Local celebrities

Our encounter with Vouvray’s local motorized police having no serious or costly consequences, we set out on our journey to Preuilly-sur-Claise ; but not without instructing Vera to fasten her seatbelt.

Arriving at the main road that runs along the Loire River, Mats looked in the rear-view mirror and said: “Oh, nice … we have an escort!” While waiting to turn left in the direction of Amboise we saw the policeman who had stopped us driving up the road behind us. He slowed down and stopped beside the car, but didn't even look at us. When the road to Amboise was clear of traffic he headed in the direction of Amboise at great speed. We didn’t see his companion, and supposed that he was off on an urgent call. We followed him at a leisurely pace, still discussing the incident, until we suddenly saw him roaring back in our direction in the opposite lane, peering into the car to check whether Vera was still wearing her safety belt. There is a large roundabout further down the road and we were sure that he had made the run and the U-turn on purpose trying to catch us on some other traffic offence. 

Luckily this was the last we saw of him. However ...

Vouvray - the village bar in on the right,
where you see the 'Tabac' sign.

Two days later, after spending the afternoon at the Garden Festival in Chaumont, I went to Vouvray’s local bar to have a drink and buy some stamps for my postcards. I was chatting with Valerie, the young landlady, when I noticed that one of the patrons by the bar was staring at the seams of my trousers. I looked at him, inquiringly. He smiled and said “Madame, vous allez perdre votre pantalon.” (Madam, you are going to lose your trousers). At first I felt slightly offended, because I don’t like that kind of talk. But then he added: “... car vous n’avez pas attaché votre ceinture!” (... because you haven’t fastened your belt!) 

I immediately knew that he was referring to our encounter with the local police. I quickly learned that his sister had witnessed the whole incident and had reported about it to the rest of the village. You can say that for the last 48 hours we had been the ‘talk of the town’; celebrities so to speak! 

The people in the village were very angry about the whole incident, and found it bad enough that the local population was being ‘harassed’ by the police. The fact that they even ‘bothered’ tourists’, who, beside the wine, are their main source of income, was considered as being over the top. 

I’m sure that, even days after we had left, the village was still talking about our ‘ordeal’ and the next time that they see a tourist being stopped by the police, the story of the ‘Swedish’ car will surface again ... and that they will recognize me and give me a warm welcome when I return to Vouvray.