Dispatch From the Road: The Trip to Collioure

The morning sun hit the lake below le Panoramic. I gave Dolly-girl a jab. “We made it. I was worried what with us being the only ones in the Bates Motel and not having Messrs Smith&Wesson with us.” “Mummph.” “Dolly-girl, it’s morning.” “Mummph.” That’s what she says when it’s not time for her to be waking up yet. “It’s foggy out there. And beautiful.” “Mummph.” “I hear Blue Oyster Cult…” “What? Where?” I knew that would get her attention. If there’s one thing Dolly-girl always needs, it’s more cowbell. The other one is more coffee. Wait, that's two things.





Turns out there were cows, or as the French call them, "les vaches” outside the Bates Motel, and one of them was sporting a bell. I remembered back to when I was on the short side of 12 and spent some time on my uncle's dairy farm. He could have used more cowbell. I wonder why we don’t use them anymore…I also wonder how two people can look at the same thing and one thinks "cow" and the other thinks "vache." We didn't discuss that when I was getting my ticket. I think they did discuss it at Dolly-girl's école.

We packed up the roadster, paid M. Bates, and headed off down the road again. We stopped in Saint Flour to pick up some road food. I walked by a butcher shop that had all manner of meat hanging from hooks and displayed in the case. On the window was a painting of la vache. She looked pretty damned happy. My guess is that if she’d looked over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of her brother in the case, she might not have looked so happy.

I also spied this guitar in a music store. Seemed like a good suggestion for how South Dakota Slim might decorate that new flat-top box he got for himself a while back. It’s pretty plain- jane compared to this one.

On down the road, Dolly-girl said, “Jack, you know how I like my coffee and you know that I didn’t get enough this morning. Find me a cuppa to go and quick.” Well, what’s a gumshoe to do other than hunt up a place you can get a big cup of mud, get it quick, and have them put legs on it. You know, there are times when les Arcs d’Or are just what puts caffeine in the veins and a smile under the wave…