b'Matters heart of thematterThingsthat Matter Since 1990 Driving through Featuring Local People, Places and PUBLISHER France& EDITOR IN CHIEFEllen DonkerASSOCIATEEDITOR My driving skills were clutchRosemary MattsonBY ELLEN DONKERSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERRachael EntineADVERTISING CONSULTANTSRene ConlonH. Leslie Gilman O u rtoasking everyone to be patientascustomersreturned Amy Power them.Andthatmid-COPY EDITORS size SUV I had reserved? Nick Humez Notavailable.Instead, Tia Swanson we packed all five of us and fami- our luggage into a Fiat sedan. I CONTRIBUTORS ly recent- would be the appointed driver and, Sara Courtney lytraveledquite literally, we had to roll with it.Adrianna Donat France for 10 glorious days as a celebrationI did my best to revive my lapsed skills while Donny Levit of our three children graduating college. Before we left, Iand cautioning them that Olivia Mack McCool gave them one piece of advice: When things dont go asI would probably stall the car several times, subject them Erin Rogers Pickering planned, just roll with it. I knew that we would encounterto lurching forward, and potentially have trouble finding Tamara StecklerTia Swanson snags (some of them pandemic-related) and I didnt wantreverse. Thankfully, my muscle memory kicked in and re-us to get stuck. Wed need to problem-solve and move on. warded me with fairly smooth driving. I even was able to We got to exercise that advice as soon as we landed inback quickly out of a toll booth on the autoroute that was Marseille. Our plan was to visit a dear friend by renting aonly for cars with toll scanners. By the second day, I hit my car and driving about 90 minutes to her home in Lourma- stride with nary a stall as we toured several perched villages rin, a charming village in Provence. After waiting in line atin Provence. Enterprise for over an hour after a two-stop transatlanticMy daughter, Madeline, acted as my trusty navigator, flight, the sole customer service agent reminded me thatrepeating to me which turns to take off of the roundabouts I had booked a car with a manual transmission. Hmm. Frances tricky alternative to traffic lights. We were using Please address all correspondence to: I guess I had forgotten that part. At the time I probablyApple maps and laughed at Siris pronunciation of French Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. figured that, if pressed, I could revive my skills driving aroads. Someone sign her up for Duolingo!P.O. Box 198 car with a stick shift. After all, I had owned manual carsAfter our stay in Provence, where I was advised to park Maplewood, NJ 07040 for about 15 years, starting with the Ford Pinto my fatheron sidewalks when necessary and become accustomed to 973-763-4900 bought me for my 17th birthday.near constant tailgating on the narrowest of roads, we hit mattersmagazine.comLike many a confident young adult, my son Christianthe autoroute again. Our next stop was a three-hour trip info@mattersmagazine.com stated that he could probably learn to drive a manual carto Dijon where, among other things, we did the obliga-Matters Magazine is owned and publishedwith approximately one lap around the parking lot, but Itory mustard tasting at the local moutarderie. Along the by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O.disagreed. I remember it took a lot of practice to master thatway, we listened to podcasts or one of the kids playlists or Box 198, Maplewood, NJ 07040. Mattersmagic moment when you let up on the clutch and first gearsimply took in the beautiful countryside. A few days later, Magazine is free, with editions direct mailed 7 times a year to the residents of Maplewoodmagically engages. Mr. DiMaria, my childhood neighbor,we ended our trip with a four-hour trek to Paris where we and South Orange and distributed to busi- wouldve agreed. It was his car that I slid into on my way toswitched out our car for the Mtro system.nesses and surrounding communities total- high school as I frantically tried to move into first gear on anNow that were home, I continue to tell my freshly-ing 16,000. Subscriptions are available to non-residents for $30 (U.S.), $40 (Foreign)uphill slope when the traffic light turned green. Talk aboutminted graduates to roll with it as they move into new annually. No part of the publication may beembarrassing. But eventually I came to love my manualresponsibilities, whether it be careers, relationships or grad-reprinted or otherwise reproduced without writtenpermissionfromVisualImpacttransmission and was proud of my clutch capabilities. uate school. I hope theyll take life step by step and find joy Advertising, Inc. My husband, Rob, also drove a manual car in his 20sin the moment, navigating the twists and turns on the road CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY but was not feeling confident about driving one 30 yearsof life or weathering an occasional stall. There is beauty in U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. later. His insistence on renting an automatic quickly dis- the journey. And sometimes all it takes is looking out the READ & RECYCLE solved when it became clear that we would be lucky just towindow to see it. get a car. The rental company was literally handing out cars 10/ matters magazine / summer 2022'