After a chilled day in the van, we visit a Christmas market in Cannes!! Midlife vanlife

All right. Good morning. How are we doing? Well, I know it's been, you know, a few weeks since we last posted, but we have been rather busy doing all sorts of other stuff, and I think we left you in the last one with me saying possibly about me being behind the camera with Ami to try and produce something, and if you've seen Ami's video from a week or so ago, then hopefully you'd have seen the difference. It was great fun. It took us about six days to film that with some reshoots and other bits and bobs. Being a complete novice of filming, I've got to say I absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it, and hello. People are swimming. It's really cool. It's got to be something we take up, you know. People are out here wearing their coats pulled right up with their swimming bottoms on and just walking in water. It has to be said, in the sun it's actually really lovely. I don't know what temperature it's maybe 14, 15 today. I don't know, but it's a lot better than England, I think, at the moment, and how's the snow? I don't want to be sarcastic, but actually I do, because, you know, the weather's not great here. There's seaweed all over the beach. It's really inconvenient for sunbathing, you know. Sorry, I just had to throw that in. I couldn't resist it, but yeah, there's loads of people doing exercise and stuff here, and you've been thinking about it. Yeah. You've been thinking about it. I'm looking at these people and I feel ashamed thinking, no, you know what, I've got to do this. It's not exactly a card, is it? No. It's just taking the plunge. But no, today we are in Cairn, and it's a beautiful park up. We've been here before, as you may well know. It's a beautiful park up. Got everything we need here, and at night it's so peaceful, and you wake up in the morning, and the sun rises just over there off the horizon, comes straight in our side window. Honestly, it's just, this is what van life's all about. It's places like this, views like that, and sunrises like that. Can't beat it. It's just beautiful. It's why we come back here. It is. And we haven't been bothered, so yeah, it's time of the year. We're December now, and they don't seem to be wholly bothered. We've been, what, about four days here? Yeah. About four days. Yeah, four days. No one's bothered. As long as you keep yourself to yourself, and you don't start moving in, putting your chairs out, and your canopies, and all this sort of stuff, you're fine. So don't be doing that. And you spend a bit of money in the local businesses as well. Yeah. We've got a cafe just there. We've been a few times for coffee there. And a supermarket, so yeah. There's a cafe there, and that's our next call. The reason being is that when the weather's like this, we went and had a coffee there the other day, and it was actually giving... Apres-ski vibes. Without the inconvenience of snow. Replaced with seaweed instead. Yeah, yeah. Because there is a lot of it on the beach, but, well, you know, when we've been here in the June-ish time, the beaches are completely clear, lovely sand, and then as soon as tourism period is over, seaweed gathers on the beach again, which is good. It's good for the ecosystem. So talking about coffees, let's go and do that because I'm getting a bit hot. I need to go and get a drink. I'm sorry, I can't resist. If you're in Germany, England, I'm sorry. Really, I'm sorry. Well, no, I'm not. No, I'm not. It's bloody glorious here, and this is where you should be. Anyway, let's go grab a coffee. Oh, let's show you the fish first. Don't know if you're going to be able to see them, but... They're kind of like in between a coat and a harness, because I think down here maybe they don't need a coat, maybe except for the coldest days. So I thought this was a good kind of option. I've never really seen them before. What do you think? They've both got one, and they're matching. In fact, actually, Gigi has one too. They're all matching. Also, to bring you up to speed, the pumpkin, I never did actually give you the answer back for that, and the pumpkin was actually based on Edward Scissorhands. So there you go, that's the answer. That was over a month ago. That was about a month ago, yeah. Nothing like a quick reply. But Ami is here. She's parked up there. She's just getting herself ready for a day, but she might join us. Oh, no, actually, speak of the devil. Hello. Okay, well, whilst these two have a little conflab between themselves, I thought I would go back even more videos back to the van build. I asked you to ask any questions that you might have. So I thought I'd answer a few of them. Number one, can I ask, how did you get the experience to do this to your van? Well, I didn't. I had no experience in DIY, anything like that. Sorry, I've got to put my glasses on. It's too bright. I watched some YouTube videos and just basically worked it out myself. Next question is, have you guys ever thought about a fold-out bed instead of a static one to create more space? Well, that did play on my mind when I'd done the van build, but one big problem is having to make the bed every time you want to get in it. I didn't want to do that. That's just a pain in the backside if you're living in your van full-time. Big no-no in my book. So next one is, in hindsight, is there anything you would have done better now I've been living in the van for two years? Charlie, is there anything we could have done better in the design of the van after two years? More cupboard space and an area for a bigger fridge. So there's two. More cupboard space. I don't know where I'd put any more, but more cupboard space and a bigger fridge. Yeah, the fridge is a bit of a problem because it is pretty small and it's a tiny little freezer. So that's only really the two things that would change. Maybe a bigger van, a bus. In fact, I've even thought about converting a lorry trailer and do that, you know, be like a mobile flat instead. That would be great. And the last thing is, as I said in the video, that I actually have an escape hatch into the front cab, but no one can see where it is. So we're just going to finish our coffees and I'll head back to the van and I'll show you where that is. Well, back in the van and you'll probably notice that Charlotte's actually been a busy girl. Coco. Yeah, no Christmas tree this year because last year when we were moving about up and down all the time and stuff went everywhere. So yeah, no Christmas tree. Couldn't be asked for that this year. So Charlotte's been busy doing something else and I think she's done a great little job. We've got some little baubles here, a few little flashy lights. You're in the way. Get out of the way. At least I'm matching them, I'm red. Yeah, you are. So we