DjMagra’s stuff ‘n’ stuff

I’ve just spent the past 30 minutes writing about the past week, which I have spent in Monaco, Antibes and Marseille, and realised that I was still on day one of a six-day trip. Whilst I know there are plenty of people interested in hearing how it all went, I think that level of detail may be a bit excessive, so, here’s the summary. Ok, it does get rather long and rambling, but hey, I was writing it for myself as much as any of you lot!!

Arrived early in the Airport Wednesday morning, met up with Trish who was heading to Antibes to stay with another friend of ours, Ann, in her apartment. Went for lunch with the girls in Antibes, sitting in the sunshine a welcome break from cold, grey Ireland. Checked into the hotel (a clean, secure basic affair, more than adequate for the very little time I spent in it!). Then headed out for a wander around Antibes, to get a feel for the place I am considering buying a property. Not overly impressed on initial reaction, very touristy, and not very French.

Then I headed out to the harbour for a look. Antibes would to my reckoning, be the largest marina along the Cote d’Azur, with more truly out of this world boats than I think I’ve ever seen before tied up (Monaco may have bigger boats, but Antibes has more!).

Met up with the girls again for a few drinks, Ann had very kindly prepared dinner for me, so, we went back to her apartment for some food, chat, and lots of nice wine.

Thursday, yet another early start, time to get up and head to Monaco for Practice Day. Arrived in Monaco in time for breakfast, collect my tickets for the weekend, wander around and savour the atmosphere (still putting the finishing touches to everything, still very quiet by GP weekend standards!). Then it was off to Casino Square with me (a longer walk than you’d believe when the roads are closed off!). I had bought the most expensive regular tickets for Thursday, which are also the most expensive tickets for Sunday, but a mere EUR 65 on Thursday, compared to EUR 1200 on Sunday!!

The view was amazing; I’ve been to a Grand Prix before (Monaco) but, never actually been this close to the cars. I don’t think I could ever get sick of watching them, the speed, the driver control, the smell, and most impressively, the noise is breath taking, every time! I watched all the F1 practice sessions, and quite a few of the other support races also.

I saw the most shocking incident of the weekend on Thursday also. During one of the support sessions, I believe it was for F3000 (I’ll have to double check that), a car crashed just at the entrance to the Casino. Nothing major so far, the driver hopped out over the barriers, and the marshals proceeded to move the car, as the safety car was dispatched. Next thing, there’s a screech of brakes, and we see a marshal being mowed over by a car, which had failed to slow down and heed the safety car period. This was distressing enough to watch (the marshals leg was pretty seriously injured), but, as medics were attending to the marshal, and other marshals were removing the carnage around, and third car came up and ploughed into them.

Thankfully, he was well on his way to slowing down, and hitting the other slowing cars around him slowed him further, but, it did result in the medics treating the injured marshal being knocked over. I have yet to read a report on what exactly happened, from the looks of it, at least one, if not both of the marshals legs were very seriously broken, but, I should hope the drivers involved are seriously punished.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten just how hot it got in Monaco at this time of the year, and, I was unprepared. I had forgotten sun cream and a hat, and proceeded to get rightly toasted, especially my face and arms. I didn’t really notice it until Thursday evening, when I was on the train home, and was already starting to feel sore.

As a result of this, Friday was a bit of a wipeout as far as doing what I had planned to do. Obviously, Friday in Monaco is a rest day, so, I stayed away. I had planned on heading out to view some properties, and meet up with some people who could answer some questions for me, but, instead, I ended up just rambling, on a four hour ramble to be precise, heading into the famous Juain le Pain (tacky and past it’s sell by date) and then up and over the Cap d’Antibes (amazing, think walking around

Killiney, only 10 times better, with sunshine added into the mix!). Arrived back in Antibes, drank a few well-deserved beers, and headed back to lie down for a while. Eventually managed to pick myself off the bed, get a bite to eat, and then head back for an early night.

Saturday was back to Monaco for the first proper day of action, with some F1 practice sessions, F1 qually one and some Porsche and F3000 races. I was down at Tabac (the entrance to the harbour) for Saturday, even closer to the track again than Thursday (I was leaning against the barrier at the side of the track). From here, the noise was unbelievable, as, you had the cars that close in front of you, and just a few feet behind as they exit St Devote heading up the hill. In fact, I was that close, that I ended up with the camera, and my glasses getting covered in Hydraulic fuel from the backs of the cars as the
day wore on. I was also standing in the perfect position to see, and hear, Ralf Schumacher’s massive smash into the barriers. I was quite amazed by the fact that car, as it was smashing, sounded just like glass breaking.

