FRANCE

We reached France in a police van, after two kind Swiss policemen picked us up from Basel to the border. After entering France hitchhiking was not very good. At the beginning nobody stopped for 1-2 hours, then nobody spoke any languages at all...and finally thanks to a cool Berman couple we reached Besanson in the evening where we were kindly hosted by our Bulgarian friend Ani (thanks Ani)
After Besanson we continued to the Atlantic Ocean with a direct ride from a french  girl :) She spoke perfect English and we had a nice 9 hour trip with her. Gena drove the van most of the time... 

The beach was large and empty, with no hotels, only wonderful pine-tree forest, big waves, colorful sunset and salty feeling... We had no problems to sleep on the beach with our tent. The next day we continued to Bordeaux to search for some seasonal work (picking grapes or apples) ... A good way to make some money for our travel...

looking for 'Les Vendanges'...

Endless vieyards enery one with its 'chateau' (castle)

hey, thank you for picking us up..we didn't understand each other well...but we spoke with smiles.

the market in Bergerac... French wine... 

Bergerac is a nice old town...

Larry was great. Spanish, 35, born in Marseille, now lives in Paris. He picked us up directly from Limoges to Paris. He sang to us Spanish songs that he wrote - salsa, flamenco, hip hop ... We sang to him Bulgarian songs ... He told us how he was rastaman, he lived a different life ... and now is married and working in Paris ... cut his dreads...and  living a normal life. We talked about what normal life means ...is today's "normal" life normal? ... we talked about Spain, about music, about people ... the trip was really positive and finally he proposed a night walk in Paris ... small pause before we continue Brussels. Our first night stop. In the beginning we were desperate, waiting 2-3 hours after the first gas station near the exit of Paris ... but then we were rewarded with a direct ride Paris-Rotterdam ...