Into the wild (HH to Montpellier)

”And we take another step into the truly unknown,
don’t know why but it’s somewhere that we have to go.
And it’s dangerously wonderful.
So come on. Come on.

Won’t you step out into the wild?
There’s a beautiful storm in your eyes.
We’re perfectly intertwined and it’s quite alright.
You could be my way of life.”

Juliette takes me to a good spot, since her house is in the middle of nowhere :P.

She drops me at a parking lot and I start hitchhiking at 8h15.
After 1 minute waiting, Christine pulls over.
We talk about the influence TV has in the world, and that it’s a waste of time. She says on some Sundays she turns it on, but she has her farm life and likes it much more. She is the delegate of a medical cabinet:
– I see all these people waiting. Maybe 30 people. And no conversation, sometimes for half an hour and there’s just silence. It didn’t use to be like that…
But I disagree with her when she tells me that people are not open to music in general, that they only turn on the radio to have a sound in the background and not be in silence. In my opinion music is something essencial for some, normal for most and uninteresting for a few.
In any case, I try to prove to her that it’s not all about music, of course, that art is everywhere, and still it’s not really accepted in society. A lot of artists have had trouble with people who insist that living from art won’t give you enough money to eat, and some artists will just be stared at as weirdos.
But think of it, TV is art. All the movies and series, even the publicity. The cover of your books, the way you organize your living room and the motives on the courtains. Clothes, how they decorate your plate in restaurants, taking pictures… In their free time, a lot of people choose to stay home and watch a movie, or go to the theater, or to a concert.
And there, she kind of agrees.
She drops me at Saint-Étienne telling me how happy she is to having met me and for my attitude. She gives me her email address in case I come back, and tells me:
– Merci, vous êtes le rayon de soleil de ma journée. 
( Thank you, you are the sunshine of my day)
And saying goodbye to a stranger with that sentence, is something that makes me fall in love with hitchhiking over and over again.
A strong thought for my grandma, who always refers to me as ‘The sunny one’ <3.

So, Le Domaine de la Loge – St-Étienne, done in 45 minutes. The other way around it took me about 2 hours and a half…

2 minutes waiting at the new spot and a woman and a child pull over for a few km. They tell me they have some friends who have travelled for a long time as well, and it was very hard for them to come back. She also tells me something that I know, but most of the people who don’t travel, don’t. While travelling, you always tell the same story. You learn how to sum up 7 months in one sentence, and people will keep asking the same questions over and over again. It’s something I’ve specially experienced hitchhiking, since a lot of people feel uncomfortable in silence. I understand it and I guess the ‘small talk’ is normal, but sometimes I’d like someone to ask me what’s my favourite pair of socks or if I’ve ever played a güiro, rather than if I’m afraid and what are my plans for the future. And I believe there’s a pleasure in the silence driving too.

Ramsey is my next driver after another short wait. He lives in Lyon, studies international trade and loves it. He tells me about how he travelled himself around Europe in some occasions. He drops me at Vienne.
Most of the people who stop by have travelled themselves, and a lot of them have actually hitchhiked themselves. They know what it is to wait.

The more south I get, the more tollbooths I find. From now on I’ll get dropped at one in about 90% of the cases.

Loubna, a very glamorous young lady pulls over. She asks me (as many others) what my parents think of my trip, and I answer that they want me to be happy and trying to hold me with them, in the same house or town, is not the solution. To me, in order to achieve big goals you have to take big risks, and that’s what I did when I left. And I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
She is very surprised and tells me she has three children and she couldn’t imagine letting them free like that… But she agrees and believes that kids should be free to do, try and experience what comes in their way, or they will become a part of the robot society we live in. She says it’s up to her to learn to let go, and not to her kids to stay close.
Again, hitchhiking teaches me an important lesson: bring down your prejudices. This fashionable woman with a good car and long painted nails is not at all as I expected her to be (which was rather superficial).
I thank the Universe for reminding me this, and so much more.

Élodie and Kin are the next to pull over with their son. Half of Kin’s face is burnt but for some reason I don’t feel danger. He comes from Turkey, and tells me they are searching for an au pair. They are a little bit agressive about their opinion, but it’s a good opinion. He tells me that money is something we have to change, we can’t keep working for it and be its slaves. He wants to transmit his son values and show him how to look at the world through different eyes, to respect other people. They say if I’m their au pair they’ll accomodate me in my own room, food included, and pay me twice as much as people usually pay, since they are already spending that in a nanny and she isn’t full time. They want someone that becomes part of the family. I don’t feel the click, and working as an au pair is not in my plans anymore (I did it once already), but I give them plenty of advice, websites, etc, and try to explain them what bothered me the most while being an au pair, hoping that will help them.
Before saying goodbye, they give me their phone number and email address, saying if I change my mind or get stuck I can contact them.
This keeps happening to me with drivers and I find it truly beautiful how these people can be so human and kind to a stranger, me.

