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…)

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…)