Week 12

Day 78 – Friday 25th May 2018

Up early and to the local train station on Zippy to catch a train to Monaco for Free Friday.

Monaco

In Monaco they hold the pre-qualifying on Thursday and Friday is known as Free Friday as you can go and watch the qualifying for Sunday’s Porsche race and an F2 race from any stand you want and it’s all for free. Also after the F2 race they open up the track to the public for a few hours so you can walk the circuit.

From the train station we followed the signs to tribune K1 where we go our first look at the circuit.

There was a qualifying session for a race between Porsches on Sunday morning. It was very loud but pretty boring. Luckily I had some ear plugs from work. They cost €5 here!

you don’t see very much from K1

I took a walk to the tribune behind K1 and found myself at tribune A1 which overlooks the first bend and very little else. You only get to see about 80 yards of track but I guess this is where all the action is going to be at the start. After that you can go home.

I was impressed by the amount of work and organisation that goes into putting on racing in Monaco.

the view from underneath Tribune K

We ended up in tribune L where we settled in to watch the Formula 2 race.

you see even less from tribune L than you do from tribune K1

It was pretty boring waiting for the cars to come around and I found myself just watching the big screen. The sun was intense and I can see why the Americans call this unshaded open bench seating bleachers. Halfway through the race we left to go find some shade exploring Monaco.

There is F1 tat for sale everywhere.

for a €1,000 or so you can kit yourself out a driver complete with overalls, helmet & racing shoes.

F1 tat

Julie’s ‘no more tee shirts’ resolution was tested to and beyond breaking point

We stumbled upon the Fan Zone, it’s a free area with a big screen where the poor can watch the grand prix for free on a big screen TV. Putting on the grand prix in Monaco can’t be cheap so I can understand some of the seat prices but even a place standing on the roche, the grassy slopes of the rock the palace is built on, will cost you €100. A German bloke told me it was best to be there at 9am, that’s six hours before kick-off and to take a rope to make sure you don’t slip down. I think the Fan Zone is a much better option.

me on a Red Bull simulator in the Fan Zone

It turned out all the drivers, apart from the Ferrari drivers, were visiting the Fan Zone to chat and sign autographs. Julie and I secured good places next to the disabled bay.

Lance Stoll & Sergey Sirotkin were first up

Lance Stoll

Sergey Sirotkin

Next up Lewis Hamilton & Valtteri Bottas. More than half the crowd were British and Hamilton got quite a reception.

Lewis Hamilton on stage

He seems a nice enough bloke. He said he lives in Monaco and loves the place but says that French drivers are mad and the people needed to learn to pick up their dog poo. He’ll get no argument from me.

Lewis Hamilton signing caps and programs

It was a bit of a crush when Hamilton started to sign hats & programs but give his due he visited the kids section first and when he got to the disabled lad next to us he held his arm and spoke with him.

After the Fan Zone we went for a walk round the track

Julie at the start line

Pole position

Royal box & podium

Julie outside the Mirabeau buuilding

If Fairmount really is the world’s most famous hairpin why does everyone call it Lowes?

Lowes

the harbour is so full so these poor fuckers have to slum it out in the bay

Plongeur Olympique

the view from the palace

I’ve always fancied going to the Monaco Grand Prix and I very nearly bought tickets for this year. I love the town and the race looks great on TV but to be honest even if you pay over €1000 for a seat in the tribune opposite the casino you see very little of the race and if it wasn’t for the big TV screens you wouldn’t know WTF was going on. The €100 Roche tickets to tie yourself onto a bush on the grassy slopes of the rock the palace is built on are frankly a joke; the cars will be like ants and you don’t even have a big screen to watch. You be mad to watch the race from there.

I’ve stood on pole position. I’ve walked a lap of the track, 1.26 (hours & minutes that is) and I’m going to be watching the race from the shady cool comfort of a bar.

Day 79 – Saturday 26th May 2018

Beautiful morning, Champions League final tonight, spent most of the morning trying to de-smell they grey water tank; Liverpool FC and bad smells do go together.

Too hot in the afternoon, sat in the shade reading and dozing. The AC is on in the van bringing it down to a nice comfortable 20°c.

A quick trip into Antibes after dinner, the place doesn’t get started till late.

Sailing Yacht A – length, 142m – price, around £360m – owner, a Russian oligarch

Watched the Champions League final in the campsite bar; Real Madrid won 3-1, the one Liverpool supporter there, about 20 years old, left crying and his mum had to go and check on him. As a Manchester United supporter that made my night. Correction, as a Manchester United fan it made my whole fuckin’ season!

Day 80 – Sunday 27th May 2018

The morning started off boiling. Last night at the bar some chavs were saying they had Roche tickets and were setting off at 7:50am to get good places, I don’t envy them.

It had clouded over by the time the Monaco grand prix started, we watched it in the campsite bar with a couple from Sunbury upon Thames who had owned a carting rack in Weybridge and were F1 buffs. They even owned an old F1 car, nailed on to the wall of their conservatory. The race itself was a bit of a procession. Glad I didn’t spend a couple of grand on tribune B seats.

campsite bar

Windy old evening, we motored into Antibes for a vegetarian curry.

Hector’s vegetarian & vegan curry truck

The owner is English and he tells me it costs about €3,000 in red tape fees to set up a business in France.

Absolutely delicious although they are girl size portions

Did I mention Julie is becoming obsessed with Super yachts? She tells me to be classed as a super yacht a yacht has to be more than 24m long and be professionally crewed.

Day 81 – Monday 28th May 2018

Overcast & windy morning, went out early for a long walk, even got rained on, great!

Spent the day reading my kindle.

Day 82 – Tuesday 29th May 2018

Off to Monaco for the day. The intention was to go and lose a few quid in the casino but  half way I remembered you need a passport to get in.

The town looks like a building site with hundreds of people dismantling the stands and taking down the Armco and wire mesh.

All the teams were taking down and packing up their paddocks except the Germans, they’d already gone.

Team Daihatsu

With the casino visit scratched Julie could concentrate on super yachts.

a yacht with Mika Häkkinen’s 1998 world championship winning car on-board

this is what you get for robbing pension funds in the UK

rather letting the side down

Brad & Angelina were still in town

the pool at Monaco

It was a boiling hot day and if I’d known the swimming pool would be open already I’d have brought my trunks.

They are starting work on “urbanising the sea”. They are going to add 15 acres to Monaco. I was reading that there is a coral reef in the way so they are going to 3D print a new reef and move the plants and creatures there. Amazing what can be done when money is at stake.

Day 83 – Wednesday 30th May 2018

Overcast morning with a bit of rain which is a relief after the heat of yesterday.

Went to Nice to meet up with my old friend Tom from Manchester and his wife Caroline.

Nice

We had a good walk around the town and some lunch. It was great to catch up and thankfully the sun stayed behind the clouds.

lunch

view from the cascade at Nice

bird of paradise flower

 Day 84 – Thursday 31st May 2018

Another overcast morning, a bit of shade is always welcome these days.

After lunch we motored into Antibes for the regatta. Lots of beautiful old yachts.

racing out at sea

arriving back in harbour

looks hard work putting those sails away

time to break out the beer

 

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