Deux Chevaux & other vintage French cars

That first kite was made of newspaper and strung / with fish line. I was lying next to it, alone. Sunlight / in the bright shape of a window, X-ed once / with the shadow of the sash, moved / slowly across the floor toward / me. A way had to be found / to make it work. We were trying. All this / took place in the attic where the cat brought / the birds. / My mother was downstairs / or out back in the cornfield / with a gun. / I didn’t move. Who knew / where my father was. / Nothing ever worked. / I kept my eyes closed / whenever I thought / I was asleep / or flying. I awoke / when I felt the light touch / my feet, perfect, still / I didn’t move. When it touched / my eyes I opened. The crosshairs / were on my chest, breathing. I saw / my heart. A cold wind rattled / the kite
That first kite, James Baker Hall

This battered insect crawling along Chaar Bagh Boulevard will elicit hoots from a tourist, but the joke is really on us. The Citroen 2CV is a legend that will grind the flatulent Land Rover Defender into the dust. The brief for the design of this car was for a low-priced, rugged ‘umbrella on four wheels’ that would enable two peasants to drive 100kg of farm goods to market at 60km/h, in clogs and across muddy unpaved roads if necessary. France at that time had a very large rural population, who had not yet adopted the automobile due to cost. The car would use no more than three litres of petrol to travel 100km. Most famously, it would be able to drive across a ploughed field without breaking the eggs it was carrying. Its designer later also had the roof raised to allow him to drive while wearing a hat.



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