Do they have serial killers in France? I was thinking yesterday about the crazy chances I take with myself when I'm in a foreign country, that I would never in a zillion years do here in the United States. Of course, I have all the modern conveniences of home so there's really no need for me to put any huge amount of trust in complete strangers. However, when I'm alone in a foreign country where I don't know anyone, I have to do this from time to time. I wind up doing something stupid inevitably which puts myself in a bit of jeopardy. Case in point, a few years ago when I was in Brazil leaving the Cristo Rendentor monument, I sniffed my nose at all the cab drivers below at the exorbitant price they were charging to take me back to my B&B. I have no idea what I was thinking, just that maybe I would catch one down the mountain. I completely forgot that it was a very long way down, but by that time I had walked so far that turning back seemed almost as foolish. The road down was pretty abandoned with plenty of woods around and taxis racing around the mountain with passengers that had good common sense.Each step, I started thinking of all the horrible things that could happen. Someone could've swiped me right there and no one would've been the wiser. I started singing the happiest song I could think of to take my mind off the absolute fear I was experiencing, "I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle here is my spout.'. All of a sudden a car came racing around the curve and came to a complete stop a few feet ahead. I froze and the car backed up to me. I thought, 'Oh shit this is it! This is the part of the trip where I get murdered.', and spent a couple of seconds mentally telling my family I loved them. A woman was in the car, she rolled down the passenger side window and in portuguese asked if I needed a ride. This my friends, is why it is SUPER helpful, to know a bit of the language of a country you're going to. Now, just because she was a woman doesn't mean she didn't or couldn't have serial killer potential. I was faced with a choice. Get a ride from this grim reaper in a white volkswagen or wait for my possible murder by continuing to walk down the mountain. Existential dread all the way. I found I would much rather die after being in a comfortable vehicle, rather than sweaty with aching muscles thrown in the woods.
I don't know why I ever doubted Brazilians, they really are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. She drove me down the hill after admonishing that I was crazy and shouldn't do things like that ever. I wholeheartedly agreed, but then did another crazy thing the very next day of jumping in a car while buzzy (slightly drunk) and tired, mind you, with another complete stranger and it was a male this time. That situation wasn't even as dire as the Cristo situation, I just didn't feel like walking up the steep hill to my B&B. Don't judge! Ok, judge a little bit. Since then there've been quite a few moments of 'This is probably a really bad idea, but..'. I've come to the conclusion that I will always have dumb moments like this wherever I go. Thankfully nothing horrible has happened yet and I'm grateful and quite lucky. All the guidebooks really stress to not do things such as this. I say you can't really plan for everything and sometimes you have to take chances and go with your gut. I do it every time I buy a plane ticket for one.
So now I'm really thinking about my trip to France. I really want to run all over the countryside and plan on getting a car, but the thought of just hitching rides from train stations did cross my mind for a second. I did not know that there are a couple of sites that are dedicated to this mode of travel (see Digihitch and hitchhikers.org to name a couple). I don't know how to drive manual and it seems automatics are much more expensive. Also I can't parallel park to save my life, which judging by the pictures of some of these French towns looks like it's going to be a necessity. I am just dreading having to drive in a foreign country by myself...DREADING. I hate getting on the freeway or going somewhere unknown here at home as well. It just seems like such a romantic way of travelling, but then of course the cons are huge. What if no one picks you up and what if you get picked up by a psycho? I'm still planning on getting a car, but I am just curious about how this works.
Another thing I've been thinking about is where I should go and the trip tempo. There are so many beautiful villages in France and I want to stay in all of them! However, being constantly on the go during my last trip was hella tiring. I had fun, but I'm not sure I want to go through packing up my suitcase every 1 to 3 days again and hanging out in airports when I could've been in the world. On the one hand I think it would be different as I would be in a car as opposed to sitting in airports..there's scenery and best of all I could stop and break whenever I want. On the other hand I really feel the need to soak a town in. Maybe I could base myself somewhere in Dordogne or Alps-de-Haute Provence and venture out to its towns and villages. Or just find a town I like and hunker down for 3 weeks. I'm kind of liking the idea of hunkering down which I haven't done on a trip in a long time. At least that way, I can't get into too much trouble unless you can actually die from too much stinky cheese, bread, and wine. And if I can, the grim reaper's scythe might come in handy for buttering my bread.
