We woke up late. We had a lot of sleep to catch up on. Jean-Claude waited with the breakfast. It consisted of fresh croissants, orange juice, and a chocolate spread. Jean-Claude was smiling and petting his cat Nimet.
We just enjoyed the french idyll and stuffed our mouths with the delicious food.
Jean-Claude took us from his village next to Avignon to a toll gate. On the gate, the cars were going to Marseille. We wanted to go more west, but this one was close, and we already got a lot of things from Jean-Claude. We were afraid that if we asked, he would take us anywhere. So we planned to pass a crossroad, then go to the other side of the road and hitchhike from there.
We got our ride to an enormous gas station. It had a bridge over the highway. We tried to ask people to take us somewhere, but they didn't usually go in our direction (we needed to turn left on the first crossroad). So we decided to put up a sign and wait at the exit. We stood and waved. The morning was slowly changing to noon.
Finally, we asked a couple that could move us a bit more. The couple took us to the car, and when we described everything about the competition, we found out that they went to Limoges. We thought about going to Spain, but then we might have a hard time going back. And Limoges is close to Oradur sur Glane. Challenge waited for us: spend a night in a "ghost city."
So we decided to go with them. We spend around six hours in the car. It was relaxing. We knew that the next time we would be desperate at a gas station would happen in quite some time. On the other hand, it is harder to sustain a conversation for a longer time, especially in French. At the start, topics are easy: where are you from, what are you doing, and so on. Then it gets more complicated. But it was great to watch the changing scenery. From the hot and dry Mediterranean, we were moving to the colder and wetter influence of the Atlantic Ocean.
We arrived at Limoges, immediately in front of the train station. Next to the station were taxis. Ada was excited about our successes, so she tried to convince taxi drivers to take us. I was skeptical, and in the end, I was proven right. So in the evening, we started walking in the direction of Oradur.
It is hard to hitchhike in a city, and at night, it is worse. When someone stopped, we usually explained where we want to go. People generally don't know neighboring villages. So we gave them the phone with the map. In the dark, I was a bit afraid that the person might leave with the phone. Thankfully, nobody did.
In the end, a luxurious BMW stopped, and we got a ride. The guy offered to take us to a village next to Oradur. We could have slept in a tent in his garden there. But we wanted to fulfill a challenge and spend the night in Oradur.
So he took us to Oradur. He drove us to a camp for caravans and told us that if we build a tent there, nobody will kick us out. So we did it exactly like this, we hide our tent behind a bush, and it was a peaceful night. Except that before dawn, the rain came.
We woke up to a rainy and cold morning. It was a change after the south of France. But we got to the ghost town. At least, the rain was supporting the atmosphere. Everything looked impressive.
Germans massacred the village at the end of the second world war. It was the 10th of June 1944. Nazis suspected that partizans were holding a nazi hostage there, so they surrounded the village and killed around 600 people. You can see the remains of the whole village. Homes are still half-standing. You know where who lived: where a church or a barber was. The destroyed village is a museum now. We walked around for a long time.
Afterward, we decided to find a shop. We bought baguettes and ham. We ate everything in front of a local attorney's office. We were wet and covered with crumbs, but fortunately, it was a public holiday, so nobody kicked us out.
We planned to do a challenge at Fort Boyard. One tv series (popular in Czechia) was filmed there. We had to get as close as possible. The problem is that the fort is on an island one kilometer from the shore. And at that point also around 200 kilometers of hitchhiking.
We were worried about how to get out of the small town. It was far to the highway. The rain didn't stop yet. From the point of view of drivers, wet hitchhikers are just slightly better than smelly hitchhikers. And to be honest, we didn't smell good anyway.
We walked along a road. Nothing happened for fifteen minutes. Then the first car came full speed, missed us and our thumbs. At the end of the street, it stopped and turned around.
They picked us up. The car was occupied by a couple and their daughter. We found out that they were both art directors (by both, I mean the couple, their daughter was around ten). They took us a long way to the west, to Niort.
The hitchhiking was not going well. We had two possible directions from Niort. Either to La Rochelle or Rochefort. Rochefort would be preferable because it is closer, but we would take any car. As we walked along the road, we found McDonald's. Burgers were more expensive here. We had some anyway. We charged our phones and got ourselves to a more presentable state.
We got a ride from a social worker. She moved us close to La Rochelle. Maybe the place was a bit worse for getting a ride, but we were happy to move at least a little. Actually, after fifteen minutes, we were not so happy. Only two cars passed.
We finally stopped a teacher couple. Cedrik was an elegant chemistry teacher with Einstein's hairstyle, and Nicole, his girlfriend, and a literature expert. We told them about XChallenge and that we needed to get to fort Boyard. We asked where to build a tent in La Rochelle. They didn't know. But they looked at each other and offered us to stay at their place.
We got to their flat and let our tent dry on their balcony. Then we had time to explore the city. We went around to see the beach and the port. We checked for how much we would be able to sail on a boat towards fort Boyard (it would be a lot, but bearable). They were free the next day, so they offered to take us closer to the fort to buy a less expensive ticket. Then we could forget our worries and enjoy the city more. The weather was cold and windy, and I saw the Atlantic how I always imagined it. Grey and wild, clashing to bare rocks on the shore.
In the evening, we feasted. We learned how to do Rattatoulle, and as a starter, we had five local types of cheese. We even tried to recognize them blindfolded.
In the evening, we went for a walk to see falling stars. It was cloudy, so we saw nothing, just one tent on the grass close to the port. I think these were a bit less lucky competitors in XChallenge. The town was beautiful at night, and the bed was soft. I was glad that our tent got dry.