I had a bit of a struggle getting out of Bordeaux but I made it as far as Rennes. I arrived about 11:00 pm so I slept on a marble slab used for sitting. It was cold but not too bad as my sleeping pad provided some insulation. However, about 4:30 am the cleaning crew came through on their little sweeping machines and they sprayed water on me. They did it just to be funny because they weren’t spraying anywhere else.

I made it to Saint Malo, which was a nice little old fort city. The interesting thing here was that there are several little rock islands around the city and most of them have little forts on them. I read a memorial that said 80% of this town was destroyed during the world wars so it had to be restored.

I don't know what this statue was all about but it was in the entrance of a school in Saint Malo.

Arch of Triumph at night.

My son told me about another cool place to go but after talking to the locals, they said I would be hard pressed getting a ride out of there so I went to Paris instead. I arrived at night so I only have evening pictures but I did the tourist thing and walked several miles through Paris to see all the tourist sites. I slept in a little grassy area near the Eiffel Tower along the river. It rained quite a while and I am happy to report that the waterproofing  spray I used worked and I woke up dry.

Eiffel Town at night.

Louvre Museum at night.

Arch outside the Louvre

The Paris Obelisk

My son Zach standing in a hollowed shrine.

I arrived in Bordeaux and found a place to put up my tent. I know my son and his in-laws were due to arrive on the 24th from England so I figured I would give them a day to relax before I showed up. However, on the morning of the 25th it rained. Not just a little, this was a long soaking rain and the first I have experienced with my tent. Having put a tarp in the tent for the ground water, I thought I was okay. But, I didn’t know my tent was not waterproof and it was raining inside my tent. I had a puddle of water where my feet were so my sleeping bag and much of my bag was soaked or damp. Anything that touched the tent walls was wet, including me.

My son and his wife modestly clad in their fig leaves.

I haven’t seen my son in 3 years so it was great finally being able to spend some time with him. Unfortunately we spent much of the time shopping for a new tent or for other items needed by myself or his in-laws. We still enjoyed our time together and discussing matters of interest.

On Saturday the 29th Denis took us all to a Blaye Citadelle Chateau and Le Porge beach. I really enjoyed it because the family took their time and looked at everything in great detail and not just rushing to get to the next place. The architect of this fort created a new strategy. It was built in basically 3 triangles that would lure the enemies into areas where they could be attacked from an elevated position on three sides. Quite ingenious really.

My son and Chelsea (his new sister-in-law) in the out door bathroom. If you look at the feet, they had imprints of where your feet go while you are sitting. My son is demonstrating.

This is the remains of the actual castle. Not much left, it was small but interesting.

Zach and his wife kissing in a more private toilet.

My son and his in-laws.

This is the town inside the fort.

At the beach it was a bit too windy to enjoy it much. It was cold and the sand was pelting your legs like a sand blaster but I love seeing a beautiful beach unadulterated by human feet. I also enjoyed seeing all the wind surfers doing their tricks.

This reminded me of Pismo Beach.

No footprints. It was beautiful seeing a fresh beach, seemingly untouched.

After church today I will continue my pilgrimage to give them some time alone because Zach and his wife will be heading back to Utah early Tuesday morning.

This was Briancon, a small Italian town in the wrong direction but loved the town.

I started my journey back to Bordeaux to visit my son but after 2 months of no hiking and losing so much weight I was a bit weaker and my bag was a bit heavier due to Antonella giving me a few extra T-shirts and food as well as Timothy and Mary Claude giving me extra food as well. Because of this I felt like the first day of my pilgrimage, my feet were blistered, my shoulders and back were bruised and sore and the pack and I were wobbling as I put it on and walked around. I did gain back most of the weight I lost from the hospital so I went from 78 kg or 172 lbs (near my weight in high school) to 82 kg or 181 lbs, so my strength is improving. Trekking around, I don’t know if I will lose weight again but I do still feel very skinny. I’ve also had a few people tell me I am too skinny and they never saw me before so I know it would be better for me to gain weight but my diet of peanuts, carrots, a little meat and some kind of sweet bread, may not cater to weight gain.

