Traveller of the Week: Fouad Kronfol - A Sportscar Named Annick

This week's column is an amalgamation of the usual Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp together with a Travelogue. I had started writing the latter when I realized that since I did not have a camera during my trip there were no photos I could share, so I decided instead to "illustrate" my text with stamps related to the localities I visited.

A SPORTSCAR NAMED ANNICK

(with a tip of the hat to Tennessee Williams)

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It was love at first sight ! The minute I lay eyes on her I had that inexplicable feeling of great attraction to her charms. Her body was of perfect proportions, well rounded out where it mattered. Her small but sleek look was the kind that a man could not take his eyes off her. Yet she exuded an aura of power quite beyond her size. There was an innate elegance to her with well matched colors and a wonderful combination of materials in her attire. Her two orbs were widely spaced and a bit indented, giving them a most alluring look. Altogether there was a warmth to her that I could not resist.I knew right then I had to have her !!!!

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No, this is not the subject of the article. On the other hand this was the first car I ever owned. As a young "man about town" in Beirut in the early 1960's I had to have a convertible "sports car" and I very much liked this 1954 MG TD model which is considered a classic car. However its upkeep and maintenance became quite a lot, and as I had no penchant for mechanics, I sold it. Thus I was in the market to obtain another vehicle for myself.

In 1966 I sailed from Beirut on a trip to Europe to tour and meet some friends. I also took with me some savings in US$ Travelers Checks (yes, they were the only safe way to carry money) with the aim of buying a new model sports car made by Fiat,the 750 Spider, of which there was only one in Lebanon .

My first stop was in Naples from where I took a train to Rome where I met an old friend of mine. She and her Italian friend Maria drove me to a number of Fiat dealerships but none of them had any Spider 750's in stock. What a disappointment ! Still, it was nice touring Rome again and we had a very enjoyable few days. One memorable evening Maria took us to meet her artist friend living in Frascati. It was an imposing palazzo with a huge veranda overlooking Rome in the distance. It was where I first tasted and enjoyed the Frascati white wine and we had a super Italian dinner.

The indomitable Maria, seeing my frustration with not finding my car in Rome, offered to drive us to Turin, the HQ of Fiat where we thought it would be easy to find the car. We squeezed into her Cinquecento Fiat (AKA Topolino) and went to Turin for a few days. Again my search was futile; all the dealers had no car for immediate sale. We even went to Alfa Romeo dealers (they have a model also called Spider, from which Fiat had taken its inspiration).But the price was way beyond my capacity to pay..another deception!

Rather dispirited I said goodbye to my friend who returned to Strasbourg, Maria went to Rome and I decided to visit Paris where I could see a few friends. After the train ride I took a bus to the address of a "cousin of a cousin" who was studying in Paris. She was apartment-sitting for her aunt and invited me to stay there.The place was a hole-in-the wall studio but located in one of the "gallerie" buildings along the Champs-Elysee...what better location indeed !

The next morning I went out to walk along the "most beautiful avenue in the world".Not fifty meters from the apartment I saw a brand new Fiat showroom with, can you believe it? Only one vehicle was on display and it was the 750 Spider !!! I almost jumped for joy, ran in and was met by a snotty salesman in a three-piece suit. He confirmed that it was indeed the new 1967 model of the Fiat 750 Spider which they were promoting. The demo vehicle was a sky blue color and as gorgeous as I imagined but stocks would not be available for a few weeks. I don’t know why but I asked if I could buy the floor model. The man was taken by surprise, but I insisted that I could pay in cash (travelers checks) and in US Dollars. He consulted the manager...imagine my elation when he said yes! Of course there were formalities but it could be managed in 2-3 days. I whipped out my checks and started signing what amounted to close to $3,000. The rest of the time I was floating on air and could not wait until I got the car.

A couple of days later I went to the Fiat office and garage in Neuilly for the formalities including the TT car license, some insurance coverage and various taxes. The lady who was in charge of my dossier was charming and a real Parisian beauty, elegantly dressed and with beautiful hands. I asked her name, she said it was Annick; was that with a "Q"? No, it was spelled with a C and K at the end. I declared loudly for all to hear, "I will name my car after you Mme.Annick" and gave her a quick buss on the cheek. The garage attendant briefed me on some technical details, gave me an owners manual and insisted that I make sure not to speed beyond 100 km/hour for the first 1500 kms. And I should get a first check of the motor and oil change when I got to that mileage. Then I drove out with my new sports car, as proud as a peacock and so elated with my purchase. Passing the office building I saw Mme. Annick was at the window waving to me and I sent her a salute in return. WOW ! I also smiled to myself as I thought,I can imagine the comments from my Arabic speaking friends when I tell them the car's name !!!

