© Jean-Paul Poulet
A bus carrying 88 Belgian students got stuck on a dirt road last weekend after the drivers decided to take a different route through the farmers’ protest. It was the mayor of the local village who came to their rescue.
Just like in some other European countries, French farmers have been blocking several major roads for several days. For example, a bus with 88 Belgian students could not pass the Croisière intersection. The two drivers therefore decided to set up the GPS and look for an alternative route. And so they ended up on some small roads between Creuse and Haute-Vienne.
And things went from bad to worse. The drivers blindly trusted the GPS and ended up on an unpaved path near the village of Folles, which has less than 500 inhabitants. Not much later they realized that they had nowhere to go and so they decided to inform the local authorities. Mayor Jean-Paul Poulet tried to get some breakdown helpers on site, but they were reluctant to do the job. Their vehicles would get stuck, just like the bus.
The mayor therefore came to their aid himself. He pulled the bus out of its dire situation with his own excavator. The entire operation took about four hours.
The mayor also called the local restaurant because the students had not eaten since the day before. In the town hall hall they were all offered spaghetti and a piece of cake. According to the mayor, they could now resume their journey.