After the fun and games of Monaco, it was back to Antibes for a shower, where I was watching every celeb under the sun arriving at Cannes for the Palm d’Or awards. This was rather exciting, as, 30 minutes later, I was in Cannes myself. By the time I got to Cannes, most of the celebs had already arrived, but, there was an amazing buzz about the place, and it was packed full of people, dressed up to the nines, media, and paparazzi. It was at this moment, that I realised, I had brought my camera, and left the memory card back at the hotel, a very, very infuriating thing, given this turned out to be the
highlight of the holiday.

Ann had booked us a table at a restaurant that had been recommended to her by a local shopkeeper in Antibes. We were directed toward the end of the marina by the locals, and, when we actually realised where we were going to be eating, our jaws dropped. We were booked into a restaurant that sat atop a 5 star hotel overlooking town of Cannes. The hotel itself was amazing, and the restaurant even better. It was a panoramic, large windowed affair, on the seventh floor of the hotel, and we had a window seat.

The food and wine were out of this world, as was the service, as you would expect in a 5 star hotel. The price was very expensive by French standards, yet reasonable by Dublin standards. I would quite easily have payed double for the food, and the night, that we had. Right as we were about to get up and leave, there was a massive explosion, and the entire seafront erupted into a massive fireworks display. Given our high vantage point, and the setting of the town, this was utterly amazing, even more so, by the fact that it lasted a whopping 40 minutes! I have never in my life seen a longer, or more spectacular fireworks display, an amazing way to cap off an amazing day.

Needless to say, that was a rather long and late night, and I was not looking forward to the very early alarm call on Sunday morning to head to Monaco for race day. But, as soon as the alarm rang, and I realised that it was actually race day, waking up was just eased ever so slightly! The train trip to Monaco was, interesting shall we say. I think that even the Japanese people onboard were impressed by the numbers that managed to squeeze onto the train.

Arriving in Monaco, the madness had started, the town was absolutely jam-packed and there was a brilliant buzz about the place. I wandered around, just soaking up the atmosphere, before heading up to claim my vantage point on the rock for qually two. I certainly didn’t get the best view that I could have for qually two, and was getting somewhat worried about my prospects for the race proper. But, I decided to head back down, get a bite to eat, and stock up on supplies for the weekend.

This was where I had a very funny incident. I was after relieving myself in advance of the race in one of the many portaloo’s dotted around the principality. Obviously, portaloo’s are plastic, and the door had expanded in the blazing sunshine, making it somewhat difficult to open. After a bit of a struggle, the door swung open, out of my control, and hitting the person behind it with a fairly loud thwap!! I was embarrassed enough about this, before I went to apologise, only to find out that it was none other than former World Champion, Jackie Stewart who had been the victim of the door attack!!! He looked somewhat shocked, but, gathered himself up and just smiled and headed off in the direction he had been leading his VIP guests before I interrupted!

I watched the race from “the rock”, where I watched the race from two years ago, and, after a bit of jostling, got myself into a very good position, looking directly down on a big screen, into the pits, with a good view of Rascasse, the start / finish straight, and most of the harbour area. It was a thoroughly enjoyable race, and I managed to get plenty of good pictures, however, I was more interested in watching the race than taking pictures.

I returned back to Antibes on Sunday night, well and truly wrecked tired. Headed out for a few beers and an early night, not able to move a whole lot!

Monday morning, was yet another early start, I had made some appointments to go and see some people about property for sale down there, so, I had to go and meet up with them. This dragged out a little longer than expected, so, I didn’t get to do the shopping done that I had planned on, before I had to head on the TGV to Marseille.

Arrived in Marseille on Monday evening, and wandered around it to see what France’s second city was like. What did I think…not a whole lot at all, I have to say, I am not in the slightest bit impressed by Marseille; it’s dirty, rough, run down and doesn’t have a great vibe about the city. On saying that, I did get one of the best meals of the holiday, in a real little find of a restaurant, but, come Tuesday morning, I was glad to be getting the plane home, if for nothing else, an early night and getting to sit down for more than 30 minutes!