it is supposed to be really really   pretty including the drive but especially the  castle it's supposed to be perched up on top   of like a cliff that's kind of over a little  river let's go see if we can find [Music] it   oo I've got this feeling deep within my mind  all the crazy circumstances we just leave   behind [Music] oo leaving early following the  sun you keep saying Life Begins here down the 101 it's like we were made for all the perfect   moments like these I just want us to  get more and forever all of the time I found the castle had to cross the  river let's see if we can get a little   closer wow it's been raining a lot so  it's muddy and slippery and it's cold   it's still early but it's not raining  and there's a little bit of sunshine today see if we can get down here a little  closer and show you this thing can't imagine   living in a castle so the van is right over  there I don't think you can see it through   the trees or parked up there I don't know  if Kurt knows I found a way to the other side but we're going to get a great  view of this Castle up here if we   don't fall down and bust our  butt on this slippery Trail [Music] [Applause] [Music] o it's like we were made for all  the perfect moments like these   I just want us to get more and forever all of the time you'll be [Music] mine all of the time you'll be my [Music] ooh all right I have reached the end of the trail Castle's right up there on that Cliff  definitely reached private property I could   go a little farther except for it's  wet and very slippery I just don't   quite feel like falling into a  river today so let's head back   to the van CT's going to be jealous  that I found a cool Trail without him our day is off to a good start I  did not expect to go on such a long   little walk though I thought I was just  walking 100 ft down to the river but then   I discovered that trail and I just kept  going but it wasn't dressed for it so now   I'm back in the van getting all warm and  cozy it is 46° outside but uh our day is   not over we're southbound headed towards  France windy Country Road let's [Music] go new driver in town we'll probably be going  much slower now Vana is on the dash and snow is   at the wheel which means today is moving day and  we spent a good bit of time coming down through   Brussels we're headed south and we have crossed  the border into France and we are following the   Muse River now if you remember in the last  episode we stopped at Den not that Charming   little town with the Citadel and that was on the  Muse River so we're following that South down here   and just got into France and we've been coming  through the countryside and all these little   Villages and to be honest with you it is I candy  there's churches there's all these uh Rock House   houses Stone houses and of course you got the  river and the leaves and we are having a time   all right we are almost to our camp spot and here  they have some camping car Parks yeah it's a it's   a French thing and they're 99% automated like  you just go up there and you have like almost   like an ATM card and that's how you pay they're  not manned or anything um but get the card most   people order one online and it gets mailed to them  do that but a few of the places are set up where   you can actually buy the card there and we hope  that's what this is we will see in just a minute   here's your jacket I don't think this is going  to be create an account get an access card there   you go okay it looks like we can get one it was a  little hectic while we were getting our setup here   at this new campsite because it's so freaking cold  outside and the sprinkles were starting to come in   but what these are is they're called camping  car Parks France and it's like a network of   campgrounds all around France that are completely  automated to get in you have to have like your own   little credit card it's like an ATM card that  you keep a balance on and it scans at the door   and lets you in in order to get one of those you  need a mailing address or find one of the very   few campsites scattered around France that has  the machine that will give you a card and we had   heard this one had one we came here and it did so  we now have the camping car park card gives us a   whole another option for very convenient camping  here in France so that's the story on that I think   we're probably going to do some editing cuz it's  so cold and we'll see you guys in the morning   because we are heading somewhere that makes me so  incredibly happy because I'll give you a hint it's   the most wonderful time of the year do you hear  the Jingle Bells playing in the background I'm   so excited we'll see youall in the morning good  morning we had a good night's sleep at our camp we   are on the road bright and early we are heading  to a destination that we have had planned for   months and months and months that I am extremely  excited about Kurt's excited too but a little   spoiler alert I'm probably a lot more excited and  you'll see why in a little while first we have to   stop off and make a very important stop we've told  you a little bit about how the bigger cities over   here in Europe have uh emissions controls and  you have to have stickers on your windshield   to get into certain parts of town to prove that  you've got a you know an engine that meets the   emission requirements we've been told that we can  get one of those at a Mercedes dealership uh so   we're going to stop and do that because when  you order them online they take like two weeks   to show up you have to have a delivery address  and when you live a lifestyle like us delivery   addresses are extremely difficult especially  to plan ahead so we've got our fingers crossed   that a Mercedes dealership will be able to help  us with that so that's stop number one and stop   number two