Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
The Road to Monarco
The views are gob smackingly good! NICE (Monaco) 21st May 2007 (Monday Sunshine and 26º)
Today is our 15th anniversary - good on us!
We wake at 6:30am - what the hell? The early wake up may be due to the thought of moving out and it has got us sleeping lightly - you see we cannot stay at la Hotel La Fayette tonight, as it is fully booked in anticipation of the Film Fest and the Grand Prix.
We have a nice brekky and cart our bags across the street to the Hotel de Kent. Once safely ensconced we jump into the Ford Focus Ferrari and head towards Monaco. This is where, in a few days from now, 35 man made rockets on wheels will perform in what is known as the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
We take the high road (La Corniche) and suck in the big views - Oh the views.
On previous European travels the haze has defeated us. This is the unyielding fug that permeates all of Europe and the UK - generally made up of photosynthesis, smog and fog it is usually enough to ruin your view of anything - but not today. Today we get
to eyeball the real Cote D’Azur in all its rude splendour. If a beach could wear Dior sunglasses this is where it lives.
As we drive into Monaco we realise that we are now in another country and as such has its own money, language and number plates. It has a Prince (Rainier) as its head of state and it a very well ordered and chic little place.
This visit turns out to be one of the highlights of the holiday for me……….one may think that I am taken with the Museums, the culture and the history of the place but it is much more than this……….I am smitten by the race track!
For as long as I can remember I have watched Formula 1 racing cars containing everyone from Jack Brabham to Ayrton Senna race past the luxury yachts and beautiful people swanning on their whitewashed decks. The cars tear past Hotels that charge the GNP of a small third world country to stay for one night and scream on through the tunnel to emerge blur-like into the sunshine. So for me to actually drive on this street circuit, which is set up for the race,
On the track!
Time for a pit stop to change tyres and have an espresso. is a rare opportunity indeed. The track will be closed to traffic in a few hours so we make the most of it by doing several laps in both directions. Seeing as I am not allowed to do 300 kilometres per hour (knowing that the Ford Focus Ferrari can indeed achieve such speeds) I have to rely on Deb to make Formula One Racing Car noises complete with screeching tyres and gear changes.
All that driving has made us hungry and so we find a shop selling toasted Panini and order up. We realise that we are only about 1 kilometre from the Italian border and so we decide to take our sandwiches across the border and in true Monaco style tell anyone that wants to know that…………..”We are just popping over to Italy for lunch darling!”
Back into France and must check out the Monte Carlo Casino. It is a lavish affair where you actually have to pay to get in (something not quite right about paying to get into a place where you ARE going to lose money). We opt for the poor man’s alternative, which is a wing off to the side of the main
Casino where some Poker Machines are lined up for suckers just like us. We part with 20 Euros in equal time and feel better knowing that the Casino will be there next time we visit as a result of our generous donation.
Back to Nice and out for pasta at Taverna Massena and home to the Hotel De Kent.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0473s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb