After several years of hesitation between Brittany, Paris and the Far North, I finally decided to set sail west to join Mister D. in his distant lands, deep in the Finistère.
6 hour drive, a signature at the notary, and here we are newly arrived on the peninsula-Logonna Daoulas to unload the truck and take possession. Surrealist!
Tonight is New Year's Eve and the first night in our new house in the middle of the cartons. We'll see tomorrow morning, looks like our new horizon.
Bye Bye Paris ... Hello Brittany! And Happy New Year 2011 to all :-)
It's a childhood dream that I had just done and I am still exhilarated. The first impression was magical. At the point of forgetting the misadventures of Paris-Stockholm route with Eurolines and so much more!
Because before reaching the far north with Norwegian , I had the crazy idea of taking the bus ... ignorant as the first flakes are so early this year and that all roads in Northern Europe would disappear under the snow! Beyond the weather unfavorable to this type of trip, I was far from imagining the ordeal that is a long trip (over 36h) with Eurolines . The outward and return have been disastrous, but I will not dwell on it here (I'll rant about the forums). I recommend you just try it like me "I'd rather deliver the story in pictures of my first steps in Swedish Lapland ... or more accurately in the Norrbotten since I had ventured in Umeå in Västerbotten few years ago and it appears that this region is already part of Lappland (Swedish Lapland), but it was summer and the climate was very different.
This time, thus wearing my faithful ouchanka in pants and Gore-Tex, to Wool mittens and boots hairy Norwegian I set foot on the floor of the airport Kallax , ready for the cold. It was just 14h, the night was already beginning to fall and the air was pungent.
There, I met Sven, my Swedish host, and we immediately took the road to Luleå to join his wife Elisabet waiting for us at ; Kulturens Hus, the house of culture for the inevitable Swedish fika ... followed a short tour of the city at night and stop at Teatern Norrbotten, Norrbotten theater before joining the small village of Ersnäs for my first glögg fireside and my first night in Lapland :-)
There, I also found a wooden sled like borrowed Funäsdalen , but version "red" this time. A machine very easy to handle and perfect for short trips close to you! That's how I visited Ersnäs a lap.
We then make Gammelstad , a small village located in the Gulf of Bothnia, we borrowed a rather special way, called here isvägen or " Ice Road "as it is a road on a frozen lake for the winter, the passage of Avan Bränslen .
The ice may be very thick, it is not reassuring. During this trip, I actually thought of this scene from Norwegian NORTH which shows that poor Sámi chained to his snowmobile, which is driven under the ice in his sleep ...
is an outstanding example and wonderfully well preserved a kind of city once widespread in northern Sweden: the city-church.
There are more than 400 wooden houses crowded around the stone church built in the early fifteenth century. At that time, the houses were used as days of worship and religious holidays by the faithful from the surrounding countryside. Today, they still serve to accommodate the parishioners, invited three or four times a year at a religious festival, while the house bearing the number 253, located Framlänningsvägen is open to visitors during the summer months.
~ ~ Nederluleå kyrka
Nederluleå church is the largest medieval church in Norrland. It has a decoration and a rich interior and an impressive organ.
I loved the atmosphere of this church, very cozy with its wall paintings with lime and all those little hanging lamps made of metal sheets, which glow like fireflies in the nightfall.
Tomorrow is the road to Jokkmokk (a name that small, I was already dreaming ... like Korvatunturi ) to get to Harada.
Among the birch and pine trees covered with snow, I discovered a very surprising place: a hotel located between earth and sky with 4 houses perched in trees and a sauna at the bottom timber.
Tree Hotel is a place where nature, environmental values, comfort and modern design combine to offer visitors an extraordinary experience and we must recognize that it is very successful ... The original concept: the film Trädälskaren of Jonas Selberg claim says that the story of three parties in urban Harada to build a treehouse and philosophize about the big questions of life.
The vision of this cabin has something futuristic ... she is like a ship out of water, a foreign body in the trees. But its location has not been air by chance: The cabin overlooking the river Lule for a view of the most beautiful ...
With its 4-sided reflective glass, this cubic structure disappears completely suspended in the landscape. So to do not surprise the birds, the mirrors were tinted with ultraviolet radiation, invisible to humans, which serves to deflect the birds.
The room Blue Cone is made of a wooden frame that rests on three foundations anchored in the ground, to give an impression of height and provide stability . Access is via a bridge which makes access possible for people with disabilities. Living in the forest is accessible to everyone!
Under these northern latitudes, the absence of a sauna would be a shame, especially the beautiful woods. The peculiarity of it? Be particularly conducive to philosophical ...
course this has a price: about € 400.00 per night for two persons with breakfast included, but there may very well just like I did, a tour with Kent Lindvall and then feast of reindeer meat in Brittas Penssionat .
After that, he had returned to Stockholm ... There was still so many people to see!
It was at least two years since I had not returned to Belgium after having made the journey on Thalys almost every month for over a year to visit the little sister. Leuven Party under the Erasmus program , Noah addicted then, between sips of Beer, learning Dutch while I concentrated on that of Sweden.
We regularly traveled the flat country by train and enjoy the student life that is, largely, the charm of Leuven.
Back in the footsteps of our previous trips to reconnect with the softness Flemish ... Three days between Brussel , Leuven and Gent .
