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Name: Camille
Hat: Cap
Home city: Oslo for the moment
Occupation: engineer, responsible for innovating projects
Passions in life: Sailing, so why not traveling?
Sees herself in 10 years: with Laure on our boat somewhere beautiful
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Name : Laure
Hat: sunhat
Home city: Oslo too
Occupation: engineer, responsible for renewable energy projects
Passions in life: travelling, so why not sailing?
Sees herself in 10 years: with Camille on our boat, but somewhere else
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6 years already that we are back from our Baltic parenthesis, and we are starting to have itchy feet… It’s
also the time we had waited after coming back from our Atlantic trip , it seems like 6 years is our max for a sedentary
life onshore!
Still, our Norwegian days are rather full. First and foremost with our professional
activities.
Laure has finally found the job of her dreams and go developing solar panel plants in Ukraine,
then in Bangladesh, then developing others with more wind turbines in Sweden, Brazil, and to
finish with this is the whole renewable energy company that she develops.
Camille continues managing engineering projects, then development teams, then entire technical
departments, to finally lead the whole technology organization of her company.
All of this is rather time consuming, but very interesting intellectually, and admittedly
rather fulfilling. We are proud of our professional accomplishments, that’s done, now it’s
time to move on!
Indeed, this is outside of the office that life in Norway becomes particularly pleasant for
who, like we do, likes more than anything being out in the nature, in harmony with the
elements.
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Norwegian winter: season beginning late October and continuing until mid-April,
characterized by up to 18h of darkness daily, rarely positive temperatures, stormy episodes,
and abundant snowfalls inevitably turning into a thick layer of ice towards the end of the
season.
Frequently associated sayings: « Set the alarm earlier, we’ll have to shovel the snow
before leaving », « ah it must be a bit chilly, my eyelashes are freezing
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classic « Aaaaah, it’s slipperyyyy!!! », but also « Nice it has snowed, it will
finally be less dark», « it’s actually beautiful with this low light…», or
« Shall we walk to the island?” »
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The Oslo fjord turned into ice on a nice January afternoon |
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But admittedly, it’s gorgeous… March 29th (!) 2023
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In the winter, everything is more difficult. If we keep biking around, we owe it to our
studded tyres. Laure manages to keep her weekly running routine… with studded shoes. Even
walking is sometimes only possible with temporary studded soles to avoid losing our balance.
The only seasonal activity is skiing. |
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We mainly do cross country skiing, like the vast majority of the Norwegians. As soon as
the snow starts falling, the huge forest bordering Oslo to its North gets transformed in a
network of close to 2000 km of prepared skiing tracks. It’s ideal to stay fit during the
winter while strolling around magnificent mid-mountain landscapes. And sometimes we drive a
few hours away to reach higher regions, and can get lost on skis on unspoiled territories…
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Random Sunday tour close to Oslo, January 2023
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The higher mountains of Beitostølen, April 2021
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More pictures of what winter in the Great North looks like on our page Pictures.
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Norwegian summer: season characterized by a nice, warm and sunny weather, spreading
some years from June 12th to 16th ;o)
By extension, and because we need to keep our spirits high, what we mean by Norwegian summer
is the period from mid-April until mid-September, when the days last all the way through the
night, the temperatures are largely bearable, and the nature – just like us -must rush to live
before the next hibernation.
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Lofoten islands, a concentrate of Norway, June 2020 |
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Spending the night by the Hardangerjøkulen glacier, July 2021
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And so begins an orgy of outdoor activities. Sailing the boat of course (see our eponymous page), but also hiking, in these fairy tale landscapes
looking like they were carved in stone with a giant knife. Wild camping is authorized as long
as there is more than 150m to the closest dwelling, and fortunately enough, we are not so many
around here! If one prefers to travel light, then let’s aim for one of the more than 500
“hytte” (wooden cabin in the nature) of the touring association DNT: it’s easy, you can open
them all with the same one key… when they are locked! So off we go with our hiking boots and
backpacks, getting lost in the immensity of the mineral “nothing”, hardly disturbed by a herd
of reindeers, or a whistling bird… |
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But the call of the water remains very strong, in particularly the one of the skjærgård, this
archipelago of thousands of rocks and skerries sprinkled along most of the Norwegian and
Swedish coastlines. And the absolute weapon to explore it is undoubtedly… the kayak! We had
been dreaming about it for a long time, we took the plunge after the Baltic trip and purchased
two magnificent sea kayaks, thin and light, but with enough storage capacity to carry the tent
and several days of supplies!
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Our private island for a night, Bohuslän, May 2019 |
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On a day trip we simply paddle around the islands of the Oslo fjord, a few minutes from
home. For a whole week-end we head to the closest shores, Vestfold in Norway or Bohuslän in
Sweden. And on two occasions we went for the great adventure: with the kayaks firmly strapped
on the roof of the car, it only takes about 10 hours to drive across the country and reach the
west coast with its dramatic fjords… Definitely memories for a life-time, and a comforting
feeling of having managed to keeping drowning ourselves in the beauty of nature even during
our sedentary years…
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The end of the Hjørundfjord, May 2021
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Eikedalsvatnet, May 2023
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The inter-seasons in Norway
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Almost non-existent! There is simply no room for spring, as after close to 7 months of winter
any temperature above 10 degrees feels scorching hot. The fall can be more noticeable,
especially on years when the snow comes late. The flamboyant colors are then helpful to try
and forget about the inevitable humidity! It’s also the period to indulge ourselves with all
kinds of wild berries: blackberries, cloudberries, raspberries, they are everywhere!
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Hiking in the shadow of the Gaustatoppen, September 2020 |
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More pictures of the boreal nature on our page Pictures.
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It’s been 12 years in Norway, this is 30% of our lifetime, this is quite something. We do
feel bi-cultural on many aspects now, and we are deeply fond of the one we consider our second
country (Ja, vi elsker dette landet!).
But before all, we are nomadic souls, and the horizon is calling. It’s never easy to leave a
place we really like, but it is the sign that we have made the most of it. We simply need to
make sure that the next chapter is of the same level!
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Takk for oss, Norge ! The adventure is calling!
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