The review

We’ve been back home for three weeks already, and both of us went back to work over the past few days. Yes, we were bound to get there eventually! “It must feel strange,” you might say? A little, yes, but we had plenty of time to get used to the idea and, psychologically speaking, we were ready. I don’t think the shock will hit us right away, maybe more in a few weeks, once our little daily routine has really settled back in.

But with a little perspective, we can already take a first look back at our great adventure, if it’s even possible to sum up a whole year of wandering and discovery in just a few lines... 

As mentioned in the last publication, we travelled a total of 38,084 kilometres over 12 months and 5 days, minus the 15 days when we returned to Voiron to get the vehicle homologation. During those 12 months, we travelled through 21 countries: the United Kingdom, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. And that doesn’t include the countries we barely stopped in, such as Slovakia, Germany and Belgium.

The question we’ve already been asked many times: which country did we like best??? It’s very difficult to answer because it depends on several factors. First of all, we didn’t spend the same amount of time in every country, so we didn’t have an equal opportunity to get a feel for each one. We spent several weeks in some countries and only a few days in others. Under those circumstances, it’s impossible to have a truly informed opinion about all 21 countries on the list. The time of year and the weather we experienced during our stay also had a huge impact on our experience, especially when travelling by van. Still, here is our “little” list of the places that left an impression on us in one way or another:

Top 3 countries (for the beauty of the landscapes and the welcome we received): Scotland, Turkey and Norway

The cities we liked best: Copenhagen, Krakow and Riga for Jérôme; Copenhagen, Krakow, Tallinn and Łódź for Sophie

The best life lessons: Sarajevo for its message of coexistence and tolerance; Poland and the Baltic countries for their resilience and courage

The most moving visits: Sarajevo, Auschwitz and the KGB Prison in Tallinn 

The pleasant surprises: Romania with its incredible contrasts, where horse-drawn carts share the roads with luxury cars; Poland, whose standard of living is actually quite comparable to, and in some respects even higher than France’s; and Albania for its authenticity   

The less pleasant surprises: Albania again, but this time because of the countless construction sites destroying its beautiful coastline to build hotels — lots and lots of hotels, in an attempt to embrace mass tourism (goodbye authenticity). Also, the rather lukewarm welcome we received in Croatia and Montenegro, where tourist = pay, and the rubbish scattered everywhere in nature throughout southern Europe, which can make otherwise magnificent places rather unpleasant. 😔  

The most beautiful beaches: Elafonisos Island in Greece and the Curonian Spit in Lithuania

The most impressive sites/visits: the Meteora monasteries in Greece, the cave villages of Cappadocia in Turkey, the Chimaera (also in Turkey), where flames emerge naturally from the ground, and the Turda Salt Mine in Romania

The most unusual experiences (at least for us): Ramadan in Turkey, the Arctic Circle and the midnight sun

The most beautiful roads: crossing Scotland from east to west, the road overlooking the lakes of Kotor in Montenegro, and pretty much every road in Norway 😄  

The best moments of sharing: the Rugby World Cup in England, visiting the Corazza family land in Brugnera, Italy, our two “Helper” stays in Latvia and Finland, experiencing Norway’s great run at the Football World Cup alongside the Norwegians, and of course all the wonderful people we met along the way this year.

The best food stops: the Glenlivet whisky distillery in Scotland, the markets in Turkey, the Oremus cellars in Hungary, the fish restaurant on the shores of the Black Sea in Romania, and my birthday dinner overlooking a Norwegian fjord. 

And what about nomadic life? It has its advantages and disadvantages too. Overall, everything went very well for us. We didn’t have any major problems on the road, apart from our tyre saga right at the beginning and the sensor that had to be replaced at Christmas, which kept us more or less confined to the area around Kalamata in Greece for two weeks. Frankly, there are worse things!

The best part of our trip, and something we really appreciated, was having absolutely no schedule and, essentially, no constraints. There was never any need to be in a particular place at a particular time. You carry your home with you, so you can do whatever you want!! We could decide on a whim to spend an afternoon fishing, stop somewhere for lunch and then decide to stay until the next morning, or spend three days somewhere even though we had originally planned to stay for only a few hours. It’s an incredible and very enjoyable feeling of freedom — at least for us.

The downside is that you move around a lot, all the time. After a while, you get a little tired of sleeping in car parks and never quite feeling like you’re “in your place”. We had also greatly underestimated how much time we would spend inside the van. We all have this image in our heads of parking somewhere idyllic, pulling out the table and chairs and enjoying a meal with a panoramic view. But in reality, that scenario isn’t possible nearly as often as you might think, for all sorts of reasons: the place isn’t suitable, it’s forbidden, the weather isn’t cooperating, there are midges 😱, etc., etc.

Our last little disappointment was that we thought we would have much more time for ourselves. Time to read, draw, think, do nothing! But in the end, the days flew by at an incredible speed, with always something to do: we need water, we need groceries, we need to empty the rubbish, we need to sort the photos, we need to write the blog, etc. So in the end, I didn’t read nearly as many books as I thought I would, and Jérôme only managed to do one or two sketches in his drawing book. On the other hand, he discovered fishing and Sudoku, and I had a lot of fun telling you all about our adventures 😅.

But putting these little details aside, we are absolutely delighted with our year and the overall experience was overwhelmingly positive. We’re very happy that we did it, and that we did it now, because there is no such thing as the perfect time and we never know what the future has in store for us... Carpe Diem! That’s our motto 😊.

Now we’re going to take some time to slowly digest this gargantuan feast. No big trips planned for the moment. We’ve decided to sell our little home on wheels so that it can take others out on the road to discover places near and far, while we focus on other projects. Anyone interested? 😉

And so, this is where the "Grande Vadrouille" comes to an end. Thank you all for following us on this incredible journey, even if only from time to time, and we hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did!

See you soon! If you’re looking for us, you’ll find us easily in Voiron, Isère, France 😅.

Jérôme & Sophie

See all the trip and photos: here