love and the motorway  via The M1 appreciation course

'And, mingling with the heavy smell of fried food, there may also be just a whiff of romance.

portugese love hankie

Where better, Mr de Botton asks, to feel that pang of desire than spotting a potential love interest across the food hall of a motorway service station - isolated, vulnerable and even unhappy. And flat broke from the cost of an over-priced full English, one supposes.

"That unhappiness, far from being off-putting, can actually be a peg on which your feelings of love can hang," he says.

Altar to speed

Love has often blossomed in venues on the edges of motorways. In the 1960s, for example, the Ace Cafe - with its prime spot at the centre of a knot of motorways - gave teenagers a place to meet, listen to music, and, crucially, flirt.'