Lille (briefly)

When we first stopped in Paris en route to London we found a very appetising book listing French farms which served homegrown produce to visiting diners, most of them with rooms for guests to stay the night. By this point in our journey we were a bit over the sight-seeing thing and Lille's cold and drizzly welcome did nothing to inspire. Straight to the train station it was to visit our first duck farm in Sancourt.

As I was minding the bikes outside the ticket office two young travellers appeared suddenly, smiling in my direction. After an automatic hello it took a while for my brain to switch into gear and work out what was going on. Two people with bicycles, looking like they've been roughing it, lots of bags, socks and underwear attached to the outside. Funny...that girl's bike looks exactly like mine.

They continued to smile patiently as I caught up to what they'd probably figured out long before approaching me. Turns out we were once practically neighbours as they'd most recently been living in Sydney's inner-west as well and were now just finishing their 2/6 month tour of France and heading to London for work/study. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

They were very helpful and eager to pass on advice from their hard-learned lessons on the road. They lent us some maps, we exchanged contact details and we gave them the location of a nearby campsite and an unused shower token. Strangely enough I'd hung on to it just in case!