Bicycle Touring France _ Exploring the Jura Mountains ( + the most incredible invitation! )

Hey good morning. We slept on this path here and that for us was not the most ideal place. We had some problems before in Bosnia. But this night was a crazy night. I dreamt about people coming to the tent and running away from the tent in the rain and couldn't find the tent anymore. So crazy things. But this is a pretty densely populated area. There are people living on the other side of the valley over there and also on top of this hill here. So it was really difficult to find a quiet spot for us to put up the tent. And we found this fallen branch here. After that we put up the tent. But look at this. It's just like a kind of a in Africa they make also these encampments called Bomas to safeguard against dangerous animals, lions and everything. And nobody came by and it was really quiet. And actually I was worried about nothing. The moral of the story is you can always find a beautiful place to sleep. And I liked it to be back in the woods again. Yeah but then I like to be in the woods and not on a path somewhere with some broken branches to safeguard yourself for possible intruders. Wow. Effort, effort for the shots guys. Give it a thumbs up. Oh are you not hurt? No. Okay. The Jura mountain range is very old and gives its name to perhaps the most well-known geological time period. The Jurassic. For us the name Jura sounds really inspiring. It derives from a latinized Celtic meaning forest. And we thought it would make a lovely name for a future pet. The iconic horizontal rock layers give a special feel to the whole area. Like being able to see a cross section of the earth's crust. Hey we just got asked by a man. He stopped us with his car if we wanted to stay at his house. He's a warm showers host and he hosts cyclists. And it's just about that time that we wanted to camp. So it's perfect. So let's see how this pans out. We are welcomed here by Elodie and Antoine in their beautiful house in the Jura mountains. They travel the world and they now have their roots here together with their children Lou and Sasha. The house is amazing and we are so inspired for our own house ideas for the future. And yeah we would love to show you a little bit of that. Hello my name is Elodie and I'm an art teacher. I have two children. And my name is Antoine. I'm teaching physical education in high school. I'm the father of Sasha and Louie. How did you guys meet each other and how did your relationship develop? I was invited to a party. It's quite classical. She opened the door and I was like wow. I found her really nice. We talked together during that party and she talked about traveling. It was just amazing for me this this travel. It was the best school of my life. So when she came back I met her. She just came back and she said to me okay you have to go. And I said but I met you. And I said no no you have to go. She said to me you have to go traveling. Really it's more important and we will meet each other after for sure. Can you give us some insights into how you built this amazing home? We found that house where lots of work and a big garden. And we don't have any experience. So it was quite scary. But Elodie said okay let's try. We have to try. My parents they do the same project. It was more to prove each other that we could do it. More than to have at the end a wonderful house. But right now we realize that it's really good to live here and to have children. What is for you the single most life-changing decision you ever made? She wanted to find herself. Yeah. I think all the travelers have this question. What can I do in my life? And for me it was this question. Okay. To experience the way of living in poor places and also rich places. And after you have to adjust your compartment and you understand that you are really lucky when you are living in a place where there is no war. Where you can eat as you want every day and everything. And so for me it would be the travel for sure. Back on the road again. And the weather has changed quite a bit. Autumn is approaching so fast. I'm guessing it's going to be quite cold in the night. But yeah that's the thing right. You kind of have to endure those things. And then like the good things are extra good. Man I'm just still thinking about our time with Antoine and Elodie and their children. With great conversations, great food. And it's really cool to get an insight in how they live. And definitely an inspiration for us in the future. Something we also aspire to do. Like a kind of homestead situation for ourselves. There's Eric. Let's see what he's doing. Yo how you doing? We're still in the Jura mountains and we definitely want to come back someday here. For sure yeah. But yeah temperature has changed quite a bit right. Yeah it's getting colder. Yeah back to the tent. Back to the tent. Hi. We got a traditional baguette and some croissant. We're gonna find a place for coffee and for eating. And for the new post. Because there's a new video coming online today. So And we're now posting our second video of this trip. So exciting stuff. Yeah the direction we're heading is now to Valence. And after that we are heading to the west coast of France.