It was by chance, not design, that 18-year-old Amaury Bargioni of Paris, France, ended up at the Newtown General Store, Thursday, December 11, for lunch. And it was by chance that Newtown residents Joanne and Phil Keane struck up a conversation with the young man, intrigued by his arrival on a pack-laden bicycle — and that he was wearing only a T-shirt on a chilly, snowy day that had most locals bundled up in parkas and wool sweaters.

“We had to know what he was up to,” said Ms Keane, as well as advise the traveler on a second sandwich to add to the Golden Chicken he had already ordered: a bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll.

Amaury had just pedaled into town from Mahopac, N.Y., on his way to Middletown. It was a very short leg of his ambitious bicycle trip that began in Paris September 15, and which will ultimately take him around the world, before he returns to his home city, June 21, 2015.

While he often fixes himself lunch for the road, on Thursday, his ride down Newtown’s Main Street changed his mind.

“I saw this beautiful building, and thought this is definitely a good place. It’s really pretty,” he said. “I love it here.”

After graduating from high school this past spring, Amaury wanted to take a year off, while applying to colleges. But he did not want to spend a year at home, with not much to do.

“I thought, I could bike around the world, and the more I looked into it, the more I thought I could. My friends thought I was crazy,” he said, and his parents, while always respecting his sense of responsibility and independence, were a bit nervous about his idea for a solo trek around the world.

Eventually, they agreed that a year exploring the world had more good benefits than bad to it, and agreed to help him cover the $15,000 US dollars he estimated it would cost. Most of the money for the trip, primarily for gear and plane fares, came from his own earnings. “Overall, it costs much less than a year of university,” Amaury pointed out.

Biking is not foreign to Amaury. At home, he regularly biked all over Paris. It is an easier method of getting around the city, he said, than other options. Although he had not done long distance bicycling, he felt confident that he was fit enough and experienced enough to handle the challenge.

“And,” said Amaury, “after a couple of weeks of long days of biking, you will be fit, right?”

It is not his main reason for the bicycle trip, but Amaury has found it an opportunity to visit friends at colleges around Europe and America, and see what those campuses are like.

Long before he reached Main Street in Newtown, Amaury had put more than 3,000 miles on his Sultry, 30-speed bicycle. His first big stop after heading out from Paris was to visit friends in London. From London, he flew to Montreal, Canada, and then to San Francisco. His original intention had been to bike from East to West, but he realized that autumn would be an ideal time to visit some of the western National Parks he wanted to see.

He biked through Yosemite, down to Zion in Utah, and then to Nevada, where he slept at a ranch one night, at the rancher’s invitation. Usually, he camped out, setting up his tent wherever it seemed pleasant. As the weather has gotten colder, he now uses warmshowers.org to find host homes for an overnight stay.

He has pedaled across parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, as well as the “flat and very windy” states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. In Illinois, he stayed with friends in Chicago, before heading over to Cleveland, Ohio.

“I took the SAT test in Cleveland. I had been told that it is hard for foreign students to get financial aid,” Amaury said, “but it turns out, that is not true. Some colleges here do give financial aid to international students, so I will apply to some universities here.”

He has traveled through sections of Pennsylvania, and most recently, New York.

He is puzzled by the sense of fear he has observed in many Americans. “When I meet people, they are concerned about where I’m staying, where I will sleep. They ask if I am afraid, but I am not,” said Amaury. He is very surprised that some people have even told them that they hope he carries a gun with him.

Regional Differences

People have been mostly helpful, though, wherever he has been, in Europe, Canada, or the United States. “I have seen, though, that people in the West [of the United States] seem to be closer to the natural environment, and more relaxed than people in the East,” he said. In the Midwest, he observed that Americans have a strong sense of community, are very religious, and have a strong sense of family.

He has discovered things about himself, as well as others.

“I’m surprised that riding my bike, I’ve gotten so far. I’ve made a lot of connections. I see that just by trying, you can get so far,” said Amaury. When things seem to be going wrong, or he is very tired, he has found that pushing himself “just one more mile” can make a difference. Without a place to stay one night, after a long day of riding across Kansas, a Burger King manager suggested Amaury ask the police where he could safely pitch his tent. He stopped in to the police station to inquire. “The officer left the room and told me to wait, and after some time, maybe 40 minutes, he comes back with a free voucher for a motel room. Things like that happen,” said Amaury.

The trip has made him much more proactive, Amaury said, and far less apt to procrastinate. If something needs tending to, he does it immediately. His list of what to do and where to be each day keeps him on track.

“This trip has changed my attitude. I realize the number of years I wasted when I was in high school, and could have done better at my studies,” he said. His mastery of the English language has received a boost, as well, in the past several weeks.

Before he returns to Paris on the longest day of summer (an in time for the national “Fete de la Musique”), Amaury will have seen a great deal more of the world.

After visiting friends in Middletown and New Haven, he planned to bike to New York City, then down the East Coast and over to New Orleans.

“Hopefully, I will head back to see the Grand Canyon,” he said, ultimately arriving in Los Angeles, before taking a flight to Hawaii.

He will explore the islands by bike, then fly to New Zealand, and then Bangkok, Thailand. From there, his bicycle will carry him to Vietnam and Laos, and possibly to Hong Kong and then Japan.

“I will return to Beijing, China, and want to go with a touring group to North Korea, which you can do from Beijing. Then, I’ll take the Trans-Siberian Express train from Beijing to Moscow,” Amaury said.

From Moscow to Paris will be the final leg of his around-the-world bicycle trip.

“It has been a great trip, just incredible. It is a good thing I had to wait for university for a year. There have been a lot of great places I’ve seen, that I never even planned to visit — places that were just on my way, like Zion Park [in Utah],” he said.

Leaving A Photo Trail

Amaury is accomplished in photography, and shoots photos and posts to his blog from one of the two film cameras he packs on his bicycle. The quality of the pictures is much better, he said, than with his smart phone. There is a delay in posting, with film, but he finds that it also means he does not have to recharge his phone so frequently. As a high school student, he spent a year and a half working on small, independent film sets, as the director of photography.

He wants one day to pursue filmmaking, but his practical experience has been so good, he has decided not to study film immediately. “I want to study philosophy,” he said, “to help structure how I think and write. Then, maybe as a graduate student, I will study film,” he said.

Anxious to be on his way, and now adding a North Face jacket over his T-shirt, Amaury bit into his second sandwich, the bacon, egg, and cheese.

“The best advice for routes always comes from locals,” he said, but the best advice he received in Newtown, was from the Keanes.

“This sandwich is really good,” he said. “I would come back for it.” That would be by design, not chance.

Follow Amaury around the world at his blog, “Amaury Bargioni’s Bike Trill Worldtour,” on Facebook.