"Now, as long as you truly don't mind honey?" Said Madison as she got into the car and sat beside me.
"Of course I don't" came my reply, "I am pretty much headed that way anyway."
How could I possibly mind, I have been driving now for two days more or less since arriving in France without speaking to anyone other than a forecourt attendant at a petrol station and most fuel stops have had automatic self-service pumps. I was driving down to Monte Carlo in my old two-seater convertible car to trace the last journey I did with my dad before he passed away. Dad always liked mountains and lakes so a backroad journey through France seemed a great idea. One of the drawbacks of travelling alone is no been able to chat about how good or how bad the day was. This girl Madison was having a very bad day indeed.
"Which car hire company did you use Madison? hopefully one that will recover that one and give you another once we get to Orleans."
"Eurocar I think, and hun, if we are going all the way to Orleans then call me Madi."
Madison, or rather, Madi, was on her way to a country music festival and decided to make a holiday of it as she had never been to France before. Madi had taken on a rental car and had two days to get to the festival in St Tropez after she touched down in Paris. Simple enough, but not when you choose a non-tourist route where they only speak French and when your car breaks down in an area with no cell phone coverage. So Madi had been sat in her car for a couple of hours wondering how she was going to get to St Tropez in time. Of course, I wasn't ever planning on going to Orleans as this would take me West instead of East, but, hey, what the heck, it's not every day you meet an all-American girl, particularly in France.
"Are you sure you have all your stuff from the rental Madi?"
"Sure have!" said Madi as she popped on her cowboy hat.
It was fortunate that I was driving past Madi as she was sat on the grass by the stricken car, luckily I checked my wing mirror to get a better view of her and noticed her get to her feet and wave her hands above her head. I might tell her that bit later.
"It's probably going to take a couple of hours to get to Orleans from here Madi, have you had anything to drink? I've got some water if you fancy some."
Madi said that would be great and took the bottle from me and had a long drink, long enough for me to notice just how pretty she was. Then after she finished, she gave me her gorgeous smile in return and said thanks. It was lovely and sunny by the time we were on our way, I had the roof down anyway, but it was now warm enough just to be in a T shirt. Madi was wearing blue jeans, a pink vest top with sequined lettering and red and white western style chequered shirt. I couldn't make out the words on her vest top and it may have appeared to her that I was looking at her breasts if I stared too long trying!
"Who is playing at this gig you are headed to Madi?"
"Oh, the usual Country and Americana scene really, are you into Country?"
I confessed that I did not have that much in my record collection but that I was getting more and more into it. I did have a rock band CD playing but it was almost impossible to hear it with the roof down, the wind noise was too great.
"Here, have this for your journey down to Monte Carlo as a thank you from me."
Madi handed me a CD of a Lori McKenna album, and said "I sing her songs while I am at home or on the way to work" I had neither heard of the CD or of the artist but I thanked her anyway.
"Are you singing at the festival?" I asked
"Goodness me, no, I just sing to myself when no one else is around!"
The trip to Orleans was fairly uneventful and by now I was getting used to her Tennessee Twang, Madi had said that she was from Nashville when we first started talking by the roadside. I had only stayed up East in the Tri-State area of America, this was my first time speaking with a girl from the South. I was quite enjoying they way she spoke as she was extending the length of her vowels. The way she felt 'tray-uped' is she stayed much longer in the USA and needed to explore other places. I loved it.
This simple enough journey for Madi became a bit more complicated when we arrived at Eurocar in Orleans. It was a Wednesday; they close on a Wednesday afternoon and won't open now till the next morning.
"Shoot!" was all she said.
"Oh, where are you staying tonight? and I will drop you off there on the way." I asked Madi
"No idea hun, I was just gonna drive till I found somewhere nice, what about you? where you headed?"
I had my tent in the car, I sometimes stay in a cheap motel or camp, all municipal French campsites have great facilities.
"Not sure either," I said, truthfully. "If you stay here and wait to get your rental car in the morning you will be in danger of missing out on the first day of the festival."
"Well honey, we better get a move on then!"
"Suits me." I said.
It was only early afternoon so there was plenty of daylight left to drive a hundred miles or so to the next big town with a Eurocar depot. So, we grabbed some food and headed off on our way. We had time to kill so we chatted along the way, then there were periods of silence. One of these times her shirt had blown open and I could now see the lettering on her vest, the gold sequins against pink were a bit tricky to read but I made out 'Tennessee Angel' Yes, this lady certainly looked the part with her golden hair flowing with the wind as she laid back with her hat tilted across her face to shade her from the sun.
