The WORST night we've had in 18 months of vanlife

Good morning. Well, we're back at the lake after an eventful week. We can use a word eventful because it was eventful. Had things happen, had some bit of drama. Now we're back at the lake where we said we weren't going to come back to, but we've decided in the grand scheme of things it's probably the safer option. On the parking space that we were at, by the little wooded area by the river, we felt quite comfortable there. We were nice and peaceful, had our water, had a bin, great. Then on Saturday night about midnight, a car pulled up right next to us. Bearing in mind the whole car park was empty, it was a little odd. Rob went out to kind of suss out what was going on. As it goes, it was fine. The guys were fine, had a bit of a laugh together. Should I explain this one? No. Had a bit of a laugh together and all was good. They agreed. Rob said, well, we're gonna go to sleep now, if you really wouldn't mind just moving just up a little bit. And they were fine with that. No, it wasn't that. It wasn't that. The guy in the passenger seat said, oh, they're perfect, we'll move up a bit further. And there you can continue. Yeah, the passenger said, yeah, well, we'll move up. No, that's, you know, we'll move up. Rob came back into the van and then there was a frack out outside. No, that's still not how it happened. So this is what happened. I went back into the van expecting them to move and they moved forward about two feet, three feet and turned the engine off. So I went back out and one of the guys is outside the car and he's actually getting the ump with the other one. In the end, all hell breaks loose. They start having a fight. One's trying to open the car door to get to the driver guy. He's smashing the door backwards and forwards. The guy gets his hands trapped in the door, smashed up. I don't know. I end up having to jump in and separate them before they kill each other. And, uh, honest, I just, yeah, we're not sure. Anyway, they moved on. Yeah. Went to sleep, two o'clock, more cars. But it was very odd because it was like a family. And yeah, it was very, very confusing, but it was very loud and very dramatic. It went on for about 15 minutes. At that point we had all the lights off and we were just trying to watch to see what was happening. There were younger adolescents involved. Um, so that's why we were, yeah, so we were a bit more concerned. Again, because it was a younger person involved, we just thought, no, we've got to call the police. We actually heard the younger boy, he was the one doing a lot of crying, and I actually heard him say in English, I wasn't gonna kill myself. I wasn't gonna kill myself. This is like three o'clock in the morning. Made the decision to call the police. I couldn't see our location. My reading glasses misted up, so I could see nothing because it was so cold in the van. It got very stressful, but I managed to speak to the police, explain what was happening, saying we were very worried. Police turned up about 15-20 minutes later, of course. The people left about five minutes prior to the police arriving. The police kind of knew who we were talking about. We didn't want to go to sleep because it kind of had bothered us a little bit, so we stayed up for a bit. I don't know about five o'clock in the morning. Yeah, had to have a herbal tea just to calm down. Yeah, I mean, welcome to van life people. I mean, every day we should write a book. It'd be very interesting, I think, because in car parks, you see, like yesterday when we were in this car park, someone's camper van that had been there for like a month, I mean the handbrake must have gone loose, and it just floated back across the pathway and hit another camper van at the other end, and was just blocking the road. The amount of random stuff that happens is just unreal, and taking random. We turned up here. It was dark outside, and we got in the van, and then we just heard this roaring, like proper big cat roaring, bellowing. And yeah, I wasn't sure. That's to be said. We didn't really investigate, but yeah, there's a circus now behind us. So in my thought pattern, I was like, well what's rustling in the leaves behind us? Because I couldn't see, because at night here they switch off the street lights. It's actually nigh on pitch black. Every time I went out, I was like, oh. Every time we take the dogs out, you're looking around your back. We're gonna get munched. But yeah, we do not endorse this at all. This is wrong on every level. So we are back on this car park. It was the lesser of the two evils, however, arson, wild animals, bike stealing aside. We thought, no, we'll take our chances on this car park instead, because there are quite, well there, you'll see, there are an awful lot of camper vans there. There's at least 40. It's not a surprise it's free. It's a great location, easy to walk into the town. Which is exactly what we're gonna do now. Yeah. Because we're not gonna be here much longer, and the reason is... This is the positive of the week. This is the positive of the week. As you well know, those of you that have been following our channel for a little while, would know the reason why we've been in Ansi so long, and it's because I've been taking French classes. Because I've had to take French classes to get my cut decision, in order to stay in France for a longer period of time. And I'm delighted to say that I no longer need to go to French classes, because I passed the test. Just imagine lots of, you know, ticker tape, confetti and fireworks. And that's how I feel right now. It's very difficult to convey it onto a camera. But finally the freedom has come back, and let the proper van life... It's not proper van life. Proper van life, you live in a van. It's van life, regardless whether you're traveling or not. It's van life. We live in a van. Yeah, this is true. There will be more exams in the future, but for the moment... Don't, don't kill it. Don't kill it. No, I don't want to know. Shh, shh. Yeah, okay. Don't. There will be. No. There will be no more exams ever again, and you can skip off into the sunset and be happy with yourself. So what we're going to do now is we are going to go into Annecy. There is something going on there. There's a festival. It's like a Venetian festival, because Annecy is known as the Venice of France. We don't actually know what to expect. We've not been to it before. No, haven't got a clue. We shall go and investigate. And we'll bring you along as well. So we don't know what to expect. You don't know what to expect. We're all in the same boat. So if it's a bit shit, sorry. Yeah. We didn't know. It's not our fault. It's not our fault. We don't know. Anyway, let's go. Oh, we just smacked him in the face. Did you see that? And of course, something you expect to