The night before leaving we spent with Dominiquo, Mariangela and their family at dinner with the missionaries. Their mother made an excellent Italian dinner and I enjoyed the conversation very much. They have a beautiful house and they are very pleasant to talk with. I had to tell Dominiquo that he was not Italian because he was the most soft-spoken Italian I had ever met. They are such a great family, I wish I could stay there to get to know them even more. I sat next to Ralph (their dad) and we tried to communicate but it was difficult. He would speak to me in broken English and I would reply in broken Italian but we still enjoyed the conversation.

I’ve only been gone three days but I already miss Antonella. She was so much fun and such a great person I wish I could have her in my life for good (she would say I could if I would stay in Turin J). I don’t know if I could keep up with her though, she is always on the go. I’ve never seen a person with so much energy over 50.

So to begin my trip I got my first lift (ride) from a guy heading out of Turin but after a couple of miles down the road I saw a sign for a city heading south. I asked the guy again where he was going and he was heading for Milan so I told him to stop because he was heading the opposite direction that I needed to go. He dropped me off at a service exit where I tried to auto stop (hitchhike) but nobody would give me a lift so I started hiking back. I left around 9 or 10:00 in the morning and at 5:30 pm I found myself back in the middle of Turin with blisters on my feet. Not a good start. I did end the day in Bardonecchia Italy where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held and the city is near the tree line so the mountains were very high but not very beautiful because there were few trees. The tree colours were starting to change but they were too scattered to make a good picture. It was cold there so it was the first time I was able to test drive my new slippers at night and they worked. It was the coldest air I had slept it but my feet never froze and I never woke up from the pain of cold feet. I did wake up from a pine cone in the ribs but not cold feet.

 On the way, an old man gave me a lift to the town of Plampinet that was very small (about 20 buildings total) and I had to take a picture of this very old little church. The man told me he was a hunter and showed me where the best hunting was on the mountain. I asked him how he gets up there and he said by hiking. I asked him if he was part billy goat because the area he was pointing to was almost nothing but cliffs and only a few sparse areas where even trees were able to grow. He just laughed and said, yes he hike there.

These trailer cabins were cool. Maybe my next house. They were in a little trailer park near the boarder of Italy and France.

The kids from Canada told me that Monaco was the place they enjoyed the most so far so the next day I was off to Monaco and Monte Carlo. I ran into a guy from Australia with a couple from Kansas. During our conversation they told me they had a very bad night and, at first, didn’t want to admit to anything. Finally the guy from Kansas said he awoke to a prostitute fondling him. At that point the all looked at me and froze, awaiting my reaction. I smiled then said, “Congratulations”, wherein they burst out in laughter before I could continue. When they stopped laughing I continued, now you know one of the reasons that if you must drink, do it in moderation. I hope you aren’t taking any additions home with you. They all nodded in agreement as he said that’s what he was afraid of.

 I could see why the kids would enjoy it as Monaco has a large area with fun things for kids. For me, although the place was a nice city to see, it was full of rich people who mostly seemed sad. Everywhere I go I smile at people and most places everyone smiles not here. Even the tourists you never saw smiling. They have an old town but the other old towns I have been to, I preferred over this one.

Monte Carlo was a bust for me because they wouldn’t allow me into the casino with my back pack and they didn’t have a place to store one. Parked outside were several expensive cars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, high end Mercedes, etc. From there I had another difficult time continuing my journey. I ended up walking on the auto route again for several miles before being picked up by rainbow people (similar to the squatters) who took me just across the Italian boarder then gave me half a melon and some rosemary for my fire in the evening. Meeting people like this is so awe inspiring to me because I’m just not used to having people so willing to help and then to see they are so poor but want to give more than you need or ask for.

Monaco's old town did not stand out to me other than looking very clean and new compared to many others.

You do have to hike a fairly steep hill to get to the old town.

This was the fort of the old town in Monaco.

