The kindness of strangers

It's a vintage week for amusing tales from the fringe:

A British man who aimed to walk from Bristol to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbander, India without spending any money has been forced to give up at Calais... He is a member of the Freeconomy movement, which believes in a " moneyless society in which no money changes and there is no duality between giving and receiving", and would like to see money disappear altogether... After reaching Calais Mr Boyle made the decision to quit his trip because as he could not speak French people thought he was an asylum seeker or a freeloader and would not give him food or board... He now plans to learn French while walking round the British coast in preparation for a renewed assault on his passage to India next year.

Good thinking. I wish him luck in his next trek from Calais to France's well-known, and magnificent, border with India.