‘This tandem is still in my parents’ barn. He is already quite old. My parents had once found it, badly neglected, in the barn of their neighbors in Delft. Even then it had to be patched up considerably.
“This photo was taken in 1979. I am sitting in the back, as a seven-year-old child. My five-year-old brother sits in front, my one-year-old brother sits on my father’s back. We were in a village on the Loire. My mother’s best friend’s family had a second home here. My mother grew up near Paris. My grandfather worked at the Dutch embassy.
“As a family we have been on holiday in that house several times. On the tandem we made trips along the Loire castles. My father says we took that tandem on the roof of our ugly duckling to France. I don’t believe him; We probably already had a bigger car then.
“My mother’s girlfriend came from a family of winegrowers. My oldest brother and I helped pick grapes. We were also allowed to stomp with bare feet in large vats of grapes to crush the grapes. We thought that was great – working with the grown-ups.
“In the village I always went to the local grocery store with a little pocket money. There I bought French sweets, such as carambar, a kind of caramel, and Bazooka gum. My parents still sometimes bring me a bag of carambar when they come from France. They now always go to the French Alps.”