It's three minutes after ten. You're listening to James O'Brien on LBC. And it's one of those

mornings where we try to float above the news agenda. And rather than focus on a specific, if you

like, focus on a bigger. Do you know what we're going to do? We're going to go a bit meta.

So when I was a kid, we didn't go on foreign

holidays much. My dad told me to France when I was six. We stayed in sort of bars, really. It was

an amazing holiday, a real treat. But it was the first time I ever went abroad. I didn't fly

until I was 11 or 12. But the biggest holiday we went on involved driving all the way through France and Spain to the Costa Brava.

I remember going through the Pyrenees.

And it's funny the things you notice when you're a kid.

I always remember some Spanish kids running out into the road and shouting Inglasy car or something like that.

What's the Spanish word for car?

And they were just excited to recognise the number plate.

Dad had probably taken a slightly obscure route on reflection.

But I remember how bumpy the roads were, particularly in Spain.

I remember being actually surprised that the roads we were driving down were little more than tracks.

If you visit continental Europe now, and I spend most of my time in Greece when I am in continental Europe,

and obviously European Union-funded investment in infrastructure there, albeit that a lot of the big roads are tolls now, you pay to be on them, are extraordinary.

I mean, they're just fantastic, but I don't know

why. I don't do motoring topics on this program, as you know, for two reasons. Number one,

they're mind-nummingly dull. And number two, I'm not really qualified to comment. I didn't

learn to drive until I was in my 30s. And apart from a sort of brief flare- when I was about 11, I'd never really had the

petrol gene. I was never really that interested in cars. So I don't normally use road experiences

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