This is the view from Monte Carlo

View of the harbor from Monte Carlo

Getting to Nice was a nightmare. (Sorry Nathan but I never found out if Nice biscuits (cookies) were actually from there. The people I asked didn't know what they were.

I followed the signs to the auto route (freeway) then finally realized I was on it. I never saw where the road became the auto route. Of course, nobody would pick me up there though I kept my thumb up but after a few miles a road crew picked me up telling me (I imagine) that I can’t walk on the auto route. They took me to the roundabout from hell (for old male hitch hikers). I had my thumb out for over an hour with nobody even looking at me, when a car dropped off two young girls who put their thumbs out on the entrance just before mine and were picked up in less than 5 minutes. I continued waiting another hour then decided to try the side road but still nobody would pick me up. I ran out of water and held my empty water bottle upside down so they could see I was out of water but still nobody would stop. It was near dark so I wandered to the first house I could find to ask for some water and they lady filled up my bottle and gave me a large bottle as well.

The next day I waited another hour before continuing to walk. I received only two lifts, one when about a mile and a half and the other about 6 miles but later found that I had covered over 20 miles in the wrong direction before being picked up by a woman who couldn’t speak English but because she couldn’t, she took me all the way to Nice, which was about 10 miles past her destination just so I wouldn’t struggle any longer getting there.

Nice beach is not sand but rocks of all sizes. I heard more English in this city than any other because of all the tourists. The old town was nice especially at night. So many restaurants and they were all filled to capacity with tourist. At night I ran into a group of Canadian students and we had a bit of fun chatting. It was quite enjoyable to speak English normally again.

Unfortunately, My camera did not capture the beauty of Nice at night.

I did find a small patch of mostly sand so I laid my pack down and put my arm through one of the straps so if someone tried to steal it, it would wake me. Because of the rock I woke up in pain and moved them but had to sleep on my other side so instead of putting my arm through a strap I just leaned against my pack so I could feel it if it were moved. About 3:00 am my bag moved and it woke me up. A man scurried about 10 yards from where I was sleeping and acted like he was taking a leak. I looked over my bag and found that he opened the pocket with my water bottle then opened the bottom where I kept my rain gear and shoes while I slept. He took out one shoe and woke me when trying to get the second out. I hollered at him, “Hey, what did you take?” He turned and hollered something back but it was in French so I don’t know what  said but he then hurried off so I didn’t worry about it as he left empty handed. It’s great having nothing anybody would want to steal (okay, I do have my computer but it is in a locked area of my bag.

I think every city in the French Riviera has an old town and this one is from Nice. It was very beautiful. I love the colors of the buildings.

Another view of Nice's old town but under those canapes are thousands of people eating as nearly all the buildings are restaurants.

After struggling to get a lift, I ended up walking several miles until I finally received a lift from a man who took me all the way to Giens. Traveling all the way down the peninsula I saw nothing but camp sites and family fun areas. When we came to the end there was only a tiny beach with few people on it, a few more wandering around and nothing much to do but there were thousands of cars everywhere. I guess they were all in the vacation villas around. It was a beautiful place to see but I must have missed something because I couldn’t understand why so many people would be camping there. There were many family attractions and fun things to do but nobody was doing them.

A view from the Giens peninsula

Another view from Giens.

The water was so clear you could see the bottom from more than 30 yards/meters away.

This was an old fort at the end of the peninsula that was very under-whelming. Just cement rooms with a bunch of beer bottles and it is unkept.

I could only afford to take a picture of them but these cakes looked delicious (from Sanary).

From La Castellet nobody would give me a lift so I started hiking down the mountain hoping someone would have some compassion but no. Right from the beginning I ran into a crossroads and didn’t know which road to take but people wouldn’t even stop just to tell me which way to go. I finally ventured on figuring going down the hill should get me there eventually.

Some cool auto parts art in Sanary.

