Cute...cuter...les plus beaux villages de France!

Some 152 villages in France are proud to be called the most beautiful French villages (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France).

Charme, coziness, less than 2000 inhabitants and at least 2 protected sites (of artistic, scientific or historical interest) is the shortest way to describe them all. Once you lay a foot in one village like this, picturesques houses and lovely, tiny details take you to a journey in another, a bit forgotten world.

I have had the chance to see Noyers-sur-Serein (in Bourgogne, where the butterfly sign comes from). Le Bec Helloin in Normandy (first picture), charmed me during a visit on a sunny autumn day, while Beuvron-en-Auge looked like just-out-of-the-history-book-picture with its friendly inhabitants, walking in their traditional costumes and hats (pic 2 and 4).

And last but not least, these picturesque places offer at the same time a relaxing hide-out and good-mood discovery...So just find your "bonheur" and enjoy it:)

The rocks of Belogradchik

A big "wow" slipped out of my mouth on the way to Belogradchik (the white town), a few kilometer before arriving ta the final destination. Around 200 km north of Sofia (Bulgaria) wonderful and unique rock formations in red and grey colours decorate the landscape. The age of the rocks is estimated at 230millions years and they cover an area of 30km.

This area of my country was inhabited already by the ancient Romans in I-III century. They built the original fortress between the rocks using their natural inapproachabilty. Nowadays the Belogradchik Fortress "Kaleto" is one of the best kept and a part of "100 most beautiful places of interest in Bulgaria".

O'zapft is! Oktoberfest...in September:)

There is something that always makes me laugh when I hear "Oktoberfest"- it starts mid September and only the few last days of the 16-day-beerfestival are indeed in October! But I have to say it is amazing to see the enormous number of beer fans and party-addicts and of course the tons of Dirndl (typical Bavarian dress, consisting of a bodice, blouse, full skirt and apro) and Lederhosen(leather pants).

What took place in October 1810 as a wedding party of King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, its now a huge money-making and beer-selling machine...Löwenbräu, Augustiner, Pschorr-Hacker: the most famous beer producer have their own party tents where beer and music are flowing sometimes in the same tempo. The price of one liter beer increases every year-from 2005 till 2009 the price increase was 1,50EUR. The 2009 price was 8.60EUR (to compare in 1949 it was 1,70 EUR)!

The Munich Oktoberfest is known as the Largest Volksfest (People's Fair) in the World. In 1999 there were six and a half million visitors to the 42 hectare Theresienwiese. 72% of the people are from Bavaria.15% of visitors come from foreign countries like the surrounding EU-countries and other non-European countries including the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil and Australia.

And last but not least-make sure you leave before the tables start get wet of all the beer on them:) And dont forget dancing is allowed only on the benches, but not on the table-the only place where just the Mass Bier is safe!

Sea and fishing...

The first time i wanted to see the sea in Britanny/Bretagne i could not believe how big the difference between low and high tide there is! At the Black sea coast, there are sometimes 5 cm, here it can be up 5-10 or even 20 meters....I had to walk once more than 5 minutes from the place where the water surface usually is (by high tide) till where it was by low tide.

I have discovered those cute fishermen houses by low tide in south Bretagne, in Saint Michel Chef Chef. They were looking so lonely on the beach, one abandoned one even reminded me of a spider while looking at it from down. Some people were using those hours when the water uncovers clams and other seafood to collect the dinner...

Guérande, the sea salt capital of France/Britanny!

The village Guérande is famous for its sea salt production - still the old-fashioned way: by hand! All over Western Europe if you sometimes buy/have bought salted butter, most of the time the salt inside is from there:-) The salt evaporation ponds surrounding Guérande is where everything takes place under the sky. The salt concentration from the ocean is 35gr/l, in the ponds it goes down to 300gr/l within 15 days!!!

I was very lucky and happy to be there end of August when is the actual harvesting-time. There are 2 salt products: the "gros sel"(heavy grey salt this one stays at the bottom of the pond) and the "fleur du sel"(salt flower = the light one, that stays at the surface). One salt evaporation pond (with a size of 7x10m) usually brings a harvest of 50-100kg "gros sel" and 2-4 kg "fleur du sel"...