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Olivet, France
June 13, 2001
Scoreboard: 12,175 miles; 6 Countries, 20 states

The Friendliest Campground in Europe

Claytononboard
2005-11-18 13:12:25

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I'm hardly a scientist, but I don't like dealing in absolutes. Of course, the pinnacle of my formal education was law school where you are taught (if you listen well), "There is no law or truth, only judges." This bottom line is a bit different than scientific grad work where complete and empirical evidence is required to support any conclusive findings.

So I'm a little hesitant to make broad, sweeping, encompassing statements, but less so than someone who takes into full account what they're saying with maximum reservation. True poets have no such difficulties. They see the most beautiful flower of the field and know it right away, they need see no others.

We are in the friendliest campground in Europe. It is true that even considering my extensive camping in Europe twenty to thirty years ago, I have only collected empirical evidence regarding several hundred of what must be tens of thousands of campgrounds. No matter, my cerebral jury has returned.

Camping Municipal in Olivet, France, is the friendliest campground in Europe. It's a family affair, run by Jean-Francois and Annie Keck and their sons Oliver and Denis. The Kecks are the absolute salt of the earth: they have offered us every kindness imaginable; I check my email and work on the internet in their house, the day that my AT&T connection was down they offered me use of their computer and server, they give the girls strawberries fresh from the garden, they offered us use of their phone when they (rightly) suspected that we were too broke to obtain a phone card. It's absolutely incredible.

They found us at the supermarket, after major shopping, looking bewildered and vaguely for a cab (between trying to figure which of us might be able to carry what back to camp). They insisted on giving us a ride back to camp, before they did their own shopping so that we wouldn't have to wait. Naturally they refused gas money.
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