Winding side roads take you through the last foothills of the French Alps down into the Rhône Valley. This is the cradle of the Mistral, one of the most powerful wind systems in Europe. First the vineyards tremble. Castles, aqueducts and medieval villages pass by on rollercoasters. Then the poplars sway. The land becomes flatter and flatter. Mountains become hills.
From Arles onwards, the land flows into water for 50 kilometres like nowhere else in the world. The distances between the villages increase between the last rows of trees swaying in the strong wind. Yawning bulls and grazing grey horses on the last solid meadows before the sea. Then, very slowly, the water creeps inland through canals between rushes. (more…)
Swiss cheese @ Leucate
Two long journeys of up to eight hours take me via Barcelona to the small French backcountry village of Durban-Corbières near Leucate. A supermarket, a restaurant and a dilapidated castle in the middle of vineyards slow down my 7,000 kilometres comfortably. Everywhere, the winegrowers collect their harvest in Playmobil tractors.
The quirky innkeeper sorts cassettes under fig trees in front of his ancient stone house. Mambo from the 50s is playing inside. I am the only guest. A castle glows a lonely gold in the sunset while the moon rises behind the vineyards. (more…)
Living Like God In France?
Some wisdom is easy to grasp. Others you have to survive in order to begin to understand them. “Living like God in France” is one of the latter. The destination: Provence. The time: peak season, start of the summer holidays in Bavaria and France.
In the face of the economic crisis, President Hollande called on his people to go on holiday in their own country. They obeyed en masse. I’m still amazed that we make it to Mulhouse, France, in just 3.5 hours in the evening. The traffic jam only comes after driving through the night before leaving for the Rhone Valley near Montélimar. From then on everything goes very slowly. Every 10 kilometres, the French set up altars for Mercurius. They flash in the night. (more…)
Provence
The Sommières tourist board calls me to Provence to create a new website. At dawn, before the first motorway service station, a fox commits hara-kiri on my bumper. As thanks for my toughness, he takes a fog light with him into nirvana and now lights the way home for the hedgehogs.
The journey eats up the kilometres, in a frenzy all the way to Avignon. After 11 hours, we arrive at dusk. The papal palace is dark and the bridge is already closed. In the chilly October, we wander through the almost deserted old town. (more…)
Kitesurfing on Corsica’s east coast
Everyone says kitesurfing on Corsica’s east coast is not possible. There’s never any wind and when there is, it’s too little and when there is enough, it’s completely offshore. None of that is true. I was here for 10 days in July. I was out for several hours on four days. I had a 12 and a 19 kite with me. I only used the latter. But it works.
My kitesurfing spot is about 15 kilometres north of Aleria. A wide sandy beach, no trees, but no bays either. No rocks and plenty of space. The wind forecasts from Windfinder.com are practically never right. There are no fixed times, the wind can come at any time of day and from any direction. (more…)
Corsicana
I realised that I didn’t actually spend a single day – or at least half a day – just lying on the beach on my big trip. There was always a cave to explore, a mountain to climb or a lagoon to explore. As long as there wasn’t enough wind for kiting, of course. It’s different here and it’s good.
Sometimes there is wind, but the forecasts are practically never right. In any case, there is also more wind than expected on the east side of Corsica, mostly side-onshore. I was out briefly on four out of seven days with the 19 Assault. Some fun on the water in the setting sun. Then a game of volleyball and the evening begins with a barbecue, wine and a beach fire. (more…)
The Author
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.