My new book about my three months in France is out now. Click the cover above to view it: you can read the whole thing online if you press ‘Preview’. Enjoy.

10th August

Right next to ‘Camping Indigo’ there was an even bigger lake with a small beach visible on the other side. Me and Matt walked walked over to it (after getting slightly lost in the woods) and decided to take a swim in the lake. It was absolutely freezing, and it didn’t seem to get any warmer the longer we were in there. Usually when swimming I stop being cold after a few minutes, but not with this lake. We swam under the safety barrier and realised that the ground just disappeared so went to the safe area again. There were kids everywhere splashing about, but I couldn’t see much because I had to take out my contact lenses to swim. They didn’t seem bothered about how cold it was. After about 10 minutes we swam back to the beach and and dried off before walking back to the campsite. 

When we got back a boy who we’d played volleyball with yesterday came over asking us to join in on the football ‘tournament’. We figured by now that by tournament, everybody just meant a match. We played about 4 games which my side won each time, though I’m not sure it was because of me. Some of the French boys had picked up on a few words Matt had been using, and seemed to think that ‘shit’ was a positive word, so shouted it continuously every time they scored a goal. 

We lazied around a little longer until dinner which Matts mum had decided was a time we could only speak in French. I can’t speak any French at the moment, so this wasn’t such a great thing for me, and nobody really spoke much so I didn’t learn a lot.

9th August

Sleeping on a ferry was the craziest experience. The waves were pretty strong, though after a couple of hours I finally managed to get a comfortable sleeping position. Despite this I couldn’t sleep, so got up again to explore the ferry a little with Matt. Walking down the corridors felt like I was really drunk. I don’t know if it was due to the waves forcing me to walk left, or the fact I was so tired, but it was one of the strangest feelings. After looking out at the dark sea from the deck one last time I decided to retire back to my seats. Now I knew the best way to lie, I fell asleep in no time. Other people were sleeping on the floor, and a few people had even brought a mattress with them. 

I awoke to see France quickly approaching, and it wasn’t long before we were docked. We got in the car, stopped for some cheese, and then journeyed to a huge campsite in Les Molières: our home for the next three nights. Me and Matt walked around a big lake where there were a load of people fishing. Nobody seemed to have any fish that they’d caught though. I’m not sure there were actually any fish in the lake. 

When we got back to our tent we spoke to a woman who told us about a volleyball ‘tournament’ that evening that we promised we would go to, just to watch. As we got there later on, she gestured that we should move closer, and before we knew it we were playing volleyball with her and a group of young French boys. Despite our great sport skills, the children were much better than us. An old bloke joined in too, and even though he fell over, he was also a lot better than us.

After the exhausting day, we went back to the tent and drank a big bottle of San Miguel that Matt had been saving for a special occasion.

I am in France, and I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. Living in such a nice house at the moment and everything is quite perfect. I hope you’re all well!