see in every field. A camel. And this is where they keep the lions. That's where they are, just sitting in a car park. And we're just over it. All right. Well, I think we're in the right place. Judging by these two people here and the way they're dressed. I don't know if anyone else finds that ominous. Kind of faceless people. Don't like masks. What are you making of this? I don't know. There'll be some kind of thing. Pageantry. Yeah. We'll see. I don't know. Okay. Although I can see the work that goes into these outfits and they do look good. Some of the ones that come up there, but to be honest, I'm hungry and thirsty and that's more important at the moment. Yeah. All right. Well, we're currently in town and it's absolutely heaving with people. So what we're to do is find a boulangerie or a patisserie, get something nice and sweet to enjoy by the lake. We kind of want to find, search for a bit of sun. Because it's a bit chilly. Yeah. The sun always makes it better. Got the desserts. Let's go. There's always a palaver. Every time we want to do something nice, we just find a seat. Then the dogs start barking because the swan approaches. The swan actually wanted my Clare. Yeah. It's eyed the bag up and it was like, yeah, watch the Clare. Oh my love. No, no, no. The box has collapsed. Just no. I think it's time to move again. Oh my God. I'm going to lose my Clare. Bit of quick thinking by Charlotte's managed to score a bench. Yeah, but Coco's coat's now ruined. In my pursuit of the empty bench, half my coffee ended up over Coco's. But it was cold. It's cold. Okay. Put the disclaimer out there straight away. So yeah, hopefully we'll actually be able to enjoy our cakes in peace now. So anyway, we're going to head back to the van now. We might actually change location and go somewhere a little bit more peaceful because I don't know about you, but that's certainly something I could crave right now. Yeah. There's a little bit of peace and quiet. Tranquility. I can't even bother to speak. I just want to go back and lay down in the quiet room in the dark. We'll see you back at the van. It was quite frantic out there and sometimes you have to be in the mood for frantic and I don't think either of us were today. The thing is, I think it was just a lot busier. Yeah, I just think it was just, it was just, yeah, it was manic. It was like a scene out of The Walking Dead. Some of the costumes though were absolutely amazing. Yeah, some of the costumes were really cool. They were really cool. Really amazing. All right, so something else that's been a bit fun is that this is the little fondue kit, this here thing, right? Which is really cool. It's what we bought in the junk shop. Better word. Okay. Yummy fondue. When you're eating a fondue, whoever drops an item in it, so a potato, whatever charcuterie, you have to have a forfeit. So you have to do the washing up or something along those lines. Well, that was very tasty. That was more than tasty. That was absolutely delicious. The only thing we got left is a few tomatoes and a grumpy dog because she didn't get any meat. She got apple. So just going to take the dogs for a walk and then we can come back for a chilled evening. Alongside the dulcet tones, there's a shouty man in the van about three vehicles up. He'll be shouting. He'll shout till two in the morning and start again at four. It's a joy. See you in the morning. Good morning. Well, it's another fine day and the car park is already rammed. There's people everywhere. So we're going to get the hell out of here and go somewhere a lot more quiet. Slightly pothole-y. I think it's more potholes than roads. I had to bring the dogs back in. They're both looking out the window because I was scared one of them was going to be catapulted out. Mind you, if you're in England, I guess you're used to that. You're not used to potholes anymore. Right, we found our parking space. It's right next to a walk for the dogs, so that'll be nice. Quite a nice space, but if I'm honest, it's a little bit too sideways for me. Yeah, we are at an angle. Yeah, so I think we might just take the dogs for a stroll here and then move back down to a space we've seen lower down. But we wanted to come up here to take the dogs for a walk, so let's do that. Well, it's quite beautiful here and I think most of that comes from the fact that there's no one else up here. Moss-covered trees, water running. Oh, this looks nice. A bit cold for me to attempt to put my feet in it. Yeah, there's still snow on the ground as well. But it's not very cold because the sun's out, so that is a bonus. Well, I'm not going to do that while I'm holding a camera. I'll hold the camera and we'll watch you fall down the slope. All right, let's go down. Are you rubbing in? She's rubbing. Hey, no. Move. Seriously, if any of you want a dog, let us know because you can happily have one, if not both of these. Gone in? No? You give up on that one? Seemed like a good idea at the time though, right? One of the rocks is a bit... No, I don't fancy a bath. I might give it a go because I've got more sensible footwear on. Well, mine are pretty sensible. They're flat walking boots, so you know. You bottled it. No, I don't cave to peer pressure. That's what it is. Yeah, and? All right, so we're just heading back to the van now. She's just there. And we're going to move down a little bit further down this road because we're at a very, very dodgy angle. Certainly to stay the night is not comfortable. And interestingly, here was the last area that they had fairs in the Haute Savoie region in France. Was it the end of the 1800s? Yeah, the last one was killed in 1893 or something like that. Not very nice, is it? We weren't going to go down the woods today and have a big surprise because there are no bears here anymore. The thing is, we went over several bridges and I actually stopped at one of them. Do you know what? I don't know if these bridges will actually take the weight of the van, but when we got to the top, there was a sign saying 30 tons, so I think we were all right. All right, well, this is the exact spot where Ami parked in one of her videos many months ago, actually. And that was the view. Magnificent, isn't it? Now it's our view. So I think we're going to stay here for the night. Looks like a good, nice and quiet anyway. And we will see you again next week. Thanks so much for watching again. And we'll catch up with you next week. Bye bye. But things are about to get a bit more exciting, so that's great. That might be pushing it. Exciting, maybe not. For us. I don't care about them. For us. They're just here for the journey. I do very, very much appreciate those who appreciate us and those that don't. Stop sucking up to them. Now you're just sucking up to them. I'm not. Let's just say goodbye. See you later. Take care.