Hitching France Pt. 17 – Journey to Montpellier

While in the back of that service station, I remember standing behind a sign and the back of it was covered with the scribbles of prior hitchhikers. It was so cool to see that others had been in the same spot before me and I really felt like part of a community even though I had never met any of them. It late afternoon at this point and I had uncomfortable glances over to some of the bushes and trees that were a bit farther back where I could be out of sight knowing that I could get stranded. I told myself that if it really started to get late I would ask people as to not have to stay there. And I waited. A half hour passed, an hour passed and probably around the hour and a half mark moments before I was going to give up and start asking people, a truck stopped and out hopped a young twenty one year old guy. I could hardly understand his accent. It’s probably like someone learning English and then heading to the south. There was something about how he spoke that made it difficult for me to understand so I had to listen really hard and ask questions to clarify. I remember my first couchsurfing host remarking about other French accents but this was the strongest one I would encounter.

He told me that I could ride with him but that I had to know that he couldn’t be sure he was heading to Montpellier. He said that he knew he was heading farther south but he had to had to go to the distribution center a few kilometers down the road and then he would find out exactly. He said it could be Montpellier, Nimes, Perpignan Avignon… he really wouldn’t know until he picked up his cargo but if I wanted to gamble I was more than welcome to come along. I really jumped at the offer. For one, to get out of the service station and two it was my first chance to ride in a truck! I can’t say that I wasn’t excited. I put my bag in the cabin and climbed in. It was really cool to be up so high in such a big truck. The cabin had two bunk beds in the back and was incredibly spacious. The driver and passenger seats were huge and comfortable. He seemed to have a nice control booth with all the extra buttons and switches that were around. He let me DJ the whole way too because he wanted to get some new music so that was awesome too. He took a couple calls and we went to a distribution center not far down the road. He left me in the cabin while he checked in at the office. When he came back he told me we were going to take a whole bunch of cheese down to three cities in the south- Avignon to Montpellier to Perpignan. Good news. The only problem was that it was going to be a late night because we would have to wait some time to unload first at Avignon. I said alright since I just wanted to go south and we took off after all the cheese was loaded. You could feel the crates being loaded on to the truck. We spent awhile together as we drove through the night. I asked him how he got into truck driving so young and he told me “It’s a passion”.

It seemed to be a pretty good gig for him. He drove for a smaller company with only a few trucks and he had to do a bit of sales as well since he himself would negotiate with distributors and organize his deliveries. He definitely really liked it and it really didn’t seem that bad at all. We chatted and jammed through the night. At one point we stopped at a service station to use the restroom and get a snack. I was pretty hungry, sometimes it was hard to eat well while hitching. He was really nice and bought my sandwich and water for me which I really appreciated. Sometimes it is hard for me to accept others generosity when I know I have the means to take care of myself. I wasn’t hitchhiking because I was broke it was only for the adventure so sometimes openly receiving so much from others seemed like a lot but it’s good to open yourself to the kindness of others. It was the middle of the night when we got back on the road and it was then that I was starting to realize I had misunderstood some of what he said before regarding douze heures (12am which in hindsight wouldn’t have made sense anyway but I was thinking in English-french) and deux heures 2am. It turned out we wouldn’t be reaching Avignon for sometime and then we would have to wait for the distribution center to open in order to unload. It was then that I started to give in and fall asleep. He said I could sleep on the other bunk but I declined and rested in the seat.

The rest of the night I sort of faded in and out. I woke up and we were driving and then I woke up and we were in the back of the distribution center waiting, I woke up and we were unloading and then I woke up again and we were back to driving. I was pretty exhausted as it was past 4am at this point and my sleeping had been spotty. I started to see signs for Montpellier and as I was unsure about what he had to do I waited for him to say something. I see we start to pass the city and there were some hotels up ahead but still nothing and we continue to drive then close to the coast. He tells me then that he must go further on and I’d only be heading out of my way. I was a bit disgruntled about how it ended but I guess better communication would have improved the situation. I ended up descending from the vehicle ten kilometers or so south of the city in the middle of nowhere just after 5am. I overshot it a bit. The only thing on my mind was resting up so I went off of the roundabout behind some trees but it felt like a bad spot to stealth camp from. I remember seeing a Mcdonalds not far back so I went there to see if the wifi would be running even though the store was closed. It wasn’t so I went back to where I got dropped off. I saw another path that went off to the side across the roundabout from where there was behind a big wall that ran along the road. I went back there and climbed over a single horizontal post fence that was on the path and went into a large open area that was pretty rocky just next to a line of bushes and brush. I decided that would be as good a spot as any since the wall covered the spot from sight from the road. So I pitched my tent and was fast asleep around 5:30am. I woke up between 9:30 and 10am more refreshed than I thought I would be and a bit sweaty from the southern heat but I packed up as quickly as I could and then went straight for McDonald’s for wifi and breakfast. I needed the wifi to find out where I was exactly and to message my friend who was awaiting my arrival. I was right on the outskirts of Frontignan and had been dropped off at the Rond-Point du Barnier where I slept behind that graffitied wall. I then went back to the roundabout and went a few meters down the D612 to a nice spot with a good shoulder for my final hitch. I was extremely anxious to get in to Montpellier and complete my journey. I waited about fifteen minutes for a car to stop and this time it was an older gentleman who didn’t speak much. It was a quiet ride but he took me into the city and dropped me off right at a tram stop that I could take to exactly where I needed to go to meet my friend. I thanked him, grabbed my pack and parted ways with a huge smile on my face. I had made it.

After some time I hopped off the tram at Plan Cabanes and since my phone had stopped working I aimlessly walked around the area looking for my friend. Luckily, beforehand, I had given her an idea of when I’d be arriving so not long after I arrived I stumbled on her sitting at a café just at the corner of the Plan Cabanes stop a little southeast down Cours Gambetta. She was reading a newspaper and drinking a tea. I stopped, she peered over her sunglasses and we excitedly exchanged salutations. I laid my pack down next to the table and sat down with a good sweat working down the sides of my head. I was utterly relieved. I told her about what I had been through to get there the last day or so and I don’t know if she knew what to think about my ride with the camion with my side of the road camping spot just before sunrise but she laughed. She got me a warm sweet tea that was really nice and then we made our way to her place. She had a nice cozy flat and brought out a mattress for me to sleep on in the living space. I took a much needed shower because I was pretty gross and then we set out to walk around the city. She took me to the Aqueduc Saint-Clement and then we walked through the city to Le Corum where we went on top of the building and took in the view. Those next few days I was plunged into the underground rap scene of Montpellier. It felt like everyone I was meeting also rapped and was deep in the scene. I hung out in one groups home recording studio, attended a la raclette birthday party of a friend of a friend and was shown immense hospitality the whole time. I witnessed one of the most epic jam sessions I had ever seen and possibly will ever see. I met some fantastic people and was shown an awesome time. It was the perfect ending to a long, strange trip and a good segway to an interesting stay in Barcelona to top off the whole trip from June to October. September will always remind me of those days on the road and some of the best days of my life. Even now, as I compile my writings to polish them and give them a space four years later (09/21), I still frequently reflect on this adventure and my heart longs for the open road once again. Especially if you are young, I hope you too can embark on an adventure which you will never forget and can feel in the depths of your heart for your whole life.