THE INTERVENTION *The story that didn't make it into Take The Slow Road: France The following year. So good we went back. For many, France has been a proving ground for adventure. It’s so close, and yet so far, a foreign country that’s next door, a culture that’s so familiar and yet so different. Getting there is easy, as is escaping if it all goes wrong. It’s safe, with an edge brought by language, misunderstanding and mutual trust and distrust. We are as alien to them as they are to us: incomprehensible, frightening, friendly, fun, playful. So, for the slow road adventurer, especially the new one, it’s perfect. A chance to get far enough away without being so far that an overnight drive couldn’t whisk you straight back home. It was the place myself and so many other young guns, surfers and searchers made their first forays into the forests of Aquitaine or attempts on the girls of Bordeaux. It was wild and free and I loved every moment of it. Mostly. It’s 1985. We’re fresh ...