should be the Super exciting place are  you excited KT yeah see I told you he's excited   but I'm like a little kid on Christmas morning  okay we found a Mercedes dealership we popped   into two different departments to ask the question  about whether we could get the emissions sticker   for our windshield here both places thought we  were a little bit crazy so I'm guessing right   here anyway the answer is no man's on the dash  Kurt's whipping up some lunch in the parking lot   it's really kind of chilly outside and uh some of  you guys may be wondering why we just didn't find   an address and get this thing mailed in advance  when you're in the computer system we did try to   do that through the official government website  when you're in the computer system you have to   put the country where the vehicle is registered  and then they're going to want you to enter your   title and your registration and all your car  documents the United States isn't an option   in the drop- down box so you can't get past that  section and Kurt sent an email over to them and   they basically told us the United States couldn't  we I mean we couldn't with the van register in the   United States not through them so we were we  were trying this other option because we had   heard some people had along the way maybe if it's  convenient we'll pop into another Mercedes or two   and ask the question but uh I guess we'll just  see what happens when we get to these low emission areas all right guys we told you about the  automation here's a little grocery store you   can get pretty much all your fruits and veg and  then they have like a lot of salted Meats even   some eggs 5 lbs five bucks for a dozen eggs here  you can get some sodas some spices they had all   kinds of different little treats you can get in  all these different cases hummus and croutons or   crackers there's some rice peeloff and tomato  ketchup I don't know what kind of combination   that is here you get some sardines and some  sauces here you go salt tanata and sardines   looks like a popular combination they have soda  machine which is pretty standard but then over   here they got a bread machine and I think the  bread machine might even be out of bread so   there's that and then over here they even have  more one of these is I think a pizza and then the   other one is like chips and snacks and drinks and  cookies and things like that D so you can get a a cake I don't know how you get a rotate  it and you got your candies and things   and then we've seen these before but this  is the automated Pizza machines and this   one says 3 minutes you get your pizza all  right we're coming through an automated   toll booth this is the second one today the  last one was $11 this one is going to be drum rope very complicated it does not tell me how  much it was and it does not give us a receipt today has been a lot about driving say  when it's all said and done we probably got 3 and   1/2 to 4 hours of driving we will have done today  after we left our little camp side this morning we   are driving east along the very Northern edge of  France so right over there is Belgium we've been   going through Rolling Green Hills and we're  catching the very tail end of leaf season so   there's only a few leaves still on the trees  but you look out and you see pretty churches   and we drive through a lot of little towns we  did our best to avoid the big roads but we have   a destination that we are taking you to and this  area is called the alace region of France now it   has several things that make it really cool the  first one is it has had centuries being tossed   back and forth between Germany and France they  have fought over this little sliver of land for a   long long time now of course recent history has it  being French but what that meant was up here there   is a culinary culture a fusion of German food and  French food so this area is famous for its food   it is also famous for all of its small and some  of them are a little large beautiful Villages   medieval Villages lots of little beautiful  churches and town centers so it is known   for that have not done it's also known as a wine  region there are wineries all over the place this   is is a great place to do a wine tour but that is  not why we are here we are here as we are rolling   into the holiday season and all of these little  Villages and cities throughout this region put   on Christmas markets and we plan on taking you to  as many of them as we can now we're rolling into   the one in the very Northern section of the alace  region but we will be driving South and hitting   numerous of these little Villages and showing  you all different styles and kinds of Christmas   markets what that means is we're going to continue  to put videos out on Saturdays and Wednesdays as   usual but you guys may get a few bonus videos as  we roll into Christmas over the next week or so   so if you've been following the journey you know  how much I love Christmas I am extremely excited   to give round take theth exit all all right merry  Christmas we have a conundrum Noel heana how do   you say that heana so heo have an ex in it all  right anyway those are linguistic problems that   we find ourselves in no matter where in the world  we are but we are headed down to the Christmas   Market and snow I think has already said it she is  excited and she is all bundled up it's about 37°   F the rain has snapped stopped and I would not be  surprised if we don't get some flurries I pulled   out the heavy artillery jacket and we can see sort  of the church Steeples sticking up snow has a big   old giant grin on her face and she definitely  has Christmas tree Envy as the as the street is   just lined with Christmas trees all right so this  is the plan we already have Christmas lights left   over from last year going to hang those