Thoughts were turning toward home for Anna as she was scheduled to fly out of Luxembourg in mid afternoon. Before that a visit to the Pompidou Centre in Metz was slated. I’ve visited a few places with modern art such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the our own Tate Modern and always felt I was being duped or impressed. This fell into the same pattern. There were the usual piles of bricks or bananas stuck to walls.

Yet there were interesting things such as the table football or the lady in the fridge. Weird but thought provoking. I thought I wrote some tosh in my record reviews but some of the explanations of the art were as creative as the exhibits! It’s worth a visit if you’re going this way.

Afterwards we leapt into Samantha and headed north. Anna was dropped at the airport and subsequently experienced delays. (Frankly, Ryanair offer such low fares that folk just suck it up.)

I’d hoped post-Anna to camp and chill beside the Moselle but with these high temperatures it was very uncomfortable. So as opposed to chilling I decided to head over to Stuttgart to buy some vinyl? The motorway link was easy if hot and long but I’d decided to stay just short of Stuttgart at Pforzheim. A strange sight are all the trucks parked up at Service Stations: German law requires large trucks to be off the road on the sabbath (until 22:00 hours). Frankly the Germans can roll as they please but if one objective was to help save the planet then thousands of trucks sat with diesel engines idling whilst drivers sit in their air conditioned cabs for several hours in 33°C heat isn’t a great idea. 

I’d not planned to come into Germany this far and had not obtained an emission sticker for my windscreen. All vehicles need these of various hues. Samantha’s being yellow for a Euro 4 emission level engine. Getting one at short notice wasn’t possible and so I hoped for the best and drove on. If the ‘check’ is by registration plate camera recognition then Fritz may be in touch I fear. Going back to saving the planet again then how does buying a €5 car windscreen sticker help?

I got to Stuttgart and Second Hand Records and bought 14 LP’s. The selection is nearly as good as the condition and an hour flicking through the racks is a happy place to be. I had a few things on a list and some were there and others not. I’ve listed the records I bought below with an apology to Mark Sutcliffe.

That done I was back on the motorway heading for Mulhouse, France. The location of another Tony Ives ‘Happy Place’. I was still fretting over the fuel levels and reflected that the problem may be the gauge itself. Now that is expensive to sort! Anyway the hood release fitting also had a failure. However there was a Plan B that meant removing the spare wheel to access the release cable. Deep joy in the heat. I’ve camped in Mulhouse before but again the heat made this impossible. A fairly sweaty Yorkshireman checked in and headed for the shower. (The Ibis hotels I stayed in were £58 + parking. Clearly tough times being a hotelier?)

I chose Mulhouse because of the fabulous French National car museum. It would be my third visit. It has amongst many gems the largest collection of Bugattis in the world.

The French government bought the original collection off the administrator of the Schlumpf Brothers failed textile business. As the textile business failed it seemed one of the brothers, Fritz, had been buying up old cars and restoring them in part of the mill. He had hundreds of cars. The textile workers were deeply unhappy at losing their jobs and discovering where a lot of the money had gone. However, the car collection was too impressive, historic and valuable to let it be neglected or broken up. Today it sits in a beautiful bespoke building. Photos to follow.

Records…

Mark, this list probably includes German pressings and mostly re-releases. Catalogue numbers can be supplied but I will require shelter under the Geneva Convention. I’m aware there’s not a lot of value here but I can’t wait to play them all. Message ends.

Bob Dylan – Self Portrait

Family – Burlesque

Nazareth – Greatest Hits

Spooky Tooth – Best of

Pendragon – Last Rites

Earth, Wind & Fire – Gratitude

Ernie Isley – High Wire

Marillion – Misplaced Childhood

Marillion – Fugazi

Latin Quarter – Modern Times

The Tubes – The Completion Backwards Principle

The Tubes – Live

The Nice – Five Bridges

Donovan – The Best of