"to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive....."


When I started keeping hens, people used to ask me what they were called. The idea of naming them seemed ludicrous, and the idea of naming a car seemed equally ridiculous. However,  I have noticed that 2CV owners seem to find it necessary to give their inanimate lumps of metal names - usually female ones. Try as I might, I couldn't think of a single name I would be comfortable assigning to my car - until yesterday.  Walking in the woods at High Dam, trying to decide on a suitably snappy, memorable, title for my travel blog (Ellie told me I needed one, or no one would find it), I hit on "travelling hopefully" - part of a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson, which got me thinking about one of the books we were given to read, in my first year at Kendal High School for Girls, in 1964. It was Robert Louis Stevenson's "Travels with a Donkey".  I loved it - especially the description of the sheepskin sleeping bag, and all the other paraphernalia RLS loaded onto his recalcitrant donkey, Modestine, with whom he had chosen to share the adventure. I wanted to go off and wander through the countryside, just like RLS., but possibly sans donkey.  Modestine..... Now, 2CVs are universally known as "tin snails" - modest tin snails, in fact, for no one could accuse a "deuche" of having delusions of grandeur. A Modest Tin snail - Modestine, of course!! - so now my transport of delight has a name after all, and I like to think it suits her (see how it's she now, and not it - the rot has quickly set in!!)

The idea for our South American odyssey began last January, when I returned from visiting my son, Ben, in his newly opened hostel in Colombia. To welcome me home, my accountant presented me with a horrible tax bill, to be paid immediately, that made rather a hole in my "running away money".  So that was what all my efforts had been for - to hand my profits over to HMRC. Now I don't mind giving British Airways an extra handful of my money, so that I can sit at the front, enjoy their hospitality, and lie down when I'm sleepy, but I was cross at being so unkindly deprived of my hard earned takings. I decided that, from now on, until I am too old for adventures, I would close the B and B. for three months, in the winter, and have an awfully big adventure instead

Since Ben lives in South America, it made sense to go there, but I didn't want to go straight to Buritaca and risk another long session in the El Rio kitchens (joking, Ben, I did enjoy it) so I needed to think of something else to occupy myself for three months

In 2006 Frank and I had acquired a beautifully restored Citroen 2CV, which we took out to Vallouise, where we had a house.  We spent many a happy weekend in it, crawling over high mountain cols, but - when Frank died in 2014 - we sold the house, and Ben and I brought the car back to the UK. I love my 2CV - every journey is an adventure, and - in the days of bland, identical cars - driving it makes me happy, and people smile as we rattle by. Last summer, en route for the UK from Vallouise, we conked out every afternoon, about 4pm. People abandoned their cars to give us a push - it turns out tout le monde loves a 2CV - at least in France - which would never happen with a Porsche!

When I decided to explore South America, a 2CV seemed (to me) to be the perfect mode of transport - reliable (fingers crossed), easy to repair, good ground clearance, and they used to build them in Argentina. Based on this flawless logic, Modestine and I are set for an adventure. She is leaving before me, as she is travelling in a container, by sea, whereas I am flying out to join her, in Ushuaia, on the 29th October

There is a lot of preparation to do between now and then, and - if I succeed in making this blog post actually appear - it will be the first of a series (let's not get carried away and say many) to keep anyone who is interested up to date on where we are, and what we are doing - so, watch this space.......



Comments

  1. Go Modestine and owner on your great adventure. A x

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  2. Ian & I will be avidly following - from both sides of the world - & with you all the way! X

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  3. As someone living in the centre of France, caring for two 2CVs, I will be following avidly. Look forward to plenty of pictures.

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