4 Wheels Under an Umbrella
My father bought an old 2CV, bright blue in Ohio of all places though it’s a classic French car with a lawnmower sized engine. Its name was Claude and that is my fathers’s middle name so he saw it as a sign that he had to have this old Citroen. He flew there and drove Claude all the way home to California across many a frozen mountain pass. Good test since Dad is retiring this year to Montana, him and Claude and perhaps some horseback lessons are in order.
Recently I was in Paris again, where I used to live—Dad also lived there for his first 15 years of life. So France runs deep for us both. But this time, I saw Paris with a whole new light—well with two lights shaped like bugged eyes of the 2CV at midnight. Our friends had contacted “4 roues sous 1parapluie ” (4 wheels under an umbrella)” to pick us up from dinner. The name is not because you might get rained on, it is the nickname of the Citroen 2CV, because of its funny shape.
Cute young beret wearing drivers drove us around Paris seeing the sites through the convertible top of the old car. It was magical: the wind around my Parisian scarf, sighing and taking in the quintessential scenes of Paris by night. As if on cue by some Hollywood movie, the lights of the Eiffel tower sparkled for us as we were about to drive through its legs ! It was as if I fell in love again with the city that I know so well. Dad would have LOVED this.
