May 28, 2016:
After leaving the warmth and beauty of Patrick and Marie’s house, we spent three days getting to Amiens, staying in campgrounds along the way. At the first one, in a tiny village called Oursel-Maison, we had our first taste (pun intended) of daily bread delivery. We’d heard that the campgrounds in France have bread brought in daily, but we thought it must be too good to be true. And yet, in a tiny village campground that seemed more like somebody’s large front yard than a camp spot, we heard a car honking it’s way around the circular driveway, jarring the morning silence. How rude!
Mark poked his head out of the tent, and it was urban legend come true! Baguettes, croissants, chocolate croissants…heaven! The delivery driver thought we were crazy to get so excited about our daily bread, but so be it.
We’ve met wonderful people nearly everywhere we go, people who go out of their way to befriend us despite the language barrier.
People such as Dominique, a retired police officer who lives in his motor home, traveling to a new campground every few months. He’s also a cycling enthusiast. He’s so unassuming, we never dreamt he has cycled a loop all the way around France, has done the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, and who knows how many other adventures that we didn’t have enough language to fully grasp.
And Isabelle, who in another campground, made it a point to invite us to the campground party and converse with us all evening (via Google Translate) so we wouldn’t feel left out.
And our Warm Showers hosts (whom we’ve already talked about), who have so warmly invited complete strangers into their houses and treated us like gold.
And our Couchsurfing hosts, Denis and Laurence (whom we will talk about soon) who took us in on very short notice in Abbeville, and who’s three-year-old son invited us to stay and stay!
And all of the other people we’ve encountered along the way who take interest in what we’re doing and where we’re from, and have patiently helped us negotiate buying food, making reservations, understanding how the campgrounds work, finding ourselves when we get lost, and otherwise navigating in a foreign land.