On June 18, 2014, after spending the night in Nantes I left early towards Finistere. This is the GPSLogger track I followed:

Hitchwiki pointed to a nice hhiking spot close to a commercial center.

The spot really was good.

I got a ride very quickly. One thing I didn’t notice, though was that the station I would be dropped off was just outside the road.

I asked a few cars, as after a short while a lady from the station told me it was a bad idea. The traffic was mostly local, I should go outside the station. She gave me a cardboard, told me to write “Vannes s.v.p”, with a smiley face, and said “good luck”.

The traffic was still mostly local. I was in a bad spot. After some time, an old couple stopped and told me “go to the road directly”, I said that wasn’t allowed, and they replied “you certainly won’t get a ride here”…

So the drove me to the entrance of the road and said “good luck”. I wasn’t nervous, but I knew I had to get out of there quick.

Luckily, in some 15 minutes I got a ride. I asked to be dropped off in a station in the road this time.

Once I got to the station, I started writing “Quimper s.v.p” (with a smiley face) on the other side of the cardboard and a nice couple offered me a ride. I hadn’t even finished writing on the cardboard.

They let me in a “covoiturage” spot. It’s just a parking spot near the road. It took the same time to get a ride. A guy offered to drop me off in a good roundabout. I said I had run out of cardboard, and the just happened to have a box in the backseat. I cut myself a piece off the board and he dropped me off.

I hadn’t finished writing on the board for the second time and got offered a ride, but it was too close, so I decided to wait longer. Once I finished writing Audierne (actually I wanted to go to Pont-Croix, but they’re only some 10 km apart) I got offered another ride. It was closer but not quite there. In a minute or two I got offered another ride, directly to Pont-Croix, with a nice family with two little boys.

What have I learned from this? Once in the road, don’t leave it! Also that people in Brittany are really really nice, and that you might not have time to write your destination in the board.