A couple of days before the end of this summer trip we rented a “speedboat” for the morning to visit our favorite coves and swim until we were waterlogged. In France you need a license from an EU country to rent any craft with a motor larger than six horsepower. This is one way to remove speed from the picture, but still the boats can maintain a steady seven knots with the throttle jammed all the way forward. We followed a sailboat under power out of one of the harbors and discovered we were going faster. Booyah! As the morning progressed, I was feeling like Captain Ger, master of the sea, but I still hadn’t mastered the simple maneuver of returning the boat. Under low power these things don’t turn well (or so I tell myself), and, as I had done last time, I sideswiped one of the docked boats and then gently rammed the pier, forcing one of the young employees to leap to my rescue.
Vacation rentals collect interesting items left by the guests. Last fall we were thrilled to discover a proper English umbrella with an over-the-shoulder carrying case. This visit, the handle and main part of the device were hanging on separate hooks, having suffered a painful separation sometime during the spring. I guess someone wanted us to know that it hadn’t simply been stolen. Our storage has a growing number of foam noodles, chairs (one broken), and umbrellas for the beach. We, in turn, have tossed all our copper money into a pail hoping someone will grab a few handfuls; no luck so far. But the most curious of all was an unused pad of note paper from Lehman Brothers recently left behind. Maybe it was all that remained after the last financial crisis – in lieu of a bond payment maybe or a missing IRA. Anyway, the last page contains the rough outline of my next novel. No title yet, but I need to finish it before everything in it happens for real.
France is in our rearview mirror for a few months but never far from our hearts. Back at you in October.
