Hitching to Paris - 23 August

Well our decision to hitchhike to Paris could well have ended up as the worst 50 euros Lea and I never spent.
While up in Edinburgh, Celena had said to us, ever so casually, “oh yes and then I just hitched a ride to Paris and continued on my trip”. Cool, no worries! we thought to ourselves. Easy peasy. And we save ourselves lots of money. So we were up for it. On our last night at Eric´s place, we made ourselves a big ‘Paris’ sign on a piece of card, and next morning walked 2km or so out to a massive intersection where Eric assured us would be a great spot to pick up a ride with all the people heading back from St. Malo. And sure enough, after half an hour or so, we got a ride. Great, super! We bunged our packs in the trunk of this small car, and hopped in, ready for the long drive ahead. But then…after maybe 20 mins of the 400km or so, the guy stopped and said “I turn off here. You get out and get another ride.” Uhhhh? What? This wasn´t part of the plan. So we reluctantly got out of the car, picked up our packs, and looked around at our new surroundings. And we were literally stranded on a 5 lane double highway, perched on a tiny gravely verge, with massive trucks and lorries and snazzy French cars whizzing past us at the 130km/hr speed limit, with not a town in sight. Right….OK. What now? So we gingerly put up our Paris sign, and almost immediately were subject to numerous honks and the rather amused expressions of truckies as they considered these 2 girls trying to pick up a lift from vehicles travelling at 130km/hr on a freeway.
Someone pick us up...please!

Yep, we thought we were in real strife. We stuck it out for a while, but it soon became clear that no one was gonna stop for us. Well they couldn´t, really. The final straw came when we had a big honk and a severe looking Frenchman behind the wheel of an expensive campervan type thing shook his head and waved his finger at us, in a clear case of “you stupid girls, get off this road now!”
So we heaved our packs onto our backs and just started walking along the freeway, hoping to come across a more likely spot to get a ride. After 20 mins or so we reached a ‘peage’ one of the road toll ticket stops. Excellent! Loads of cars, trucks, lorries…all having to stop and pay! And it was there that we met Johan, the driver of a massive yellow DHL truck. Lovely long haired Johan agreed to take us the 5 hours to Paris. Wicked!!! So we clambered up into the truck and it was HUGE! Very cool.
Me and the truck!

So I´m there jabbering away in basic French to Johan, but noticing a distinct lack of response. It was then that I found out he was actually Dutch! Really lovely guy, and he ended up leaving his route and taking us to exactly where we needed to be – in terms of the rental car place at the airport! How nice is that. Funny how seemingly the most dire situations can end up turning out just perfectly!
Johan with Lea after he dropped us right at the airport!