Hitching France Pt. 3 Amiens to Lille

 

About 20 or 30 minutes after I first put my thumb up a woman in a silver sedan passed by and made eye contact with me. I didn’t think anything of it at first but then I saw her turn into a parking lot just down the road where she began to turn around. As I saw her pass by me again on the other side of the road I couldn’t help but think “is this real?” And sure enough she made a quick U-Turn and before I knew it she had pulled over onto the shoulder just a few meters ahead of where I was standing. She was the first to stop for me. I snatched my bag and thought “well, here we go” as I approached the passenger side window. She put down the window and quickly said that she wasn’t going to Lille but could take me up the road a good bit farther. I said that was perfect and I hopped in. I speak some French conversationally (though I was a bit rusty at the start of the trip) but man, did it take time to get used to the accent in the North. She had a much stronger accent than my host Chris did, or many of the french speakers I had previously encountered did. She quickly realized I wasn’t French and asked me where I was from. “United States,” I said. She couldn’t believe it.

This was a common dialogue I had between a good portion of the people who picked me up. Small talk. They were always stunned when they found me, an American, on the side of the road out in the sticks of France. She was a slightly older woman and worked in a Lingerie store. I was the only hitchhiker she had ever picked up. She said she had no idea why she did. She just saw me and felt compelled to give me a ride. She said she couldn’t wait to tell her friends because they never would believe that she picked up a hitchhiker, let alone an American with broken French. It was a strange moment for me because leading up to that instant I had only thought about the impact all the drivers would have on me. I didn’t for once think about it the other way around.

However, as soon as it began it was soon over as we approached a roundabout and she said this was the best place to drop me off as one road to the left went in the direction of the auto-route to Lille and she was heading straight along to her home. She pulled over and I thanked her for the ride. She said it was her pleasure, that she was happy that she did and now she had a story to tell. That was oddly humbling. I hopped out of the car, took my bag from the backseat and headed up to the other side of the roundabout as she pulled away and drove off into the countryside.

Now I was about 20 minutes by car outside of the town in the middle of nowhere with nothing around me for miles. It was oddly quiet too. But the fact I had a tent (and small sleeping bag with a yoga mat) was pretty reassuring. I knew that I’d be okay whether I got picked up that day or not. So, I waited. There weren’t many cars flowing through the roundabout my way either. One would pass by every few minutes, occasionally a truck. I checked my offline map a few times to make sure I was where I needed to be. Yup, no problem there. And I continued to wait. About another 20 minutes after I had gotten there a car pulled over. A middle aged man in a collared shirt with a warm smile lowered the window, leaned towards the passenger side and said he wasn’t going to Lille but could take me further down the road. I said that was perfect and hopped in. He was heading home from work to his wife and baby. He was a guidance counselor of sorts. He helped “youth” ages 18 to early 20s engage in development, build their resumes, and find jobs. He loved working with people at this age so he could help them learn, grow and get a good start in life. He was pretty stunned too when he realized he just picked up some American from the side of the road. He was also the first to ask what I thought of Trump… oh boy. We chatted on our lives and what I was doing out in France. He thought it was really cool what I was doing and again the humility hit. He took me another 20 or 30 minutes up the road until we reached another roundabout where he dropped me off as he headed into his small town. We said goodbye and I thanked him for this kindness.

I wasn’t on the side of the road much longer before I was picked up again except this time it was by a young guy a few years older than myself and again, coming home from work. He worked in a factory that made airplane parts if I understood correctly (some people had stronger accents than others) and he liked a wide range of music. He told me about some of the music festivals he had been to in the Netherlands. He was heading into a town by the auto-route to pick up some potatoes before heading to his home nearby. I think he decided to pick them up after he dropped me off so we drove through a small town, making a brief detour before getting to a roundabout with one direction heading to the toll. It wasn’t very far away. There was a lot of commotion and traffic there. A few police cars were pulled over along the roundabout and there was a huge line of traffic coming off of the auto-route and spilling into the roundabout. He turned onto the road without realizing it was one way to the toll so he dropped me off and made the awkward turn to merge in with the line of traffic spilling out. I was a little nervous because of the police and I knew the encounters could go either way so I just walked towards the toll hoping to snag a quick ride.

The scene wasn’t quite right. As I was walking up toward the toll booths, I heard someone shout out from their car that the road was blocked and I couldn’t get to Lille from there. I felt rather hopeless as that had been my plan the whole time. I walked over to a bench next to the toll booths, where I assume toll workers took their break on a nice day, to stop and think. I tried to use the data I had just bought but only texts and calls would work as I gazed off at the line of cars exiting the auto-route. I had seen a McDonald’s back on the other side of the roundabout so I figured that was the next best move I could make to formulate a new game plan so I started walking and arrived after a few minutes. I got a drink and some fries in exchange for a bathroom and wifi. I saw that apple maps was giving a detour around that portion of the auto-route so once I finished and took a quick rest. I continued my way North up the road past the McDonald’s for a few hundred meters and just over the highway overpass where I selected a new spot and put my thumb up once more.

I was really out in the middle of nowhere with large farms all around me and a highway just about below me. Once again, a wave of relief came over me with the tent in mind. At least I would have a shelter if no one picked me up. There only a few cars came down the road, more I suspect than usual with the detour now in full effect. And once again, before long, another car stopped. He said he could take me nearly there which I said was perfect and we were off. He was a general manager for a few department stores in the region and was pretty laid back. He took a couple work calls while I was there which was kinda awkward though he didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t make a ton of small talk but he had a friendly air about him. He took me up the road maybe 30 or 45 minutes before dropping me off at a rest stop just before the exit he had to take. I stood out before the ramp to get back on to the high way and waited for another ride. It began to rain slightly and I was hoping it would hold off just a bit longer. After about 15 minutes or so a car pulled over and offered to take me in to the city. It was a young guy driving with two girls in the car. They must have only been a year or two older than me. They worked in a lab/manufacturing plant painting new cars. They were all very nice and we jammed out to some music for the last 20 minutes or so of my trip in to Lille. Before I knew it we made it to the city, the guy dropped the two girls off first and then parked his car closer to his apartment. He pointed me in the direction I needed to go before wishing me luck. I thanked him for his kindness and went on my way.

As I was walking down the street into the city, I dropped my cardboard sign in front of a guy walking down the sidewalk the opposite way. As I picked it up we made eye contact and he said that he also had hitched to Lille a day or two before, he was a Peruvian guy from Lima and we started chatting about our travels. We ended up exchanging our information as two travelers who had a serendipitous meeting. I had arrived!