I woke up relatively early, finished the salad and went back to the same spot.
My lovely sleeping grass and tree.
The place was busy enough, but I wasn't interesting enough.
I missunderstood a guy in French...he couldn't drive me… but the next moment a truck driver (mane) came and somehow we managed to understand each other. The deal was as follows: he had to wait for half an hour (until 10), he then had to visit two clients and he would drop me in Niort at around 11:30. I got everything OK but the arrival time :) It was a nice experience. He left the highway and drove through tiny roads and small villages. He had to manoeuvre a lot to deliver the wooden roof he transported. I wondered if machines will ever be able to do that…
The language barrier made the conversation not very fluent, but I learnt some interesting things about trucks. Super nice guy!
I was left at a toll, a few kilometres away from Niort. Time to change my sign: Poitiers Paris.
It was bearably warm, although there was no shadow. Two young students picked me up relatively soon. They lived in Poitiers and studied in Niort: musicologie and again big data. Their English was good enough for some good laughs when one of them mentioned that they lived together, but that they were not a couple :)
They left my at a similar peaje, in the exit of Poitiers. I met another hitchhiker there, who showed me how easy and fast it is to hitchhike: get close to the cars when they take the ticket, talk and vouala! A ride with the first driver!
It took me some more time to get a lift, although it was a super nice one! I had to stay in between four lanes full of cars and truck for a while until a car that was actually full stopped. It was a French family with two children driving to Paris! Weah!
The mother went to the backside and I sat in the front with my big backpack between my legs. We had really nice conversations. They cared about the environment and so on, but were quite pessimistic and blamed governments and so on…
So it was my pleasure to give my opinion: circular economy, decentralisation, self- management, etc.
They also gave me a hint about my skin: bugs!!
Their oldest child, Sufyann, had a really high IQ for languages and was learning Japanese!
They left me at the service station in the southern part of Paris. It was somehow sad to say goodbye...they asked me for my FB address, haven't received any message yet though.
The service area was perfect. There was a vegetable buffet, where I ate a LOT! I had internet connection and it took me five minutes to get another lift to Valenciennes. About 800km in a day!
The driver was a young French truck driver going back home. Communication was difficult due to the language barrier, but we managed to connect somehow. He said that he didn't usually take hitchhikers but that he liked my face :) We drove around the busy ring of Paris and…I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time!
We arrived at around 22:30 at a big service area, there was still some light, enough to find a quiet place further from the gas station and...sleep! My previous version of Unai wouldn't have slept there, it could be somehow scary!! But of course, as always, nothing happened.
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