The 1953 movie "Genevieve" starts in the Temple area of London, where Alan, a young barrister, leaves work for that weekend's London To Brighton Veteran Car Run. He goes home to work on a 1904 Darrocq, which has been in his family for decades. While his friend Ambrose, an advertising salesman, has the money to have his 1905 Spyker professionally maintained, Ambrose does all the work on his beloved car.
Any car that arrives at the finish line in Brighton by 4:30 pm wins a medal. Unfortunately, Alan and his wife run into trouble. After performing several repairs en route, they don't arrive in their car Genevieve until much later.
In 2013, we enjoyed seeing these old cars arriving in Brighton. After seeing how many mechanical problems these historic cars can suffer in the movie, I can understand why many cars that start from London each year don't arrive in Brighton.
Although the rules of the club that sponsors the rally forbid their members from racing, Alan and Ambrose have a falling out, and place a bet on who will return first to London. They wager one hundred pounds on the outcome. Alan and his wife already suffer marital friction because of the time, energy, and money he devotes to Genevieve. His impulsive bet makes this worse, as the young couple only have one hundred-and-twenty-five pounds in the bank.
Alan and Ambrose's bet stipulates that the first car across Westminster Bridge wins. I won't spoil the outcome of the movie for you. But it was interesting to learn that the 1904 Darrocq in "Genevieve" still runs the rally every year. Hopefully, it doesn't suffer as many breakdowns, and finishes the rally more often than not. Perhaps I saw it in 2013, crossing the finish line.
Alan's Darrocq and Ambrose's Spyker can be seen at the Louwman Museum in The Hague. The city is known for the world-famous International Court of Justice. If Alan ever had to travel to The Hague to pursue an important case, I wonder if he would have driven there in Genevieve?
Dragon Dave
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Genevieve at the Louwman Museum
On our last visit to England in 2017, while touring Norfolk and Suffolk, our adventures often took us to the river. We punted along the River Cam in Cambridge. We cruised along the Norfolk Broads. England's canal and river system seemed a delight for holidaymakers. I could imagine, if my wife and I lived there, regularly partaking of such riparian outing.
While staying in the picturesque town of Loddon, people docked their ships in the harbor, or tied them up along the river. Signs told boaters where they could leave their boats for free, and for how how long. It seemed a pleasant and carefree way to spend one's vacation, tooling along the river, spending each night in another historic village, and never having to worry about booking hotels.
One afternoon, while resting in our room in Loddon, we flipped channels, and came upon a couple taking a riverboat journey. The woman was Prunella Scales, who had played Basil Fawlty's ever-suffering wife in "Fawlty Towers," and socialite Miss Elizabeth Mapp in the 1980s miniseries "Mapp & Lucia," based on the novels of E. F. Benson. Prunella Scales and husband Timothy West cruised along beautiful stretches of English canals in their TV series "Great Canal Journeys." I wished I could watch the series in America, so I could see more of their riparian adventures.
A TV program showed up on Amazon Prime a few months ago. Titled "Travels
By Narrowboat," and produced by Country House Gent, the host Kevin chronicled his own adventures cruising UK waterways. Unlike Prunella and her husband, Kevin had reached a nadir in his life. In order to find healing and purpose, and perhaps even redemption, he had sold everything he owned, and purchased a boat. Chronicling his adventures became not just a pasttime, but a way of life. He didn't just travel aboard a boat, he lived on it.
Kevin has been traveling aboard his narrowboat for two years or so now. As he's journeyed from place to place, he's uploaded his videos to Youtube. Since they appeared on Amazon Prime, we've sped through his last two years in two months, and now await the completion of his current journey for more. Like many of us, the COVID-19 outbreak brought his life to a standstill. We wish him well, and hope he can resume his life aboard Britain's waterways soon.
Through "Travels By Narrowboat," Kevin has made us look at our five trips to England in a different way. In traveling through areas like the English Midlands and Yorkshire, he's taken us to places we've been, and shown us new ones worth visiting. Better yet, he has done it all aboard a ship called Aslan, named after the great lion in the seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.
Not surprisingly, he has found healing and purpose, and a new outlook on life, thanks to his journey aboard a ship named after a figure of love and redemption.
With everything that's going on right now, I don't know when, or even if, we'll visit Britain again. If we do, Kevin's journey has suggested an entirely different way to find joy and renewal in his country. That, I think you'll agree, is a great gift indeed.
Dragon Dave
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Travels By Narrowboat on Facebook
