Story of a French road trip - in pictures

You start off a road trip home from the Perigord with a stop at a local market, to get picnic yums. (Is it me being brainwashed, or really, are even French markets chicer than ours? I mean, the baskets, the arrangement of the fruits and veggies, it's like a photoshoot was waiting to happen...no? Click to make bigger, you've got to see this...)

These are the sites you see on a French road trip - old things, you know, ol' aqueduct like ancient bridges

or medieval castles...


Ahh, but just when you think you're cruising through France on a whim and a smile, in fact, just when you get to a place called Place de la Liberté with the cutest rusted, hand painted sign, in some unknown little slice of a town...

Engine light turns on, car heats up (and fast!), pull over, open the hood, reach your hand in and it comes out with this chewed up piece of rubber. It was once a belt? A huh? Whatever it was, it was important.

On August 15th. A Saturday. In France.

Apparently 8/15 is THE vacation day of all vacation days in France and we all know those are many. So to find a mechanic willing to come to you and tow you and change the belt (all in the same day), may just have been a feat akin to the miracles at Lourdes. As luck would have it though, mechanic Pierre was having a hell of a time with the his in-laws when he got the call that some foreigners (le mari barely counts as French anymore for country French) were stranded 5km from his town in an old BMW. He jumped at the chance to flee the fams and was there to help in a matter of minutes. Thank god for in-laws.

This is the type shack you see when you're stranded in a slice of a town while belt is being replaced.

Your child may decide he wants to live there as it is just his size...

Mechanic Pierre saved the day and within an hour you're back on the highway heading home.

This is the type of car you see on a French highway...