The more south I get, the warmer the temperature, and that feels good.
It’s incredible to be at 15 Cº in december, one week to Christmas.
But I like it, specially when it’s always so sunny on the road!

For the first time I choose a national road instead of the motorway. I’m getting used to hitchhiking and I stop much more to enjoy the trip instead of rushing and thinking that I have to continue if I want to make it, which I used to think when I started hitchhiking during summer 2014, last year.
You know what they say:

Life is not about the destination.
It’s about the journey.

So today I chose a national road, and though I don’t have pictures, I definitely suggest it, the mountains and some cliffs coming out of the earth remind me of Laos in a way, but I can’t compare. Definitely not.

The fact of being on a national road, makes it all more charming :).

Mr and Ms Folli take me with them during this trip towards the south.
They are really interested in the human part of my trip, how the human relations are in Asia, etc. And they are not surprised about my trip; they tell me it’s a great thing to do and find it very good, doesn’t matter if I’m travelling solo.
They are going to buy a new old car. They sold their old car to buy their son a new car, and now that some time has passed, they decided to ‘treat themselves’ to a new car, old fashion. I don’t tell them what’s going through my mind, which is that a new car will only bring you shrt-term happiness and if they don’t need another car they’d rather spend that money in experiences, which no one can take away from you and will make you happier long-term.
I guess each one of us has their own opinion. Who knows what I’ll think in 30 years from now. I leave them in Montélimar wishing them a lot of fun with their new car and a lot of hitchhikers to enjoy it for me.
Sometimes it’s better like that.

Abdel pulls over only for 3km, but we have a very interesting conversation. He tells me religion is something simple and I love his opinion.
– For example – he says – look at Spain. It used to be a country where a lot of religions use to live together without any problem. What’s the problem now? Money. We live in a money-religion, and that is what’s causing the problems. I don’t believe in what the medias say, what they try to make us believe or do. I believe in the people who pick a piece of plastic up from the ground and throw it away at the right place. Those people are the ones changing the world, not the medias telling us about the levels of pollution in the air.

At my next stop, three women pull over. The driver is young, in her 20s, and the other two must have been her mother and aunt, or something like that. They tell me they can take me with them for 20 minutes. Awesome!
… But they forget to mention that they are stopping for doing the shopping first, and there’s no way I could get a lift there. So I go with them to a cheap supermarket where half of the products are expired. I use that moment to get me some bread and fill up my survival kit for the next couple of days, and I start getting worried about how much time they plan on spending there since I’m starting to run late. I always try to reach my destination before it’s dark outside…
20 minutes later we leave and as promised, they drop me at a good spot next to the tollbooth.

Lunch!

Only 1 minute waiting and Clement pulls over for a short distance, after which I quickly found a new driver as well.

Lilo and Tim, mother and son, pull over until Nîmes. They are from those lovely people who give off light.
Lilo is an artist and they are going together to Nîmes to sell one of her pieces of art. She looks like and artist with her long black curly hair and beautiful clothes. She looks like a very patient and wise woman. Tim is very young, about 12 years old maybe, but his answers are really mature. He tells me he’s interested in music, guitar and drums, and has spent the last year in Canada with his father. He learnt English there and learnt a lot about their culture, which is very different than the French one – he says they are more open minded and their education system makes sense, not like here where you just have to memorize and get a lot of homework.
Without asking, Lilo tells me she has travelled a lot as well, and how much she liked Senegal. It’s at least the third person who tells me this while hitchhiking within the last couple of weeks. I’m starting to think it’s a sign. I might go to Senegal.

Finally, my last driver of the day is Louk. He’s a technical engineer in lighting. He was an English teacher but decided to change it 3 years ago because he didn’t like it that much. He tells me there’s no job you won’t learn from. Even on the way towards the job of your dreams, you’ll most probably have to work in other jobs you don’t like, and these will teach you a lot. I agree, totally agree.

This is how I arrived in Montpellier.
Thanks to 11 drivers and wonderful human beings.
I’m specially impressed by the quantity of women who pull over in France.
During this trip, 6 out of 11 were women driving, which is rare.

Now all that’s left is arriving to Nath and Pat’s place, my hosts for the night, before hitting the road tomorrow morning again :).