From south of Sweden to the south of France
In the winter time, I usually escape Sweden for Lisbon, but this year, I wanted to try something different. (And I need to mention – ALL of Sweden is unfortunately not snowy and lovely during winter, I really wish it was, but in the very south of Sweden, like in Malmö where I live, it’s basically grey and beige and dark 24/7 until April… (Slight exaggeration but that’s what it feels like!) Sooo, I’m packing my bags.

Leaving Malmö early in the rainy morning

It was very helpful to have a digital map too...
Day 1
We left a grey and rainy and dark (chocker) Sweden early on New Years Eve, and steered my electric car down south! I love being on the road, especially exploring new sceneries, cultures and, unwritten traffic rules ;)
Our first stop was Germany, and to get there we crossed Denmark and took a ferry across the water to shorten the drive. It was an amazing feeling to be on our way, I had longed for this for so long!!
So on our way through Germany (which is a big country!) we looked at different hotels. We had a few pinned down already, but we also realised we had enough energy to drive further than we had planned for, and we had a couple of alternative routes to choose from, so a hotel-reservation on the go was at least part of our plan, and Dortmund it was!


Day 2
January 1st gave us a lovely start of another day on wheels! After some charging and breakfast, we were back on the very quiet roads by 9am. Our aim for the day was to enter France!


We charged the car every 2 hrs or so, sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on where the chargers were located, but overall the electric infrastructure is really well developed. We made the most of our charge-breaks by getting coffee, snack, playing yatzy, going for walks and stretching :)


And so we high-fived as we passed both Luxembourg and entered France! And by then we had a couple of hours left down to Dijon. We arrived when it was dark, and left the next morning early just before sunrise. We managed to get a nice meal at the only Brasserie that was open (and busy!), but we were quite ready for sleep to be honest.



Day 3
So as we left Dijon just as the sun was rising, and we set the GPS to ”Nîmes”, it said 4.35 hrs, so adding a couple of stops for charging we would probably reach Nîmes around 2.30 pm which would get us a bit more daylight after we arrived.



It was lovely to just be able to walk around for a bit and enjoy the city, even if it was very quiet since being right after New Years and all, but we just enjoyed the fresh air and the bright daylight.


Day 4
We left Nîmes around lunchtime the next day, so we had plenty of time to walk around, and try to decide where to go next. Erik said, ‘well, we’re so close to the Mediterranean, we might as well head down to see the actual water?’
Done and done! We typed in 'Sète' and did our best to get out of Nîmes through all of their oneway streets.


Sète was lovely! Although as we arrived a little late (according to French lunch-time) we struggled to find a spot that wasn’t ”terminé“ (closed), but we got a good one in the end! These oysters were a dream.

As it turned into a very late afternoon, we contemplated our next stop, the one before our final destination. We went for Pezenas, a village we have such great memories from.




Day 5-6
Erik suddenly took a detour to swing by a vineyard we visited last summer, I didn’t get it at all at first, but when I recognised the entrance it really warmed my heart to see this place again. It was totally closed of course but I still love the fact that Erik had thought about this detour since we reached France. <3


We stayed in Pezenas for two nights, played yatzy, drank pastis and beer, walked around, checked out the markets and had such a lovely time!




Final stop
On day 6 we were soooo looking forward to getting to the actual house, to be able to cook properly and just relax. As we reached Neffiès we unloaded the car and went for a walk, happy about how smooth everything went.


I couldn’t have wished for a better start to this adventure! With him. To do something like this together sure is fun, developing and engaging. Now I’m on my own till the end of January, and that’s when the adventure continues. But for now I will enjoy the south of France!
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A bientôt! :-*