Advertisement
Published: February 8th 2010
Tour Eiffel
admittedly it's bigger than I thought and quite impressive in person 4 days in and so far so good! Still getting used to the french keyboard so 'a' and 'q',ight get mixed up a bit. Having a great time in Europe so travelling slower than planned. Got out of England fast because customs thought i was an illegal immigrant and gave me a hard time (note to anyone planning a spontqneous backpacking trip: have at least a few ongoing tickets booked, especially in the uk). Took the ferry to Calais qnd got there late friday so spent the night in the station with some guys from Budapest. Got up early and started hitching from a highway onramp outside the station and got a ride within 10 min from a Polish trucker named Derek. He spoke no English, and by the time i realized he was heading back to Poland via Holland and Germany the Paris exit had already passed, so figured I might as well stay on untill at least Belgium to see a few windmills.
After passing Brugge got a ride from Martin and Esra, a couple in their twenties who (luckily!) were fluent in English and were going all the way to Paris. That was a fun ride, and
Café
Little rural café/bar pre-very cold night they were able to give some good travel advice 😊
Paris is a huge, fast city that makes Toronto look like Guelph, but its got a lot of character. Saw the 'Tour Eiffel' and caught a train to Chartes in an attempt to mqke it to Le Mans by nightfall (hitching out of Paris would probably be impossible). Got a few rides but it got dark and hitching didnt feel like q good idea anymore, so had a tiny 'french-sized' coffee at a cafè and ended up sleeping outside. Yes, it was cold.
A few more broken-french rides in the morning got me to Le Mans (no one speaks English outside of Paris). Laetitia, the first couchsurf I had lined up, graciously picked me up and even more graciously had delicious homemade french crêpes (that's for you, mom) waiting at her house. Decided to stay here two nights, visiting her friends and family, touring the city, and playing Wii Olympics - France vs Canada 😊 Laetitia also has been helping my french improve exponentiqlly, so hopefully rides tomorrow wont be so awkard. Oh, and one note on hitchhiking here - no one thinks its wierd. In Canada everyone
Cathédrale St-Julien du Mans
Me in front of the huge 14th century gothic style church in Le Mans. The inside was amazing too - probably exactly what you would expect of the main Catholic church in a French city! was always surprised, but here it seems pretty normal, although I havent seen any other hitchhikers (probably too cold!).
French Star Wars tonight and tomorrow bright and early I'll be on the road to Bordeaux, or hopefully Gradignan and a second couchsurf. Bonsoir!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.242s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0637s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rob
non-member comment
"Paris exit had already passed, so figured I might as well stay on untill at least Belgium to see a few windmills" Words cannot describe how much you rock Lys.