This looked like the wrong path because it appeared to be taking me in the wrong direction at a slow enough decline that I may have to walk a few miles out of the way so I decided to try cross country strait down. I slid a few times but all was well enough until I came to an 8 foot drop off. After trying several ideas but getting stuck several time from these vines with stickers like rose bushes, I found a place where I could get to about six feet then jumped. I was happy that I didn’t break and ankle and my pack didn’t come apart but it was quite jarring on my body and I did flatten my shoe even more. Now I was walking feeling a lump in my heel. I soon found that was not the only cliff. There was another one that dropped about 75’ to 100’ so I walked along until I came back to the original road. There was some wasted effort.

From La Castellet I travelled to Sanary-sur-Mer and made it for their Independence Day celebration and was I lucky to be here. It was the most fun I have had in a few years. At 9:00 pm they set up a market in town where again I was amazed by the French artist and their creativity. They also had three bands, one rock, one music from the 40’s, 50’s as well as samba, and other classic dance styles; and one of more mellow music. I spent most of the night at the rock band and it was truly a fun night.

They were great but the only problem is the audience was too reserved. I sat down in the front and after I did a bunch of kids started sitting down next to me so I started dancing while sitting and a few of the kids joined in and later a few adults. After the fireworks we all went back but this time I stood up and danced a little more wild but he to contain myself as the kids were still sitting on the ground in front of me and the crowd made it impossible to move much. It was still a lot of fun. When they finished I went to the classic music band and many people were dancing there and some even line dancing so I got to let it all out there and it was a lot of fun. Some youth ended up coming to dance by me and invited me to dance with them.

I have felt more at home here with these people than I have at home. If I were ever to consider living in another country again, Southern France would be a definite contender.

I was surprised to see that Sunday they continued the festivities in the evening again. They had the market and a few bands playing again. One of the artist selling in the market let me use his power to connect my computer so I asked him if I could help him put his stuff away or carry it to his van and he declined because he had a certain way of dealing with everything. However, when he was ready to go and pulled the plug on my power he asked if would like to stay in his shop to get out of the wind but I declined as I had a good spot on the beach. However, if I had stayed with him I could have recharged my batteries. Oops.

This was a cool little restaurant in

The next day I went to La Castellet which is a tourist town up in the hills but I was amazed at the artistry of these French people. Souvenirs in France are of such a higher quality than any I have seen anywhere.  I wish I could capture the experience on film but the streets are so narrow and the buildings so close together that I couldn’t find many good views.

One of the tourist shops in La Castellet.

A street in La Castellet

One of the many awesome artists work in La Castellet.

I thought this was a beautiful combination of flowers growing over a bush.

A woman, who spoke very little English picked me up to take me to Cassis, the first stop on my tour of the various cities in the French Riviera. However, as we passed the city (which was very beautiful, she told me La Ciotat was a better city for me to stay in. It was the 13th of July and the French Independence day is the 14th but the city of La Ciotat was celebrating it on the 13th so that was nice to be there for it. I walked to the beach where the fireworks would be lit and a group of friends ended up sitting down next to me. As the evening progressed they offered me a beer and when I told them I don’t drink they gave me a coke then later some pretzels. Even though none of them could speak English, the took me in like I was family and stopped offering me food and just gave me some because I continually said no. In very broken English and using hand gestures, we ended up having a great time and joked well into the wee hours of the morning.

As I had the only cork screw around they told two other guys from Belgium that I could open their wine for them. When I found that they spoke English and were not part of the group of friends, I started talking to them. They were interested in my pilgrimage and why I would believe in God so I was able to share quite a few things with them, which made my day.

Sunrise in La Ciotat

My apologies for the long delay but I finally have internet for the day so I have a lot to catch up on. To finish my encounter with Yann:

After letting me stay in his hotel room, Yann also brought me in some breakfast then later bought me lunch before taking me to my next destination in Marseille but being warned by many that they have much crimeI in this city and then walking into the train station and seeing army guards with rifles, I decided to skip this city and continue to . How amazing it is that I keep running into these incredible people. America has got to stop making fun of the French and keep it to Parisians (people from Paris) because the French people outside of Paris have simply astounded me with their kindness and charity.