Paris Hitch 2007

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Last friday, I took part in a sponsored hitch-hike from Bath to Paris along with my housemate Lauren, and about 150 other students in aid of various charities, including Alzheimer’s Support, Cancer Research UK and the NSPCC. The idea was to race in pairs, from campus, to the Eiffel Tower, without paying for anything, except the foot passenger fee on the ferry.

I spent what seemed like hours on the phone the week before to all the airlines I could think of, and eurostar to try and blag some free flights, or a train, but they didn't seem interested, so at about 10.30 on friday morning we found ourselves waiting by the carpark at uni, trying to catch anyone driving off campus who would give us a lift somewhere towards town. After waiting for probably less than a minute a guy from Bath FM offered to give us a lift down the hill, but after talking to us for a while, he became really enthusiastic about what we were doing, and offered to give us a lift all the way to the M4, even though it wasn't anywhere near where he was going!

We had this kind of luck all the way down to Dover, managed to get a lift in an Aston Martin DB7, and we even saw some guys from uni at a service station who had left 3 hours before us!

Once on the ferry we had to try and find someone going somewhere down the A1 in France, and this proved very difficult, as literally everybody on the ferry was French, and neither Lauren or I speak a word of it! Just as we were about to give up hope, a French couple (who could speak English) offered to give us, and a couple of others a lift to a service station just south of Arras. From there, only waiting about 5 or 10 minutes, we hitched a lift of a Belgian guy who was going to Disney Land in Paris which was unbelievable luck.

In the end we arrived under the Eiffel Tower just before midnight, so just under 12 1/2 hours. We finished second, by only about 10 minutes, suprisingly to the guys we saw at the service station who were 3 hours behind us earlier (apparantly they managed to get a lift of somebody who was going from Maidstone, all the way to the centre of Paris through the channel tunnel). But we thought coming second was pretty damn good.

Once at the Eiffel Tower we had the next 24 hours to do what we wanted. We had booked a hostel, but it was about an hour away from the tower, and by this time we were knackered, so in the end a load of us just ended up sleeping in the park in sleeping bags, which turned out to be really fun, apart from the lack of showers the next day.

In the morning I managed to ditch Lauren with some girls who were going shopping all day (so luckily i wasn't dragged through all of the shoe shops on the Champs-Elysées!) and me and a few of the guys went sight seeing in the blistering 30 degree heat, including going to the L'arc de Triomphe (at which we stupidly tried crossing the mental 7 lane roundabout because we didn't see the underpass!) Bastille, the Louvre (which was really really impressive) and Notre Dam before going up the Eiffel Tower at night, which gave us some incredible views over Paris.

We then took the coach back home to uni (which i think only took about half an hour or an hour quicker than hitching!) So we finally arrived back in Bath at about lunchtime on Sunday, in time for a much needed shower!

So far I have raised about £200, but i'm really hoping to improve on this. Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far, if anybody else wants to, please email me or phone me, or leave a comment on here and i'll get back to you. It's for a good cause, you know it!

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Photos

Paris
A view of the business district from the top of the L'arc de Triomphe

Paris
A view from the Eiffel Tower

Paris
Another view from the Tower

arriving at the tower just before midnight on friday

Comments

[Matthew Higgins]

Well done!
Josh, brilliant effort, congratulations. Sometimes these things have a habit of turning out just right and so it seems for you. Let me know how and when you want your money and best of luck in getting more, althought £200 is isn't bad for starters. Matthew