First camper overnight trip and a visit to Domaine Lachat

You wouldn't say it's summer. It's been raining way too much and temperatures are way too low. It is truly an exceptional year and I just felt like escaping from it all. So I decided to turn our van into a very basic camper van and go camping and spend a first night in the van. Something I've been wanting to do for a long time. So I'm going to see Anne and Thijs, two Dutch people that I've met on Instagram. So they're a Dutch couple and they moved to France, I don't know, I think a couple of years ago. They opened their holiday homes I think last year, 2020. And when I contacted her yesterday, she said give me a call when you're about 20 minutes, 10 minutes away from our home because I'll be in the vineyards. So they bought, I don't know, they bought maybe an old winemaker's house. I think they have vineyards. I think she started making wine or maybe she's done this before. I don't know. We don't really know each other. We've just met on Instagram and I'm going to ask her and her husband why they moved and what life is like being a winemaker. Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine, you are my sunshine. Sunshine on a rainy day. Sunshine on a rainy day. You are my sunshine, sunshine. So now is probably a good time to show you my van disguised as a camper van. Of course this is the camper van. We need this van for all of our building works, for getting materials, for taking branches and sand and dirt to the dumpster. So you know I would love to turn this into a real camper van but it's just too soon. But I think it's disguised pretty well. So I want to invite you to come see what we did. So in an ideal world you would insulate the whole thing. There is no insulation. This is probably going to be super humid during the night but if you take that into account I guess I'm fine. There's no ventilation. Olaf this morning he did tell me you know what if we would just do that. If we just install the ventilation so you can close the van and lock it during the night and still have some fresh air coming in. This night I will just leave a door open or maybe this door or the back door or the side door and get fresh air in. I bought a mosquito net thing so that will keep the bugs out. So I just cleaned everything. I just cleaned the floor, the walls, the ceiling. That's it. And then on the inside I didn't do much. This used to be a florist's van. So the guy or woman who owned it before put these in I think for just putting buckets with flowers. I don't know. So this was pretty convenient. I've been using this for tools. I have that whole this area here below is my construction brocante hunting area. So there's tools to tie things to the van. There's like all kinds of things that I use. So I've left that. So you know I mean it's convenient for now. I've got a few blankets, rope, like everything you would need when you go brocante hunting. And I thought it might come in handy when I go camping. So and then this area I'll call this my kitchen. So there's fresh water. I've got some tap water that I'll use for rinsing things or you know just like I always do when I take this van out for day trips. There's a small box in here with just some tools that I might need. Some duct tape, a screwdriver and stuff like that. Batteries. And that's it basically. Oh yeah and I've got lights. And it doesn't work because I see the thing opened and one of the batteries fell out. That's why I've got spare batteries and duct tape to hold it all together. And then there's this area just the side of the van. There's not much to see. I just put a mattress in with some blankets underneath. Cleaned the floor. It's got my clothes. And then over here I have my gas stove thing. My toilet. And it's really nice because I just arrived at Anne's and she actually has an outdoor shower and toilet that she uses for her pool. It's a pool house. It even has a small kitchen. If ever you're wanting to come to this region Beaujolais, you're looking for a really beautiful holiday home, you should check this place out. I'll put a link in the description. I've never met Anne before. I just met today. We met on Instagram. But I could see that you know the way she decorated the place and the atmosphere and the views from the pool. I'll try to take some shots and show you. So this is just a box where I have all kinds of things that I could need. It's my tech gear. It's my pots and pans. Some food. Just everything that I would need. And then that's about it. And you can hear the winemakers working in the fields. All the machinery. Gosh I love this area. I love this part of France so so much. It is just it's just gorgeous. And so this is my view from my van. And actually just just ignore the wires. The electricity wires. All the electricity is above the ground in France. So you see them everywhere. You can't escape it. But that hill. I didn't know. I didn't realize. But she said that is Montbrouilly. So that's the hill where you were in one of my earlier vlogs. I was on that hill with the small chapel. I might go back there if I find some time. It's just just amazing. You smell. You put your nose in it. And then you're supposed to say what it smells like. Yeah. And then I go it smells like red wine. Yeah. Instead of strawberries. And then you take and tell me what you think. Yeah. And then you say oh it's it's I feel it's really fresh. Intelligent remarks. Yeah. Or you just simply say oh I like it. And the first thing I learned about wine tasting is either you like it or you don't like it. Yeah. Yeah. And everything is allowed. So if you have an association oh you think strawberries. Yeah. Then you smell strawberries. Yeah. If you smell avocado you smell avocado. Yeah. It's like there's no right or wrong. So can you tell me what took you to France. It's like everybody wants to know. Is it the same story. Well it's the same story but maybe a different reasons why France was a dream. I think since I grew up I always came to France for vacation with my parents. So I always had a love for France. Since 2000 my mom has a second home here. Oh yeah. Like an hour north of here. And in this region I already come since 2000 to taste wine. And we always said okay if we we're gonna save a lot of money and then we're gonna retire early in France. Ah wow. Yeah. Saving the money. We're saving money. We are more about spending money. Enjoying the life. Enjoying life as you live it. This moment. Yeah. But then we were both working in finance. Busy jobs. Two small boys. And then we were like running from daycare to daycare. Sort of fighting who needed to pick up the kids. And then work in the weekends. Work in the evenings. And then we said well there has to be a different way. And then Anneke told about her dream that she always had a dream to have a better breakfast. Yeah. I before I worked in finance I studied at a hotel school. