1 month on the road

It’s already been 1 month that I’ve been travelling through France and recently other European countries. 1 month full of meetings, new cities, new places, gallery’s, discussions, nights in tents and 5-star meals (no spoiler).

Getting out of cities by hitchhiking is always complicated and this has been confirmed with Montpellier. Having to walk several kilometers to get to the desired spot is not always easy, especially when there is no pavement or place to walk. But when we want to, we can. So I managed to reach the highway and advance from car to car passing through multiple profiles: an evangelist, a welder. . . To arrive on a motorway area about 3 hours drive from Nice (final destination). So I get into active stop-hitching: i.e. go directly to people and ask them which direction they are going. The work paid off because I managed to find a lady going to Cagnes sur Mer (real final destination, at Logann and Manne’s). Here I am again on the motorway and I decide to stay a few days at their house in order to take advantage of it to discover the surroundings. Short stay in Nice, morning in gorges and walk in the village and I’m gone again!

At the toll booth at the motorway exit I come across 2 Germans hitchhiking and we start the discussion. It just so happens that they were also on their way to Strasbourg! They play straight or straight: straight we leave by the motorway and straight we come with you (meaning me) to Strasbourg by the small roads. It’s decided and we’re a small troop heading towards the Verdon gorges. After a lot of cars and adventures, we arrive at the gorges and after a few hours of walking we are at the edge of the river to pitch our tents to spend the night.

We leave again the next day and we separate because they had to quickly return to Germany (resumption of high school). I continue to climb north by the small roads and after a day without much progress, I decide to go to the locals to ask if I could pitch my tent in their garden. 1st house: a gentleman opens the door and after a few minutes of discussion, invites me to pitch my tent at the back of the house. I find myself sharing dinner with them and breakfast! We spent the evening chatting with Alain and his wife and the next day he will drop me off on a motorway between Chambéry and Lyon. A huge thank you to them for their hospitality! From thread to thread I quickly arrive in Strasbourg where I had planned to spend a few nights at Gwendoline’s
(there also a friend from Nantes). 5 nights spent in the beautiful city of Strasbourg to stroll, eat, read, and also the opportunity to see again Jeanne, a friend from high school and Hortense a friend from Nantes. I would be back on the road the following Monday towards Germany 🇩🇪 !

The hitchhiking goes well in Germany (despite long waits sometimes) and I’m pitching my tent for my first night abroad! First night marked by the cold that came to me early, very early in the morning (roughly night) and that helps me decide to drive south, towards Croatia 🇭🇷 . The hitchhiking stop works very well and finds me with a French truck driver, Mathieu with whom I would make a long stretch of the way: from West Germany to East, with my first night in a large truck! He will drop me off at dawn after the Austrian border where I will look for my next vehicle.

The road goes wonderfully in the Austrian countryside and I quickly arrive in Salzburg where, after several hours of waiting and walking, I am taken by an Austrian, Robert, in his sixties, who tells me about his hitchhiking trips years earlier. How he traveled by hitchhiking, his travel stories ect, and he will even drop me off on the motorway area where he himself had begun his journey decades earlier! Very soon I start looking for my next driver who will take me to Udine, Italy (it wasn’t planned on the program). We drive for several hours, talking about the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan (he is Pakistani) and drops me off in the Italian countryside. I spend the night there (in a tent in the rain) and the next day I go back to my favorite pastime: the hitchhiking. Except hitchhiking in Italy is complicated. Very complicated. Summary of the day: hours of waiting and walking to finally take a train to go to the border town of Trieste (border
with Slovenia). The weather is not great and my tent being wet, I decide to spend the night in a youth hostel in order to dry it and do other things. Afterwards, I will get in touch with a certain Massimo (an Italian) who happens to own a land near Trieste and is looking for people to help him on his land! So here I am at home with a French comrade (Lucas) to stay a few days at home to help him with his field.

The next adventures coming soon