Adriaan van Aken aspires to a car-free existence. But first he has to get rid of his family car. He finds inspiration for this in the novel The Autonauts of the Cosmos Highway by Julio Cortazar and his wife Carol Dunlop. He traces their route, from Paris to Marseille, and like them, he stops for at least two hours at each rest stop, and overnights on every second. The journey lasts a month, after which he says goodbye to his car in Marseille. Anyone who thinks road trips are reserved for road movies and the Jack Kerouacs of this world is wrong. Van Aken proves that it works at least as well in audio. The series is poetic in language and sound design, and takes into account the risk of boredom: the episodes last 15 minutes. And at the end of the ride, the Citroën feels like a friend.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad of 27 November 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of November 27, 2021
#Driving #slowly #Paris #Marseille