Back

Calais | Day 200 of my 2023 Journal of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jul 19, 2023· 3 minutes

🇩🇰 Read in Danish 🇬🇧

The police were out all evening checking the bunkers, looking at the seals, and politely sending their “bonjours” in our direction when walking by the van and the RV. So, even though we had just stopped alongside the road, we thought there would be no problem staying the night. I hope the police were there to protect the seals and the rest of the natural site. Maybe they were. Perhaps I have to gain a bit of trust in the authorities.

We slept in silence and woke up to cars and bikes arriving, a good amount of people enjoying a walk or a run, a good vibe, and a lot of smiling. And we joined the movement: Walked with morning coffee in hand all the way to the low tide to dip in the cool waters and again meet the seals. You have to be respectful, it is their territory, so we retreated when the guarding one became guarding five. And just like last year, we had to run to save our bags, as the tide was coming in fast, and we did not notice.

Moving through the day, we had to get practical things done and place the vehicles at the station for campers, watch a documentary, and go for a walk to look at Calais.

We might need to give Calais more time. On the other hand, there are so many other great places in France. I love the natural site, and the fries were very, very good in overwhelming portions (two portions filling all five of us!) - and walking along the waters in and out of town was equally lovely. Except for the heavy rainfall we got caught in on the way back.

But then there was a rainbow, and we hung all the wet things in many new creative spaces invented there and then in the van, and had tea and some avocado and stayed up very late as it was our last evening with Bjørn and Ina.

In the night, the rain came back, and I listened to it on the van's roof while grateful for this beautiful life and all elements of it, including getting caught in the rain with some friends in a not-so-interesting place in France.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

See more images on Facebook

🇩🇰 Read in Danish 🇬🇧 

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our life like this, and we get very happy when we get feedback from you. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

Some days are overloaded with to-do. If we lean back and trust the process, they might unfold beautifully. When we sat around the porridge and berrie…Read more
A friend of mine told me about a Shakespeare open-air play in one of the central parks - The Tempest, a play I had never heard about. It was funny, m…Read more
I sometimes tell myself this: If I do what is hard (make my way through the narrow path of doing what I find right despite all systems around me), my…Read more
If I were ever to move back to my hometown, I would not choose the new areas. I would stick to be me. And hope to find some of the wild lives, some o…Read more
When my first child was a little one, I was a single mom with half an education, a tight budget, a small apartment, and a good life. We had a lot of …Read more
When we let go of the ideas of how “it is supposed to be,” we are left in a peaceful place. When we learn to live with less, happy if we have “it all…Read more
When I started this challenge 148 days ago, I planned to share a photo daily, along with a snippet of text related to the day before—a simple travel-…Read more
Wuau, it has been a roller coaster! Gaming might be the most potent example of the importance of Deschooling in my entire journey as an unschooling m…Read more
Not all days sport Rocking things to Rant about or big themes to play Wise with Wisdom around. Some days are silent resonance boxes. So much love. So…Read more