In the summer of 2017 I stumbled into the idea that I was going to hitchhike around France that September. I followed through with that crazy idea and managed to hail almost forty free rides from all walks of life through the French countryside. I got picked up by young workers leaving their jobs in factories to a magician on his way to a birthday party to a beautiful comedian heading to her friend’s art show. I went through fifteen different towns and cities sleeping in hotels, on couches and occasionally on the side of the road. Here, I present to you the journey.
This series of posts will be about a three-week, 2,000-mile hitchhiking journey around France which I undertook in September of 2017. I consider it to be a very valuable and memorable experience in my...
I arrived in Amiens in the middle of the afternoon and had some time to wander around before meeting my couchsurfing host back at the train station. The cathedral in the town is an incredible sight...
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...
I spent two nights at the Gastama Hostel in Lille as the couchsurfing didn’t quite work out. The hostel had a nice bar and was in a good location with a lot going on in the evenings. Aside from...
Around 6p.m. or so I returned to the main square to meet up with my host at a café where we sat to have a pint. We talked and talked about anything and everything that evening. I don’t even have the...
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...
Before long, Guillaume pulled over in front of the entrance to the train station, I threw my bag in the back seat and we were on our way to the countryside. The landscape of the countryside in...
The next day when I awoke fairly early and received news that Bastien had picked up the truck but there wasn’t an extra seat for me to get a ride heading south with him. No bother I thought, I said it...
I was relieved to be on my way again, especially after spending most of the day walking around in the same landscape and patiently waiting on the side of the road. The girls didn’t talk much to me...
I left the hotel around 10am the next morning and made my way back down into town. I wanted to explore a bit of the western edge that had some interesting structures before leaving. I wandered around...
I still had a few hours before I would be meeting up with my couchsurfing host, so as such, I made my way wandering around town for some time before finding a McDonald’s to charge up and tune in. It...
I was always anxious to get out and get moving down the road but it was humbling to feel that it was out of my control and that I needed to be patient because I never knew when that ride would come...
I relaxed in a cheap hotel room, showered, got a good night’s sleep and woke up early to snag some free breakfast on the way out of the hotel. I walked alongside the busy road through business lots...
I walked a mile or two from Carrefour to the outer edge of Aytré in hopes to catch a ride south towards Bordeaux. I was picked up fairly quickly by an older lady heading towards Châtelaillon-Plage to...
Surprisingly, a van pulled over only a few minutes after I put my thumb and sign up. He blocked traffic pretty badly when he stopped so there was plenty of honks for holding up the traffic flow just...
Behind the bush in the back of a skatepark where I slept was right next to what looked like an outdoor distribution center with things on pallets stacked on high shelves so I woke up early in the...
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...
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