The 2CV!

I am not an expert in cars, actually I cannot distinguish one made from another.

Even so I can talk about my favourite ones, can't I?

The king for me is the 2CV.

My husband had one when I met him. A red one, with a black roof. I loved to ride it with the roof off. It gave me the kind of feeling a sport car would probably give, but on the cheap.

We used to travel around London, without the roof, taking advantage of the few sunny days we could find in here. Back then we were loud and chicky, the car was always overloaded, when not with shopping or Ikea pieces, with friends and picnic baskets.

The car was one more of the group, it would take us everywhere not matter what. I dreamed of days at the beach surfing and long warm evenings looking at the moon through it detachable roof. Of course it never happened, I have never tried surfing and don't think I could even lift the board to put it in the car anyway but...
We had long rides instead, the most famous one being to Windsor Castle. Juan had just arrived from Paris and was leaving to Mexico the day after, so we had only one day to show him around, we packed the car with sandwiches and drinks, picked up Aida and took the road. The day was excellent, not hot but sunny, our 2CV waited patiently for us and we took off on our way back to London. We were both excited and exhausted, we chat and laugh until suddenly... the roof of the car disappeared!

The cars around stopped and we were frozen with fear, we could not understand what had happened and then, we slowly realized our poor old friend had given up! its roof, so many times repaired by my husband with great patience and skills but again on the cheap! had detached itself and was lying on the motorway floor just behind us, a queue of cars dangerously stopped behind it! The police appeared in minutes, they were quite concerned about our wellbeing, poor lads, they could probably not understand our youthful happiness! We wouldn't stop laughing and looking with surprise to the big piece of black leather on the floor. The trip back home was cold, the sun was not there anymore and the wind came through our clothes and got us into the deepest of our bones but it was just the end of a great day together, the end of a long happy Summer and, unfortunately, the end of our beloved car.

We tried to make it last longer but it seemed to me that our poor friend was just to tired for our childish demands! We let it go, knowing that we were also letting a piece of us go, a period of our lives together that we would never forget. We had a Renault 19 after that, I could tell lovely stories about it as well, but never the same, never the happy memories that that our first car gave us. We will always keep it in our hearts, we still smile and look at each other when we see one of its kind driving pass.

Learn more about this author, Ascen Arriazu.
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