ONE family, TWO vans! What it's like after 18 months? Containing EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ft ‪@ameinavan‬

Hello everybody and welcome back after our week off from having birthdays and wedding anniversaries. A little correction, in the last video I said oh she doesn't look bad for 58! People I was joking! I look great on my birthday! Some of the comments were like oh you look at least 10 years younger than that which makes a 48! How old are you Charlotte? I'm not saying now! She's 46! I'm not sharing that information! So to clarify 46, 49, I'm 50 this year in September and this one here is 23 in September. Don't round me up! Which means nothing! Age doesn't mean anything! I just don't like to be rounded up! You've got the rest of your life in front of you you know we're midlife van life you're young and free and wild kind of van life thing. Bougie van life! Bougie van life! There you go! So yes Charlotte is 46! Thank you to all the comments that said actually you don't look 58! You don't look a day past 40! So she loved those ones! No I was too wounded from the other ones! Age is but a number! Moving on to van life, we thought it would be an interesting thing to talk about family van life. I mean we definitely think that this is kind of a unique situation where you have the parents in their van and their daughter in her van and we just travel around. So we thought we'd enlighten you to really what that's kind of really like. Is it fun? Is it not? Is she completely horrible to us and you know does van life wrong? Do we do van life wrong? Has she had enough of us? Yeah! Kind of yeah! Kind of yeah! No I'm not joking! No I love and appreciate you! In small doses! In small doses! In small doses! So anyway I thought it'd be good to sort of rewind the clock back to where this all began three years ago. So let's go back in time everybody! That's a ghostly sound! Let's not go back in time! No that just sounds like I'm drowning! Why do you sound like a jellyfish? I don't know what jellyfish sounds like! Go on then, you do it! Go on! Go on! Time machine! You didn't even make any sound! That's just like I'm having a fit! Yes but we can find a sound effect to make that appropriate. So anyway we go back three years ago to when we kind of started building the vans out. To be honest we probably wouldn't necessarily be doing this if it wasn't for said person. Because she started building her van out and then said to us, why don't you build your van out? And you know you can do that! There was loads of resistance from me! I was completely against it! And I wasn't going to be the one building it! And completely against it is a fat lie actually, because I really did actually want to build a van out. So we built the vans out, got them completed and then decided to leave the UK on the 24th of September 2021. Yeah I wasn't ready to leave, but I was like if I don't leave with them I'm not I'm not leaving. I kept tinkering with Gloria, there were still loads of things I wanted to complete before I left, but um no. You chose to follow us! I chose to travel over here with you! When you think about it, it's kind of your fault, because you convinced me to build the van out to go and do van life. So you know it's kind of your fault that we're together. Damn it! Let's just blame the situation! But to be honest we've absolutely loved the last uh what is it? 19 months traveling around Europe, mainly in France. Has it really been that long? We've lived in the vans full-time since we've come to France. No the reason why we got stuck together was because Gigi broke her leg. Oh yes that's true. That's why we ended up staying together and then I crashed my van into a bridge. That was useful. A lot of things just went wrong at the beginning because I didn't have time to finish my van before leaving, which I don't know it's kind of my own fault, but I came out and I was just unprepared. Yeah so she she crashed her van into a bridge and stuff. We just spent quite a bit of time. Which is actually ironically because I was following you. We did have a cracking time though didn't we? It was all right but I really wanted to travel alone. I didn't, like it wasn't my goal to stay with you two. I was lucky that you were there. There were just loads of things which just meant that I couldn't leave. Obviously I did but it took longer than I thought it was going to because I kind of needed that time. Like I hadn't even spent a day in my van before going into France. So full-time van life was full-time van life from day one. Like I never even stayed overnight in my van. I didn't either. I didn't stay in the van. I did. I was actually living in the van. I had stayed in here for probably what about six months? Yeah. I was in heaven though because I had this whole big bed to myself and that was cracking. In fact can you go in with Ami and go on your and leave this van? There's no room for me in there. No I already have to sleep diagonally because my bed isn't. Like this was all the stuff I never had a chance to figure out until it was too late and I was so invested in van life and in a different country with nothing else other than the van. And then obviously you know we've done three months of traveling and then what happened Charlie after three months of doing van life? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The thing I was in charge of paperwork went wrong. Oh yeah. Well because thanks to Brexit I could only stay here for three months. So in fact this is probably a good opportunity to clarify a few things because I see a lot of comments about how do you get to stay in France you know past the 90 days? Okay. Has a French passport. Has a French passport. French nationals. Okay. These two can do one of those to Brexit. But me um I don't have that luxury. But no when we first left Charlotte was under the impression from what she had read and rightly so because there's a lot of conflicting information. There is actually. That we had to yeah that we had to be here in France in order to get an extended visa for me well that wasn't the case. Another thing as well is that we actually met a couple that were traveling around in their van and they'd been here for something like about five months and they said oh yeah we've got to go back at the end of our six months because you're only allowed six months a year. And I thought no that's not how it works you know. They didn't say anything but that's not how it works. It's three months. Three months back in the UK. That was nice of him. Three months. Three months back in the UK. They're arrested at the border. Well no what's it going to do? Depress them? Make them at the end of their last month be like oh my god. Oh my god what happened to them? I don't know. They're in prison right now. Put them in a little time machine and go back two months and say right quick get back. So unfortunately there is obviously was a lot of confusion about how long you can spend in over here and it's 90 days. In 180. In 180 days. It's shit. It's really pants. But anyway I had to get on a plane. I had two three days left. I had to go and have a thingy up the nose because it was still covid times. Said 24 hours to get a result through in 24 hours. Didn't get it. Complete mess up. Missed that flight. Had to go back and get another one done and get another flight booked and then got back to the UK. Got everything sorted out. All the paperwork. Everything done. But on the online application it said oh when do you intend on traveling back? I thought oh I don't know because I don't know how long the visa is going to take to to actually organize. So I put it down on the 25th of January. The visa come back on the 5th of January. I thought oh great I can go back. But they'd actually put on the visa that it starts on the 25th of January. So I had 20 days where I couldn't actually come back here. And then you booked a flight to Geneva. You went to the airport and they wouldn't let you on because you weren't allowed to travel. They wouldn't let me on the plane. I got to the airport. Went actually up to the terminal to get on the plane. Wouldn't let me on because it was a French visa. I had to go to France. They wouldn't let me go to Switzerland. Even though you were going straight to France from Geneva. 150 quid for the flight. And then this one who actually comes up with some really good plans. I am a queen like that. You are the puppet master. And she said well why don't you just go to Eurostar and get a train to Paris. Oh no I made a whole video. I did a whole YouTube video on it. But I never posted it. So hang about. Should we just post that now? Possibly not. There's a bit. Let's just have a look and see if we can incorporate something. Yeah if there's anything we'll add it in here. Turns out I'm driving to Paris. Dad was supposed to get a flight to Geneva but he's now getting a Eurostar to Paris. And I'm doing overseas so my mom's gonna come with me and we're gonna drive to Paris. It's 3pm. Right I just stopped at Carrefour to get some stuff and then I'm gonna get some fuel. Then I'm gonna hit the road. The sun is going down and I'm gonna be awake for probably the next 15 hours. Still got four hours to go. It literally was like 10 minutes since I last checked. Oh my god I'm gonna need a wee slow band-aid. Holy f**k. Yeah I just forgot I can move. So I just stopped for a break. It is... I have one hour eight minutes left. My dad is in Paris right now. He is off the Eurostar and he's just having a romantic little time by himself wandering the streets of Paris. Oh she's ruining my song. Oh there he is. See him at the end. It's just like a little gnome on a felt wall. We have no space for a third person. Let's just leave him behind that's what I say. High five! You made it back with my help. Are you cold? I've been sitting there. It's just started snowing in the headlights. Yeah I think I'm a little bit f**king cold. Why is it colder here than it is in Annecy? When I was at M&S, at the train station, I bought a little something. I have never been so happy in my life. Sorry what was that? There's no f**king space in this van. Yes there is, there's tons. Do you ever volunteer to cut the cake just so