Why We Drive

And it's not just because of Charlie.

Josh endured the long drive from Mouans-Sartoux to Marbella, nearly 1700 kilometers, with good humor and amazement. "I've never been been in a car this long," he announced. "Congratulations!" I replied. "You're now a road warrior." A dubious distinction, perhaps, but when you fly or train from place to place, you miss a lot.

We wouldn't have enjoyed orange juice in the middle of an orange grove in Valenica (it was delicious, by the way).

Or stopped in Nerja to revisit the Balcon de Europe, a place we'd enjoyed during our stint in Spain in '99. We ate breakfast on the square where we used to eat lunch and the children used to play hide and seek around the chalkboards promoting the menu del dia.

On the route back to France, we spent

a night in the seaside town of Cadaques, famous because Salvador Dali lived there,and, in our family, for the pale turquoise sea glass mixed in with the stones on the beach.

We walked along the edge of town and over to a small island and along the way we picked up glass, skipped a few stones, and scrambled over the rocks. We meandered back to town and enjoyed one last Spanish seaside lunch of boquerones, calamares, and cold white wine.

Then we hit the road again.

We headed to Montpellier -- we couldn't remember who had lobbied for this particular stop, and as we approached the shabby buildings on the outskirts of the city, no one wanted to claim that distinction.

It didn't help that our hotel turned out to be a suite in someone's apartment (a detail I overlooked on TripAdvisor) and that the owner of the apartment took my reference to the "gentle, well-behaved Golden Retriever" as a description of the 14-year old boy tagging along.

We quickly found a real hotel and as we walked through the narrow streets with polished cobblestones and ecru walls, we decided we liked Montpellier. The medical school that's been around for a thousand years was one of the first to open its doors to students without regard to their religious background.

The Italian scholar and poet, Petrarch, studied law in Montpellier in 1316-1320. He's also known as the world's first tourist -- someone who traveled simply because he wanted to see another place. Am sure that he would understand why we drive.