Often, while wandering through the maze of crooked streets and stairways that is Cannes’ Le Suquet neighborhood, I have come across this pink Vespa, a scooter made by Piaggio. In my mind, the color of the vehicle inevitably conjured up images of the driver: a young woman, perhaps vaguely resembling French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, wearing straight-legged jeans with blue or white espadrilles, or a flowing Provençal skirt billowing in the wind like Marilyn Monroe’s dress in The Seven Year Itch... Maybe a snug T-shirt... A while back, my wife saw this very Vespa in the middle of Cannes; the driver was a burly, hairy-knuckled, rustic looking man with a large beard and piercing eyes. He supposedly looked a little bit like Rasputin. Another illusion shattered...