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I always had the idea that one day I would start a better breakfast somewhere. Small little. Yeah like small little. But also with the idea oh I will do that when I'm 50. Yeah. But yeah then we just figured. And then we said okay but what's the worst thing that can happen. We'll just try it and if we don't like it we'll be back in two years. Yeah. Or three years or whatever. I mean it's not. And our kids were. At least we tried it then and we went for it. Yeah. Two and three before. No school. No school yet. So we thought actually this is a great moment to move and start a new life here. First I looked for a job for financial security at least. We thought that was important. Pretty quickly because we made the decision in October to go for it. And then in December I had my interview. January I had an off letter. And in June we left there. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we never gonna leave. No. No? No. We made the right decision. I mean just look at you know. Yeah. This is your life now. Yeah. Actually from the start we were extremely. I'm originally born and raised in Amsterdam so in the Netherlands I only wanted to live in Amsterdam. But I don't miss it at all. What would you say is the biggest difference between France, French culture? I don't know if we have enough battery. For all the differences. For all the differences. What's the biggest thing? The biggest thing I think is that everything is. Life is more slowly here. Yeah. Which is actually a good thing I think. Sometimes in the beginning we really had to get used to the fact that if you like you have a meeting or you say oh we're gonna have dinner let's come over at six. Like nobody comes over at six. Everybody's always late and yeah things take a long time. But yeah but actually it's nice if you're not always in a hurry and you just take things a lot more slowly. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's less stress and it's more about I said it enjoy the good life. Yeah. It's about food. It's about wine. People have a lot more love and care. I mean people. Only two things important during the day is lunch. Food. Yeah. Lunch and dinner. Lunch and dinner. And the wine. Yeah. And the rest is around that. I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They take their time for lunch. Yeah. Yeah. And they're willing to spend money for quality food. It's less processed food I think. Yeah. Yeah. And the wine. I was wondering was that something you always. Because that's. Is that your project? Well it's my weekend project. My second job. My daily job in Thais is a weekend. Yeah. Weekend job. But no we didn't come here at all to make wine. That was not the idea. But we found this house and it's an old winemakers farm. And it came with a vineyard. And at first we didn't know what we would do with it. Maybe rent it out or. And then actually we became friends with a lot of neighbors and they're all winemakers here. And somebody suggested once. It was Michel. Yeah. You could also try it yourself. Yeah. And then the seed was planted. Like oh yeah. Is that even an option? Yeah. Yeah. And it all started rolling. It feels like it's quite rare to have a vineyard that comes with the house. That it wasn't sold to anyone else. Yeah. So the vineyard was at the back of the house. Yeah. We actually ripped it out. Because we. Oh where I'm parked. Yeah. Yeah. The land there where you don't see any wines. Yeah. That's also ours. So we ripped it out. Because initially we thought yeah well we don't know what to do with it. And it was. They were very old. They were not super. We asked some friends if they wanted to work it. They were not interested. So that already indicates. Bad soil. Good potential. But it was just not treated very well in the past. Yeah. And then we got the opportunity to buy the vineyard here around. Oh yeah. And we really wanted to buy it anyways. Because we didn't want like any. Because it's around the pool and it's where our kids play. And we didn't want any any pesticides or anything used. So we wanted to buy it anyway. To block the fuel. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody can ever build something there. Yeah exactly. But then yeah. And then I did a study in Boon. Then I started doing like a winemaker school. Yeah. And working with other winemakers around this. You did an internship. And then did an internship. Yeah. And that's how we started. Yeah. We have our first vintage. So this is the first one. Yes. Yes. From the harvest from last year. That was a good year. I don't know anything about wines. And you say that was a very good year. It was a very warm and dry year. Yeah. So the yields were low. But the quality was high. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Low production. But the quality was good. Yeah. And we do everything ourselves. So yeah. From harvest to beautification. Yeah. And then we have luckily friends around us. I think in general. French. I mean where we live. Everybody is so friendly. And people come and greet you. And they come and say hello. And try really. Yeah. And then Burgundy is not. I feel it here in Beaujolais. They say the people in Beaujolais are even way nicer. That's what they say here. It's right. They say people in Burgundy aren't as open. No. But I think our village is just very open. Let's say the people in the bush are much nicer. I don't know. But that was my biggest worry maybe upfront. That people here would be like hesitant of foreigners to come here. Yeah. And yeah. Maybe not positive towards that. But that's not at all the case. They were super welcoming. Everybody was happy. It's good for the town. Good for the region. And how did you know this was the house? How long were you looking for a house? How long did it take? First house. It was the first house? Yeah. Really? It was sort of by accident. Because actually as you know in France there's no funda. Yeah. You only have like a little. A lot of little smaller websites with not the best pictures normally. And multiple agents can have a single house. That was the thing that we were so surprised about. Yeah. Someone can sell it and then your agent might not