Journal

24 August 2005

As I start to write this, I am sitting on the side of the road at a roundabout in Auxerre, France. We've started hitchhiking more, and so far have been very successful. Right now we're trying to get to Dijon or Lyon on our way to visit a friend in Annecy. We've been picked up by 2 college students passing through Epenary, a man and a woman from Belgium on their way to Spain, and a family that drove us across town when they realized we were standing at the wrong on-ramp.

We left Paris on Monday morning by train to Epernay. We planned to bike around the river valley that day, but it was hot and the bike rental place also had a pool so we swam instead. While trying to hitch to a cheap hotel rumored to be a few km from town, we met a mother and daughter from California who eventually insisted on paying for a very nice dinner we had with them. Finally, we walked to the municipal campground and layed out our sleeping bags under the stars-moving under a big tree when the rain woke us up a few hours later. The next day we rented nice 1-speed bikes for 8 euro each and biked along canals and through vineyards for 50 km or so. The small, rolling hills felt much steeper without low gears, and by 17:00 we were tired enough to return the bikes and try our luck hitchhiking.

24 hours later, we were on our way from Auxerre. That night we slept in a prehistoric cave in St. Lore, recommended by a young man who had picked us up. "At my house, it is not possible to stay, but nearby...a cave", he said in broken English. Seeing quite a few clouds in the sky and being in the middle of nowhere without a tent, we decided to take him up on his offer. After dinner at a nearby truck stop, we easily fell asleep, awakened only once by some of the other occupants: bats.

We spent Thursday morning hitching in the rain and finally gave up and took a bus and trains to Dijon, Lyon, and finally Annecy. There, we climbed on a Via Ferrata, essentially a dumbed down version of rock climbing with iron handles and steps attached to the rock face for easier gripping.

On Saturday, we did some off-road biking and Sunday biked around Lac d'Annecy. That evening, a family from Catalonia arrived and we all had dinner together. The next morning we were dropped at an on-ramp by the mother and started hitchhiking to Lyon. In 20 minutes, we had a ride in a big delivery truck with a friendly driver and two hours later we were in Lyon.