"...who screws around on you all the time"

Street fairs are usually street fairs. That is, it falls under my heading of an, 'F.P.E.' or Free Public Event and is to be avoided at all costs - - unless you're in desperate need of a pashmina scarf in July.

I thought the NY Bastille Day fair would be different. It was, in that Pashmina scarves were replaced with I don't how many crepe vendors. That and a fire broke out in a parking garage where a palpable panic broke out among tourists contrasted with native New Yorker's rubber necking.

Fleeing west, I was stopped by the most beautiful car in the world. The Citroen SM. The 2CV is too 2. The Traction Avant is too '30s and the DS is too damned much money, but I've had a thing for the SM since high school.

I was lured into buying one for 'a train car' in the suburbs of Chicago. White with a maroon velour interior, it was $6,000 at North Shore Imports. I was introduced to the mechanic who told me the French threw everything about cars out the window and did it their way.

I was reminded of a retirement party for a United pilot who told me he owned a Ferrari in the mid-60s. I asked what that was like. He told me it was like being married to the most beautiful woman in the world -- who screwed around on you all the time.

But the SM is beautiful.

There's a charm and soul to these cars I really connect to. The mechanic also told me the car I was looking at had been sold five times in the last couple of years.

Hairs raised on the back of my neck along with palpable panic.

I adore this door handle even though I have no clue why

Maybe it's just French.

This car has a cassette player. I'm thinking Francoise Hardy.

I would love to wash this car. Naked.

You can crack this vent open for the Gitanes smoke

I was always attracted to crazy girls when I was young, but I didn't need a mechanic.


Still, like knowing you can get a haircut in NYC at 4AM, it's nice to know this is available.