in the  van tonight or in the morning and at each market   I'm going to buy one decoration of course it will  be small and very economical which will be hard   but we will decorate the van as we go through  the Christmas Market so as far as the alace   region goes we are at the northernmost Christmas  Market in the region and we but right up next to   I believe it's one of France's largest forests  so as we were driving here we came through a   lot of Timber stuff and from what I read There  are two Carpenters artists actually that carve   these nativities every year from the forest  that we bought up next to this is duck liver   right exactly duck liver or they call it fatty  duck liver sometimes no yeah it's if I translate   what word would be a fat liver f because for the  process of of making it we need to make them fat   that's why it's a bit controversial because force  them to eat kind of you want to try to no I'm okay   thank you I'm not courageous yeah I'm a chicken  that's a proper French French dish like every   French I actually I have tried it in Whistler one  year that is really good is it good so that's good   yeah it is it is that one is our regular one so  it's just salt and pepper and in my area like in   the B country we produce a chili It's called Chili  Pepper from espet espet is the village where we   produce it and that chili is known for his taste  and not the spice it's not properly spicy so I   have a version of the faga made with our our all  right I'll try one it's good I think you'll like   it it's not Livery like you would think it's no  I know that the L being scar snow is being very brave oh it is really good yeah was  really good yeah there's green cheese look P pesto Pento how you doing if you want test this one is con con  13 months conser 13 months and this one is   th Withers if you want to test you [Music] caners  very good woo that's sharp that's good very good   every cheese here is very good yes that one is  woo yeah that is good cheese thank thank you Med see wow [Music] m m it's sweet  and chewy and it's got nuts in   it I need to try it you're going  to love [Music] this thank you so much it's like fudge Divinity saltwater taffy  so good all together and it's incredible it's   so good it's $75 a kilo €75 a kilo so I got to  be honest there's so many unique things here that   I haven't seen but they have beeswax candles and  here they have well not only have beeswax candles   but beeswax wine candles all that stuff and then  you come to this booth and it's everything is made   with cork cork watches cork glass cases cork shoes  cork slippers cork hats everything cork it is so   cool all right my wonderful plan of getting a  Christmas ornament from each Village I don't   think it's going to work for two reasons one the  ones we can afford are generic and I've seen them   literally in the grocery stores the ones that I  would want that kind of document the the village   and the area and the region are just way too big  for our van and more importantly way too expensive   so we will just be stopping by a grocery store  making our van festive with some very economical   decorations and we'll worry more about experiences  trying some of the local Cuisine and drinks if   I see something I fall in love with I'll get it  but I'm not going to force it at each Village all   right it is official this Christmas Market is off  the charts the food here and the drinks they smell   so delicious and then you go up and you have like  a little snack of some little sweet treat we had   F gr which I know is controversial but it was so  tasty they've got like these cinnamon drinks these   Breads and everything you can think of and we got  to figure out which one we want because we need   to get warmed up so we're going to go figure that  out grab something and go have a bite to eat and   some warm drink all right I asked the nice family  right here behind us how to properly pronounce   the name of this Village it is hagu Hau in French  and I think it was in German it's havenu but it's   hagu in French so we got it Hau Hau we made it  back to to the van it was getting quite chilly   out there huh it's toasty in here it is Toasty in  our van our little diesel heater warms this place   right up but what a really amazing experience I  think it really kind of surprised me in a very   positive way there was a lot of unique booths  there of stuff we had never seen and the food   yeah oh the atmosphere the food the people it's  the holiday spirit is all around you the lights   all the stores are decorated up was a good way  to kick off our Christmas Market tour stopped   raining it did it stopped raining um we ended up  going for churos with some Nutella to dip it in   and two hot chocolates we got cute little mugs  with the name of the village on it uh little   Christmas mugs that came with our hot chocolate so  that's a nice little souvenir I think we can get   one of those at every Market we go to I think  it's a thing here but um yeah the lights all   started coming on and twinkling as the night was  winding down we're camped about 15 minutes away so   we had to walk about 15 minutes but through  a beautiful little village with or without   Christmas lights this is a cool little town and  I can tell you there were so many tasty little   treats and things that we did not try because  we are saving them for the next one yes we'll   have to try a different treat and a different  drink in every village but with that guys we   are going to stay bundled up here in our van for  the night wind this video down we'll see you guys   in a few days from stur the largest Christmas  Market in all of France excited about this one   guys Cheers Cheers merry Christmas 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

2023-12-22 08:53

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