But what to do now? The UNICEF regional office was not too far away and I thought of driving there to show off my new acquisition. However I decided to return to Paris and drove up the Grande Armée boulevard to the Arc de Triomphe at l'Étoile. There, just for the heck of it I merged into the traffic and went around the circle three times before continuing down the Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde.What a joy ride it was, with many people turning around to look at my car as I passed by !I called a friend from university days and informed her of my new car. She would love to see it soonest she said so let us go for a drive to Deauville to break the car in. It was off-season at the fashionable resort so we were able to find decent and not too expensive lodging in a small hotel which had a lovely rustic bistro . There we ate an extraordinary dinner of mussels served in the biggest bucket I had ever seen together with fries, all washed down with dry white wine...a real feast!

After Deauville I decided to drive to Brussels,to see an old friend who had settled there in a new job. We spent a nice few days together and I also met the fiancee of my close friends from Tehran. We all went together to the new "IN" resort in the north of Belgium, Knokke-le-Zoute..It was a great holiday and I was enjoying the compliments for my new car from all my friends.

Then, it hit me..!!! Time was flying by, I needed to get back to Beirut as my mother and my boss Rachid Koleilat would start worrying about me. Moreover I had to drive more than five thousand kilometers all by myself.So I said goodbye to my friends in Belgium and started on my voyage back towards Beirut. But how to chart my way? All I had was a general map of Europe and a list of places that could service my new Fiat car. Of course those days there was no GPS nor cell phones! As I think back I am astounded that I had no visas for most of the countries I was passing through, nor any hotel reservations and of course no idea of where I was going to except a general idea of the geography that lay ahead of me. The folly's of a young man, indeed !!!

It was clear that I needed to drive eastward and southward for the most part, so I went through the lovely Ardennes region of Belgium towards Luxembourg and on to Germany. My first destination was Heidelberg where there was a Fiat garage. Also I had a vision of the place from the famous Mario Lanza film, "The Student Prince" and thought it a good place to have the first inspection of the car. When I got to Heidelberg it was the weekend and the garage was not open. So I found a nice lodging at a "zimmer" with a charming old lady who prepared an excellent breakfast. Monday morning early I went to the Fiat garage and they promised to service the car by next day.

From there I decided to drive towards Munich, a city which I had visited before and enjoyed a lot. Driving on the German autobahns was a real pleasure and since Annick had her first checkup I could exceed 100 km/hour and was able to make good headway.. I did not spend much time in Munich as I was now in a hurry to get closer to home, but did enjoy an evening at a bier halle. From there my direction was now towards Vienna, another great city where I had been to. This was going to be a long drive of some 500 kms. I only spent one night in Vienna which did not allow much enjoyment, but I did manage a delicious sacher torte at the famous Demel's café, a must for any visitor to Austria's capital !

Looking at the map I saw that I now needed to start going south quite a bit, so I decided to drive towards the city of Graz. I had no idea what there was to do but needed a stopover for rest before getting to the Balkans. A funny thing happened while driving to Graz; I got to a spot where there was road work being done and there was an improvised red light on. I stopped and waited but many minutes went by and the light did not change, so I thought that something was probably wrong and decided to take the road. A few hundred meters on the one way road I suddenly saw a whole fleet of cars coming towards me. The newly paved part of the road could only take one car, so I was stuck with many angry drivers blinking their lights and honking loudly for me to go back....of course, they had the right of way, since there was a green light at the start of the road on their side. I could not back up hundreds of meters, so I took a chance and drove off the paved part and waited for all the cars to pass. Their gestures and language was certainly not very friendly! Good thing I did not speak German. I realized that I was wrong, of course.

From Graz I drove into Yugoslavia first to Zagreb in Croatia,then proceeded to Belgrade. I only spent a night in each to rest and did not visit at all because only a couple of years earlier,together with two friends we had spent three weeks touring Yugoslavia and had seen almost all of it, but that is another story !! My next stop was Bulgaria and I headed into the capital Sophia for a break. I felt a special attachment to this city because Sophia is my Mother's name and so I sent her a postcard from there. I knew a little bit about my way around town from our earlier trip so I headed to the home of one of the three girls we had met and gone out with. Stefania was quite surprised to see me since we had not corresponded at all in the interim. She was also very impressed with my new car.I learned that she had finished university,found a job and had a fiance. She agreed to have lunch with me and we went to a nice restaurant up on a hill overlooking the city where previously my friends and I had taken her and her two other friends.

