Going to France & Spain because Winter is poo.

[Ash Ludd]

I hate winter and this shitty English weather. Me and a couple mates are gonna hitch through France to Barcelona and then probably head to southern Spain after that.
Anyone know any cool places for dirty broke punx to go check out? we're taking our instruments with us to busk. We play folk punky sorta stuff. Violin, acoustic guitar and accordion. We're really cliche and love squats, anarchism and folklore n stuff. Any general tips and advice relevant to these countries is welcome as well.

 

[landpirate]

I don't have any advice as not been to France or Spain in a long time, but getting away from the unbelievably crap weather we're having here sounds like an amazing idea. Have a great time!

 

[Matt Derrick]

hmm... well i've only been to paris, which was pretty fucking rad. you can camp down by the canals legally if you don't mind hanging out with the other french homebums. definitely check out the catacombs, and the sacre coeur. totally worth it. i think the catacombs were like 5-7 euros, but it was the most metal thing ive ever seen!!! and the sacre coeur is free but no photography inside... stone mosaics that will blow your mind. and fuck the eiffel tower, the lines are horrendous.

i've never been to spain, and i haven't kept up on the squatting scene there, but last i heard (a few years ago) they still had a ton of squats out there, especially in barcelona. i'd recommend checking out squat.net for the latest squatting info in those regions.

 

[kecleon]

I had a similar plan I'm still over here can't bring myself to go back.

You'll get a lift really easily in France almost too easy, people are cool. The south like below Paris is easiest. I had people let us sleep at their places eat their food and go out their way to help and expect or accept nothing back.

Definitely do a cardboard sign in France like "Direction Paris SVP!" But pick somewhere big near by, not too far away a few hours at a time. Bring a map of France.

If you're just wanting to get through France to spain stand at the toll ticket machines where people get on the motorway, with your sign. Have them drop you where ever they're getting off and then stand again at the toll machines to get back on. A lot of people do this hitchhiking is totally socially accepted. Some places the machines for the other direction are a 10-30 minute walk 99% of the time they'll drive you there or to a good place. Otherwise you can get out at a service station they call Aires and fly a sign or ask at the pumps. If you do this try and choose an aire with a petrol station they have some with just toilets and picnic tables not so much traffic. A couple of times we were in dead places but I knew there was a toll up ahead so just walked in the fields at the side of the motorway then jumped over and stood at the tolls where they collect money. Its illegal to hitch from them and anyone working there will tell you to move on, in which case theres always a bit right after the money collecting tolls for cars to pull in with a few toilet sometimes a mini police station and you're fine to stand there totally legal, but youre likely to get picked up before anyone gets the chance to tell you.

We just camped at the service stations in a grassy area you can sleep inside bigger ones as well as long as you arebt blocking up something no one minds. If you're hitching with more than 2 people I'd split up more chance of a lift than all standing together. Especially if you have instruments bags a shit.

The first time it took us two days from the top of france to get down to the south near the Spanish border. Been up and down and around a few times since. France is nice not that warm right now but a lot better than england.

Unless you want to stay there keep out of cities like Paris and Lyon try and avoid them by hitching around not through. The worst thing you can do if youre moving through is get off the motorway. People feel safe picking you up on it because its all monitored and shit. Cities can be a nightmare to get out of best way is get a bus or metro to the closest bit to the motorway and write autoroute/peage plus the name of it or just sud for south. If you dont speak any French bring a phrasebook most people speak little English.

 

[Ash Ludd]

Thanks man that's real helpful. We're getting Ferry to St. Malo and then heading south east basically. We're setting off on the 6th, getting the overnight ferry. We're trying to get to Barcelona for the 13th because one friend has to be back in UK for the 14th so he's getting a plane back so we'll probably rush across France pretty fast and then take it more leisurely once in Barcelona and onwards. Got a friend with us who speaks a little French. None of us know any Spanish though haha so we're just gonna have to try and get by as best we can with phrases scrawled from the internet and hand gestures I guess and hope there's some English speakers about.

 

[Cardboard]

The warmer climate only comes south of the Pyrenees, so France is not much fun right now. You can figure it out looking at a map, but basically France has 2 main west to east corridors, one from Paris to dijon, and one in the south from Bordeaux over toulouse to perpignan.
You have pretty much 2 options then, if you go first past paris (St Malo-rennes-paris-dijon), its not so direct, but you will have the chance to pass a lot of cities, which I find a nice choice when hitching in the winter. In the eastern corridor is dijon, lyon, montpelier, perpignan... Nice big distances to hitch, with cities to break in between if you need food or rest. I think its also a lot easier to catch rides over here, you will find a lot of international drivers heading for spain.
On the other hand, the west is a lot more beautiful, and less populated. If you want nice nature, great coastline, and tons of quiet, its better in the west (I wouldn't recommend it in the winter though). There is quite some big wave surfers on the west coast in the winter, which might turn into a funny ride here and there. From bordeaux cutting east to perpignan, near to the spanish border you will cross if going to BCN.
I reccomend finding a ride from Perpignan to BCN, even if it means waiting a bit longer, as once you get into spain the hitching gets immediately more difficult. Truckers generally dont take more than one rider, and spanish people are often scared to pick up hitch hikers.
Take care around the border, there is a lot of sketchy shit happening, and getting stuck in Jonquera (the border town) is no fun. Likely to get robbed, lots of violence, and cops everywhere. You can find a ride here, but better to be quick away if you get stuck, otherwise you might deal with the police.
When you get to BCN, check the infousurpa, the schedule of events at the local squats
(usurpa.squat.net/‎)
I have made this trip countless times, as I have lived in spain and portugal for the last 3 years, but always coming north to visit friends. The maps of Frace will show a lot of different crossings, but France is fucking full of mountains, and you dont want to go that way this time of year. Just saying that your idea of going south east might be better to split into east, then south, just for comfort. South east from St Malo is directly into the mountains.
Drop me a line if you have more questions, or need site specific info for any place, always happy to lend hand

 

[Summer]

Hey! I dont know where you are now but you should check out the ZAD near nantes in France. Its a really awesome giant land occupation. I'm heading towards Barcelona and southern Spain soon if you're still bouncing around playing tunes it would be fun to run into eachother.

 

[Waste Ventura]

Hey just for an update I was travelling with Ash here and we made it to Barcelona in 4/5 days hitching with 3 of us, bags and instruments.

We mostly met awesome people, found places to crash and had great busking. But it wasn't always an easy ride hitching as you can imagine; one of the hardest hitches was getting across the border from Perpignan. Although we discovered that if you go out to the Peage toll-stop just at edge of Perpignan it's best to get a lift to the last Peage before Barcelona that's the best way to do it.

I've written a shit-ton of stories about our busking adventures at wanderingwaster tumblr account