I just told you on Sunday about Guy the engineer and my weekend with his family in the provinces…
Well there's another part to Guy's story within all of this.
One day, he told me he was going on a voyage of his own. A trip to England, by ferry and Moped.
Since I have visited his family now, would I be willing to give him the address of my family, and he might just drop in on them? Well that seemed highly unlikely as people generally underestimate how far it is to get to Cornwall from anywhere else, and the Mobylette has a top speed of around 30mph, but just in case I wrote a letter home from me, to help him out.
"Dear Mum and Dad,
I hope you are well.
I live in Paris now and I'm doing fine working as a musician.
I'm writing now because I have a friend called "Guy" and he says he's going to travel around England on his moped and thinks he might pass by.
I've given him your address, so just in case, if by some very odd chance he does turn up on the doorstep one day during the holidays, please can you look after him for me? This would be returning a favour as his mum was very kind to me in Poitiers when we stayed there for a weekend, recently.Thankyou
Andy
A month or so later I caught up with Guy, somewhere near Gare du Nord. You'll never guess, he told me he really did go all the way to Cornwall on his mobylette via Calais and Dover. I was incredulous. Are you sure? It's a very long way and you're not allowed on the motorways with a moped. But yes.
He took his time, stayed overnight by the roadside and ate lots of fish and chips. He said my parents had been fine with him, gave him dinner and a bed for the night and then saw him off again. That was a strange thing.
When I eventually saw the folks back there, they remembered Guy, had enjoyed his visit and apparently found it all highly amusing. They particularly remembered this young french engineer showing them his wonderful film camera, and explaining what all the different knobs and dials did.