I continued driving towards Plovdiv, an interesting town, but decided not to stop there. I went on towards the Turkish border at Edirne where I found some rather shabby lodging, but had a very tasty Kebab and other Turkish delights for dinner. Edirne was always a good spot for resting and most of the commercial truck drivers stopped there. I needed the rest as I had driven more than 1100 kms. from Graz. By then I was most anxious to cover as much ground as I could because I realized that I was quite late getting back to home and office. So I pressed on....

Leaving Edirne next morning my plan was to make it Istanbul so I could spend a night in a decent hotel, get a good shower and meal before hitting the road towards Ankara some 700 kms away. Traffic was relatively light going to Istanbul and I got to the outskirts around noon, so I made a quick decision to continue towards Ankara instead of wasting a lot of time driving in and out of the big city. By early afternoon I was nearing the capital Ankara and again I thought I would gain much time by circumventing the city and instead driving southward towards the Mediterranean. I had a very vague idea of reaching Adana on the coast if I could do it that day. As I drove into the evening and the night, things started to get very complicated....there were no villages along the way where I could stop, traffic became very heavy, especially with enormous trucks plying their way on rather narrow roads. Unfortunately, although I had previously driven that way I had forgotten that I had to cross the Taurus mountains to get to Adana. I was getting very tired, the diesel fume of the thousands of trucks on the road was burning my eyes, it was very dark except for the headlights of oncoming traffic and I could not find a place to stop and rest. So, I doggedly drove all night, trying to pass those huge trucks when I could so as to avoid their noxious fumes and making every effort to stay awake.

It was about five am. next morning when I finally saw the Mediterranean sea and drove straight down to the shore, parked Annick in the first open space I found and went to sleep right there in the car! I then realized that I had driven more than 1200 kms. without stopping, except for gas,and had only eaten some fast food along the way. I was wakened soon after by a young boy who tapped on my window. He asked me if I needed a hotel, I said yes and followed him for a short distance to what looked like a "caravansary" around which were parked many big trucks. I was so tired and sleepy that I wasn't going to be picky. The rates for a bed were very low..I soon found out why; the place was probably a warehouse before so in the huge space they had placed wires in a grid and from these hung sheets thus creating "cubicles" in which was a bed, a small chair and nothing else ! Each cubicle thus served as a "bedroom" which they rented out to the truck drivers and others for a minimal fee. I wasn’t going to sleep with the dozens of others so I asked if they had some other facilities. They showed me a side room which only had six beds, but it had a door which could be closed to the other chamber. I offered to pay for all six beds but to stay alone in the room, which was quickly arranged and I was able to get a few hours of decent rest.

By now I was getting closer to home and wanted to get there as quickly as possible. Also the distances I had to drive were now much shorter. From Adana I drove to Hatay or Iskanderun and from there to Latakia in Syria.After a quick nap and some nourishment I drove past Tartous, and got to Alghreydeh, the frontier post between Syria and Lebanon. Oh what a relief when I finally crossed the border into north Lebanon !

From there it was a leisurely drive of less than a hundred kms. to Beirut and I took my time as all of a sudden all my nerves seemed to relax and I knew that my Odyssey was to end soon.So I drove past Tripoli the second city of the country, then a pit stop in Byblos, one of the oldest towns in the world (it is said the word Bible comes from Byblos because it was there that one of the earliest alphabets was developed), and finally to Beirut where I did a tour of the Corniche towards the Pigeon Rocks (Al-Raouche) which was a few hundred meters from our apartment.

Needless to say the homecoming was a fantastic feeling; I felt like the Prodigal Son in the parable as my Mother had had no news from me for more than a month except for one or two postcards I had sent her. I finally was able to get some food and a good night's sleep. And yes, she approved of my new car although I felt she would have preferred a regular sedan rather than another convertible.

Thus ended my longest solo driving trip that I have ever attempted. Annick quickly became an attraction among my family, friends and colleagues. I wooed my future wife Nadia with Annick and we drove it to the mountain resort of Beit Mery for our two night "honeymoon" when we married a couple of years later (I had been granted study leave by UNICEF and enrolled at AUB for a Masters programme so we had to shorten our getaway).In another year, with my M.A. in hand I returned to UNICEF and was transferred to Cairo in my first international posting. Unfortunately we decided to sell Annick and bought a more appropriate sedan car for Egypt. A new and different life was now in store for us, but the memories of the great times we had with Annick are still entrenched in our minds.

Fouad

Montreal October 2021

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