bought this, which is a little, what is it? Gingerbread house kind of thing. It's pretty cool. Bought that the other day. What else have we got? We've got a little glowy bauble type thing. It's made of glass so I'm not sure how long it's going to last. Yeah, it might be a one year thing. This is from last year, isn't it? That's a few years old. And a stag's head. That survives driving. It's stuck on with Blu Tack. We've got this little thing here as well, which is actually stuck down with, again, another bit of Blu Tack. So Blu Tack comes in useful during van life. So we have a very minimal Christmas display, but that's fine. But I'm going to have to take it down because you want to see my little hatch. So yeah, I'm just going to... What? The escape hatch. Not really that accessible at the moment. But yeah, I'll show you now anyway. Just, um, where's my screwdriver? There's the boy. So take those bits off. I mean, the fact is, we don't really get much in the way of emergencies. So that is the truth. It's nice to have. And Ami's used hers a lot more than us. But for us, yeah, it's not too big a deal. So just two screws. This one and that one. Are you ready? I think the windscreen's covered in sand and salt. And there you go. Removing the cobweb so it goes to show how much we use it. Oh my God, the lighting's gone really bad. Oh, you're back again now. It's just because that panel... So there you go. So you can see that that's our hatch. Actually, it's quite nice actually having the light come through. It is. Maybe we should put a curtain there. No, no curtain. But that's the escape hatch. There you go. So not good in a real emergency. It takes a while to undo. Hold on. ------- light. Where are you? Because it's too dark. I'm just going to stick this back in again. There you go. Hold on. There's just too much light. So yeah, in an emergency... Yeah, it'd have to be a slow emergency because it does take its time and I'm not sure that Rob will fit through it. I can't remember if he tried it or not. I can just about, so... I have tried it and yes, I can fit through. What, in a speedy manner? Never in a speedy manner, no. When am I ever speedy? It's a semi-emergency hatch that actually might cause more of a problem due to the time it's taking to open it. So it might just be quicker to go around the outside anyway. Which is what I kind of do, so... But I'm a big guy, so you know, I'm not worried. Yeah, we're going to go into Cannes later on. There's a Christmas market. It is that time of year. And what's going to be quite exciting... Well, not exciting. That's a strong word. But you know, interesting is to be in kind of like the Christmas market where you're not absolutely frozen. Solid. Yeah, it's going to be kind of different. I've never done that before. And the other thing as well, actually, is it's now one year since we started a YouTube channel. So happy one year anniversary to us. Yay! So those of you that have followed right the way from the beginning, thank you very much. Those of you that have supported us after that, thank you a lot very much. 17,800 subscribers. Very, very happy with that. So thank all of you. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's always a surprise. The support is real. Yeah, we'll catch up with you in a wee bit. OK, well, welcome back after our little break. We're going to go for a walk into town now. It's about a 40 minute walk from where we are. So it's a bit of a trundle. So I'm not going to bore you with that. We will meet you there. It will probably be getting dark by the time we get there. Anyway, let's get going and we'll meet you in the centre of town. See you there. So we're finally in the market. Not quite dark yet, but we decided to go for a rum and what? Apple cinnamon rum. Yeah, that's really good. Made some very good difference. That was half the price of the one in Vienna as well. Yeah, it's only €4.50. It was €9 in Vienna. So that I'm happy about. But anyway, we're going to have a quick little look around here. There's not like massive amounts of stalls. Not like Vienna. But it's a different kind of climate, isn't it? So that's just not really known for his market. I think people would choose right. Yeah, we'll come to go to a Christmas market. And it's a big fun fair over there. So we might pop over there and Charlotte can go on the waltz or something like that. What do you reckon? I will see my rum again quite quickly. We'll revisit. Anyway, let's have a stroll round. All right. Well, I hope you like that little montage. There's some lovely food there that look really good, especially the camembert. Roasted camembert with honey and pine nuts. That is really good. But we do have dinner at home. And if we don't eat it, it's going to go off in the fridge. So we're going to head back to do that. So we'll see you back in the van. Back at the van, I was quite sad because I really wanted to have a roasted camembert. But we can do that another time. Instead, tonight we've got roasted tomatoes and feta and I'm making a dessert. Don't normally make desserts. But I had apples and I had rum. I'm happy with that. And you've been soaking some sultanas in some rum. Sultanas in rum. And I bought some creme anglaise because I thought she was going to make nutmeg. Not nutmeg. Eggnog. So I happen to have a carton of that. So we might as well put that on there. So let's crack on. Yep. Dinner it is. Oh, ----. Oh, no. Oh, shitting heck. You still haven't got a bigger spoon yet? I have. I just don't wash it up. Five hours later. Nice? No, that's delicious. But it is very hot. So I think I'm just going to give this a minute or two to cool down a bit. But what I've had is absolutely divine. Okay, well that's two very empty plates. I think we'll put the recipe for this one in a description. So if you want to make it, all the ingredients will be in the description. Have a go. Absolutely delicious. Needs a little bit of salt. So on to dessert. Right, well that was absolutely delicious. I think we'll maybe put that one in the description as well. Yeah, it's really, really straightforward and easy to make. There you go. And it gives you some apples. And this is the sole amount of washing up that's left. So two course meal and that is it. That is it. Hence why I like to do one foot cooking. Because I don't like washing up. Well, you've got no freaking choice at the moment because you've only got one ring. Well, this is true. I'd have just done the two alongside each other. That's also been about half an hour quicker. And I always have a prolonged washing up process because I'm very fussy about my washing up. I don't leave soap suds on. I don't wash in the same water. So I bring it on myself. Anyway, we are going to leave you there. We'll see you again next week. And yeah, have a great week. Bye for now. Bye.