Fri 7th Apr 2017 – Wed 19th Apr 2017 / Written by Jordan
It’s been months preparing everything we could before I finally fly to France. Paperwork, social medias and final preparation would happen once I get back to my parents’, where Clement would join me few days later.
After 3 days in Paris and 1 in Rennes, where I presented the project to my previous company who will sponsor us, I used carpooling to head south and meet my family who’d catch me in St Etienne before we go back together to St Maurice en Gourgois. There, the van was waiting for us, the bedroom ready, but all the rest to be done.
When Clement arrived on Monday 10th April in the evening, it was like we never separated. A tough week ahead, we gave a great push to everything so we could tackle all tasks as fast as we could. Objective: to leave the city within 10 days (8 days sounded reasonable).
We gave presentations to young students at Collège Emile Falabrègue, we built the sound system in the van, we had the car license done, I received my international driving license, I managed to find my own health insurance, and we had a hard time signing the insurance contract. After 9 days of work, meeting with friends and celebrating with family, the sound system was kicking perfectly and the van was full of stuff collected at low school and of clothes grabbed at my grandfather’s.
On Wednesday 19th April, we finally turned on the contact … and realized the battery was down. This was quickly fixed by my father, who connected another car’s battery to ours so we could use its energy and go. Few goodbyes later, we were on our way to Italy.
We avoided the highway as much as we could in order to save the money we were planning to save. After few hours with almost no interruption (expected pee breaks and groceries), we arrived at the East edge of France, where the Alpes (the huge mountain chains separating France with Italy) where giving us a choice: use the nice Frejus tunnel (which would cost us 50+€) or climb Col du Mont Cenis (up to very high height) and get down to the frontier. We chose the cheapest option, and crossed this small village (Val Cenis) right before the Col. The van was having a hard time “climbing” the mountain, and gave strong alerts of its limits when the snow appeared on the roads. After an infinite moment of insistence, when we truly believed we would realize the impossible and got scared to death after getting close to being stuck in tons of snow in the middle of the mountain, we came to the conclusion that it was wiser to turn back and spend the night at the village.
After the worst and funniest cooking session ever thanks to our little gas heater, I went to the bar and asked if the road would be cleared tomorrow when we would try again to cross the mountains. People laughed and said the Col du Mont Cenis was closed and that we had to use the tunnel. I laughed as well and thanked them, as adventure was starting even earlier than expected. Few minutes later, we were eating and putting ourselves to bed for the coldest night of my life.
The next day, Clement informed me I snored a lot, during the rare moments I felt like I was sleeping. The cold woke me up all night, and I was tired but happy when we got back to the roads, until we arrived at the tunnel and paid around 56 € to pass. The tunnel was very long and got us straight to the Italian border, our first foreign country to visit.