you can eat half of it? Oh my giddy aunts. It's literally quarter past two in the morning. Come here Lily, come here darling. Good night. I remember the days when my parents used to ferry me everywhere. Wow have the times changed. I can't believe I just drove to Paris and then straight back again. That was 12 hours of driving since four o'clock yesterday and it's now four here. So the worst part is I didn't even get to see the Eiffel Tower. When I got back, Ami had started up a YouTube channel so she was off doing her own thing. So we decided to go and do our own thing. So we then decided to go down the south didn't we and go for our own journey. We ended up in Aix-en-Provence and then from Aix-en-Provence I can't even remember anything. I'm glad I have my videos. And then from there we went across to Toulouse to see some my family. You know so now we meet up occasionally. It's been 10 days since we last saw you. We saw you on mum's birthday and this is the first time we've seen you since then. You go off and do your thing, we go off and do our thing. Yeah and we meet up occasionally. Which is about right because you why would you want to be spending time with your parents you know? Not that bad but it's nice to get away and then come back by myself. I think it's been really cool having somebody like I think it's really cool that we all live in vans. I think it's very different and I think it's been an entirely different journey and experience with them as well and obviously for you too as well. Good or bad it's been very different and it's almost more sustainable in a way because I know that they can meet me or I can meet them if I want to. It's not like they're stuck in a different country and I can't get to anybody. I think that that's pretty cool. It's very different from most people. I don't know anybody in a similar situation. But what's interesting actually is with the different ages it actually gives us a really kind of good all-round view of Vanna because it brings up the problems that it would present to Ami and it brings up the problems it would bring to us and the different experiences or things you hope to gain from from doing this. Yeah it's like our experiences and our problems are different to your experiences. What would be an example of that? A good example is loneliness. We kind of have each other and do you ever feel that? Lonely? No. No? No. No. No but that shows the very big differences that I think even if one of us was on our own doing this I think it would still be very different to you. When you know that you have each other though it's like oh well he's just there so I don't have to worry about trying to find anyone or you know what I mean. It didn't really happen to begin with but and then I went through a phase where I was really fine with being alone like I still am now like I've got to that point where it's like I'm completely fine being alone and then it's like okay I'm fine now I want to meet people because I know I can be alone and then that meeting people just isn't happening the way I thought it would or not the way I thought it would but the way I needed to. So yeah I think that's that's a really big difference. In regards to family van life is that if you are feeling down or something's bothering you we are here you know rather than if you'd have come over here on your own and say for heaven's sake we'd never done our van you'd have been over it completely on your own. We would have been absolutely terrified by the way. Yeah but also you know what van life's like so it gives you a better perspective I don't know how to put it you kind of have a good picture of that van life and what it is and how it feels and you know you can feel pretty safe in a van and you have that perspective so you're not kind of making something up in your head about van life and about me and thinking oh she must be like really scared and alone and it's really dangerous and I don't know why she's sleeping I mean you must think that a little bit but you know that it's not the reality of van life isn't that it's super scary. No you don't sit in your van terrified yeah exactly. Definitely makes a difference. It's nice knowing that you can carry on doing both what you're doing completely separately but knowing you're not that far away from each other yeah so you've got that just you've got that distance you know like I say we haven't seen each other for 10 days it's it's really nice to like sort of you know meet up and be like a normal family really and I think that's that makes a big difference certainly to us you know because if you were yeah so another thing is is because I guess a lot a lot of people that do van life they potentially have a base they potentially have their parents or they haven't sold their home they've still got the house they can go back to and so then Ami doesn't have a base at all because a lot of younger van lifers would potentially have their parents to go back to I mean or lockdown but in you know in a general thing you would imagine that would be the case and at this point you don't have that we don't have that