Last Saturday afternoon we were walking with the dog around a sleepy French village looking for subjects for that "killer photo". After a while, just as were were leaving, we saw an open garage door with a man working inside. As we passed we glanced inside, we did a double take and thought, have we just jumped back in time, "well we are in France," said Louise. This garage did in fact look like a time capsule and it was definitely worth a photo so we performed a U-turn that a stunt driver would be proud of and approached the man asking him if we could take a photo of his garage, "yes" he said promptly, (having a Rottweiller is a great persuader).
He told us he owned a 2CV, which was currently out as the road to his garage is being resurfaced, and he delighted in showing us his various collections: there was a cabinet of 2CV models mounted on the wall, also a collection of ancient oil cans - there was one from 1963 and it was still sealed, therefore "guaranteed authentic," he assured us. There were numerous plaques on the ceiling and walls of the garage listing auto rallies that he had been to. We were proudly shown an Elvis plaque but we were not sure of the significance; perhaps he too had a 2CV. There was the Jack Daniels plaque and he mimed drinking, I believe he likes JD beaucoup. At this point, I felt obliged to stretch my French and launched into an explanation that where JD is made in America, it is actually a dry county and drinking alcohol is forbidden and if you take the factory tour you are given lemonade instead of the real stuff. I am not sure he believed me though, but at least he understood!
As we left the garage Lottie tripped over the tripod and as it clattered to the ground the man exclaimed aloud thinking that the camera was still attached, but in fact it was safely packed away. However, I did say that would have been a good excuse to buy a new one and he thought that funny. As we left, having been looking around for a while, I also said perhaps he could set up a kiosk and sell tickets to view his garage. "Now," he said "You have given me an idea.....".
Nev Stott
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