Hitching France Pt. 6 – Saint-Omer to Boulogne-sur-mer
My luck continued to go well and hitching continued to just work as I was picked up maybe 20 minutes after I put up my thumb while standing on the side of the road. I think I was only passed by maybe 10 – 15 cars max.
I was picked up by an older gentlemen who was going to pickup his elderly uncle in another town to then bring him back to his home to spend a week with family. He was very kind and told me all about himself and his family. He had worked in the same glass factory that my host worked in but had been retired for some years then. He had a granddaughter my age studying political science in Paris and family scattered about the region. They all seemed well traveled too. He was great conversation to have but eventually we reached the point where he had to veer off of my trajectory. He took his exit and I hopped off on the median which was a little island of asphalt to wait for the next car to take the entrance back down to the auto-route where I could continue. The area seemed quite desolate and quiet but there I stood with my thumb up when I heard a car approaching, hoping for a quick ride.
It always amazed me when someone would stop to pick me up. The reaction in some cases was so quick. To come down the road encroached with trees, reaching the opening of the exit, seeing me, realizing I was a hitchhiker, noticing the town on my sign and thinking to stop to let me in to your vehicle, it’s an incredible and humbling experience. I was fortunate though as once again, even in the middle of nowhere, I had a short wait time. I was picked up by a younger guy in a van who worked for a wildlife conservatory a few hours to the south of Boulogne-sur-mer, where I was heading. He was making his way near the town to pick up things for some wildlife expo they were putting on in the area. He told me he had hitchhiked too, which turned out to be a significant trend amongst the drivers who gave me a ride. I guess simply because they understood. Over time, as I found that a good proportion of my chauffers had hitchhiked too, it felt like I had tapped in to a hidden network of wanderlust people who bypassed traditional methods of travel for the sake of adventure (and cost efficiency, though I was more so for the former). It was touching to meet so many people by chance only for a brief period of time, just to share some miles down the open road.
My wildlife chauffeur dropped me off at the very outer edge of the town and when I looked at my map I figured I’d walk the 3 miles or so down to the coast. I had made it, once again. Though there was still the problem that I was feeling very under the weather. I began the walk into town and quickly stumbled on a Carrefour from which I bought a single coke for my stomach (hoping the sugar may give me little boost) and I took a Tylenol. I sat down outside the shop to soak in the sun as I had some chills and drink my soda. I was pretty tired from the lack of sleep and the far walk to my hitch spot, not to mention the fact the road seems to innately draw energy from your reserves. It could be from the novelty of the situation and your heightened focus. Who knows. But I had to rest up a bit, not to mention I had some time to kill.
Two years before I did an extra credit program through my university’s French department after my semester abroad where I met up with five other students and two professors in Paris to complete a two week immersive course in France. We spent one week in Boulogne-sur-mer with students from a sister school and one week after exploring Paris accompanied by two extremely knowledgeable professors. In Boulogne-sur-mer though, we stayed with host families and I lucked out with some of the nicest people I had ever met. They introduced me to new foods, showed me around the area and gave me better hospitality than I could ever have asked for. So, I was spending the weekend with them for a visit! But I had some time before I was meeting my friend, and host brother, Guillaume, so as I was feeling a bit better from the sun, coke and Tylenol I decided to make my way to the coast to look out over the water. I snaked my way through the streets of Boulogne-sur-mer, occasionally catching scenes that were familiar and filled with nostalgia from that trip more than two years before. I stopped in a small middle-eastern sandwich shop and had a good lunch, not to mention another rest stop as I had walked two miles there with my large pack.
Once finished, I continued on and walked up a large hill and pressed west to reach the edge of another huge hill in a Northern part of the town which was overlooking the beach below and out over the ocean. I sat down on a small concrete seat on the side of the hill. I soaked in the view and put my pack under my head for a short nap in the fresh air. It was a light nap and when I woke up I was still feeling pretty under the weather but I had to buck up and make my way back down into town to meet Guillaume at the train station. I wandered back through the streets onto what seemed like the main stretch with various shops and bustling sidewalks. I found the train station with some time to spare and waited for my friend to swing by and pick me up. Before long, Guillaume pulled over by the front entrance of the train station, I threw my bag in the back seat and we were on our way outside the city through the countryside to his home.