so you then have to find something else that can give you that and that's kind of campsites to be fair yeah no we're not going to go to hotels because it's just stupid cost for a night you can get three nights in a campsite for a price of a night in hotel so when you're getting water washing toilet shower whatever all the basic things they become a lot easier so therefore that gives you a little break so actually you can maybe then have time to think about other things that's literally why I stayed in my van the whole fucking time because there's not there's not there's nowhere else to go same for us yeah I did stay in a hotel a few times recently I honestly didn't like the experience I love hotels I'm a hotel gal at heart I love I love a good hotel but first time was fine I maybe stayed five nights in total six nights at hotels just throughout the beginning of this year just to try it out and I needed the wi-fi and whatever literally for the first time I was like screw it but the anxiety of leaving my van outside you can obviously you then have to like take half your van with you and it's just it's a nightmare and then gg you know it's a new place it's just it's not practical and it feels kind of futile to be in a in a room when you have when you have your van it's like I just want we live in these but you've got the showers but then the campsites that's the problem is the campsites aren't always open or they're full that was a big problem you can't get to them and it's just like and they're still expensive you know yeah they're still expensive and you know considering we're you know completely self-sufficient with the solar panels it's still you know it's like 40 euros 50 euros a night especially at the beginning of van life I was like no where am I staying in the campsite I can't pay that but it's like here it's kind of we've all kind of decided that we collectively like it in such a way not collectively like it we all absolutely freaking love it down here don't want to live anywhere it's hard to move on you feel like you're in this little protective environment and it feels it feels safe it honestly feels safe here and it's familiar and we there's a freaking great parking space here and there's a few good options here oh let's um talk about last year when uh this was before we got yet again before youtube was a thing we was the first time we came here and we stayed in a car and we parked up we parked next to these um oh well we didn't want to park next to them because there was it looked a bit scrappy some vehicles and stuff we weren't sure um and we weren't sure of them um they were from senegal so we we kind of parked away we stayed there a few days and actually got talking to them and they were the beach sellers they were the people going down selling blankets and um hats and all sorts of other bits they were quite happy to talk to us as it goes without disturbing them by being there yeah and they were they were living in their cars literally sleeping in their cars and their van they had a van there with the stocking and um honest to god the nicest people we had a great time didn't we they showed us where the showers were because there were showers in a campsite next door it's like a holiday village so we had showers there um and we had this beautiful beach i used to go down in the morning and have my cup of coffee and watch the sun rise in the morning that was my favorite thing to do we shared dinners with them we had a great time we did i invited us over for dinner where we we i actually ate with them in the senegalese way which is just a big bowl and you just grab your hand and pop your hand in and eat with your hand never done that before so all really cool experiences and uh we actually go back to see them they're back here now even tried your hand at some beach towel selling yeah even try my hand at that i didn't didn't sell anything um but hey you know it was worth a go i can see how hard their job is oh god yeah because the amount of rejection you get is just another level if you see a beach seller trying to flog your towel or a hat you know some sunglasses don't be rude they're really really lovely lovely people so yeah and then well that kind of leads us to today where you have a very successful um youtube channel which is a growing and growing and growing and growing we now have ours that's not growing anywhere near as fast but that's fine okay so the whole journey with the three of us and what we've been through honestly is an experience of a lifetime an experience of a lifetime there's been so many different emotions so many different things happen it's just been such a roller coaster and one day we're gonna write a book and um you'll get to find out in detail about all the stuff that's happened and but i wouldn't change it so yeah that's a little bit about family van life and about our experiences so yeah we'll see you next week and thank you for all your birthday wishes oh yeah yeah birthday wishes yeah there's loads of them never had so many very much thank you very much and we will see you again next week take care bye bye bye