even know that. So it's really different markets. Yeah. Yeah. And then the pictures are not good. So you just randomly. It's unbelievable. I mean my four-year-old. It's unbelievable but it's still the case. And here you get three pictures randomly. Very dark. Not even clean. No. Some disgusting bathroom. And the dishes are all in the picture. Yeah. So it was pretty hard to select houses to. So we found some houses just yeah. On the internet. So you did find it on the internet. No no no. Not this one. We randomly selected a house and then I approached the agent. And then I did add some email correspondence and explained we can either do this price category or a little bit cheaper but with a lot of potential. Yeah. And then we were actually being Dutch. We were in one hour early before our meeting. I still called her. I said okay. Do you know what? I know one place that you might be interested. And then we drove here. Anna was not right away convinced. No. It was in the beginning I thought yeah this is too much. It was too much worse. It was disgusting inside. It was like. Yeah. Well there was no electricity also. So it was very hard to see in the dark. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And where we're sitting now there were all trees. So you didn't have the open view. Yeah. The pool area was completely like wild. Yeah. Nobody took care for that for like five or six years. So it was like everything was. Bushes everywhere. Bushes. You have to see the potential I think. And even when the houses are renovated you don't know how it's done. It's usually very poorly done. You need to redo the whole thing. So actually in the end I think this is the best way because the walls are good. We had somebody look at the construction. Yeah. Everything was fine. So then yeah you can sort of build it up your own way. You made four. You have four holiday homes. Yes. We have four sheets. Yeah. That's all this area. And yeah we started renovating those so that we could start with that and of course the pool. Yeah. And next step will be our own house because we still have the old French wallpaper against the walls. Yeah. Rustic. Rustic. Rustic decoration. Our bathroom is like 60 years old. I've seen the sheets. They are amazing. Yeah. Really. Thank you. That you're the interior. Madame Deko. Moi je suis Madame Deko à la maison. Actually we did it together. Ah yeah. Yeah. It's not really my thing. My thing also not where I actually participated. Yeah. It was actually fun to do it. And we. Yeah. They're all a little bit different. So I didn't want them to look like each other. On purpose we just. Because we had some time we just bought like two or three big things and then first put it down and then. And then see what needs to. Yeah. What needs to be added and what's nice with it. Yeah. And for the like the some important stuff we just like search for good quality like the curtains. We had somebody from here actually from around us do the curtains and like really nice quality with bright colors and yeah. What would you say to people who are thinking about making this pool and are saying I can't. It's too early. I don't have the money. I don't know. What would you say to them? Don't do it as early as possible. If I look back I would. I think why didn't we do this 10 years earlier. Yeah. But yeah live your dream. What's the worst thing that can happen. I mean you're back in two or three years. Yeah. You can always go back. You do need to think about. I mean of course it was me having a job makes it easier. Yeah. Yeah you do. Of course you have to think about having some kind of plan or idea. But if you have an idea then yeah follow it. Let's go. And if you have kids and you're worried about that I would say that in our case the kids are super flexible. Yeah. They will just quickly. And they adapt and if the parents are happy. I think the first day was. I will never forget that first day that Harry went to school. He didn't speak one word of French. And he was four years old. Four years old. And we learned. The only sentence we learned to him. How do you need to ask for the bathroom. Oh yeah. That's what we did. And then you could see that the first few days it was difficult for him because he didn't speak one word of French. But he was holding himself strong for us. Yeah. Almost make you start to cry yourself then. But yeah after a few months I could notice that they started the first French word words between the two of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now they are they are fluently French. I think many of the risks we have in our head. So we think if I do this then that might happen and life will be horrible. And then we actually do it turns out that it's not as tricky as it seemed when you were. Of course you can never plan everything ahead. I mean there will be stuff which will be frustrating or it will not go as you want to. Especially in France it will it will take a lot a lot more time. Everything will take more time. It will take more time. In the beginning we were annoyed about it but now we can almost laugh about it. So we drank. How do you say that in English. Cheers. Oh we drink to that. We drink to a successful move. A good life in France. Yeah. And following your dreams. Yes. I had fainted. They carried me. They cleared the way to my heart. Thank you to Maddie for rescuing me. Thank you to summer for three years. I drove back to Montbrouilly. The place I was a few weeks ago I think. I made another vlog. I just discovered it by accident. And yesterday while I was talking to Anne she said you know the hill over there that's Montbrouilly. So I decided to come back here today. I'm giving a training for my training business and I don't know what time it is. Probably an hour. Thank you to Maddie for rescuing me. Thank you summer for three years. I can't believe what is happening. Let me see. I don't know if you can see it. But there is an antenna over there and I am supposed to upload a whole bunch of videos for my training business. I haven't been able to do this. I've been going to co-working spaces. There seemed to be a bug or something in Vimeo. I've been sitting here like a video that would take all night at home has just uploaded and converted in less than five minutes. So I just texted Olaf and said I may take a little longer because I think I'm going to stay here and upload all of them. So that will be finished. The things you appreciate when you don't have them. Just a small reminder that to be grateful for whatever you take for granted in your life.