Perhaps it’s the promise of 2021? The hope that some normality will return. That the world will open to us again. Maybe it’s following Rally the Globe‘s social media? Whatever it is – an excuse is what it is! – I am easily distracted from research by maps, route guides and travelogues. One such caught my attention while trawling through old editions of the Automobile Club de France ‘Bulletin Officiel’. A seven-day itinerary for the Côte d’Azur, in 1934.
I’ve often thought that these journeys are ripe for revisiting. An internal combustion Portillo? I even to have to hand a suitably-weighty motoring substitue for his Bradshaw’s Guide. Anyway… enough distraction.
The phone chirped. “Come and join us”, read the message from Fred Gallagher. A dream of leaving San Remo with a roadbook… of Como… Cortina… The Stelvio.
For now dreaming is all we have, but maybe we need to – have to – ‘dream big’ to reclaim the world?
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