The upcoming weekend is truly “glamour
galore” on the Cote d'Azur, as the festival of Cannes ends, and the
normally sleepy Monaco welcomes the Formula 1 Circus.
Before the glamour, a bit of nature –
since our good friend JayJay was visiting, I figured it was the
perfect opportunity to try my hand at some sea Kayaking, seeing as
Jay Jay is a bit of a pro at that. We didn't realise our “planned”
Marseille-Nice trip yet, rather we decided on a decidedly less
ambitious session around Cap d'Ail (which appears to be the only
place apart from Antibes on the Riviera where they rent sea kayaks).
Turns out the rental place is a very nice coastal walk from the Cap
d'Ail train station, nearly in Monaco!
So I had the sudden
inspirational idea for the Grand Prix weekend – rent a sea kayak,
and watch the race from the port from the kayak! Hmm, not possible,
unfortunately, the guy at the rental agency said – no sea kayaks
allowed in the port (only big yachts, I suppose...). Well, anyways,
we had a very nice sea kayaking session, with a rather scenic view of
the coastline, followed by a nice lunch by the beach. We took the
train back towards Nice from Monaco, so got a bit of a taster of the
Formula 1 biz (or rather, an earful!), since the practice session was
on...
We still had some tickets for the
Director's Fortnight festival in Cannes, so we decided to use them up
on Saturday. Since our dear friend Naim is heading off to Belgium for
work, we invited him along, so we could catch up with him before he's
off. Due to train hassle, we arrived at Cannes just before the
screening was supposed to start – we had very low hopes for getting
in. But much to our surprise, we did get in! We saw an Algerian movie
called the “Le Repenti”, a rather interesting film about a former
Muhajeddin, trying to adjust to civilian life, and finding it rather
hard...
Following the meal, me and Naim made
our way over to Monaco, where we were planning to meet up with some
friends, including Kartsa, a Finnish mate of mine from my UK years,
who works for McLaren. We were about an hour late, thanks to our dear
friends at SNCF again, but finally did meet at the classic Monaco GP
meetup bar – La Rascasse (yes, it is located in that famous corner,
by the race track). Great to meet Kartsa again, it's been a couple of
years since we last met! We were also joined by none other than Paddy
Lowe; the technical director at McLaren, who actually used to be
Naim's boss! He was a very nice guy indeed.
Before the glamour, a bit of nature –
since our good friend JayJay was visiting, I figured it was the
perfect opportunity to try my hand at some sea Kayaking, seeing as
Jay Jay is a bit of a pro at that. We didn't realise our “planned”
Marseille-Nice trip yet, rather we decided on a decidedly less
ambitious session around Cap d'Ail (which appears to be the only
place apart from Antibes on the Riviera where they rent sea kayaks).
Turns out the rental place is a very nice coastal walk from the Cap
d'Ail train station, nearly in Monaco!
So I had the sudden
inspirational idea for the Grand Prix weekend – rent a sea kayak,
and watch the race from the port from the kayak! Hmm, not possible,
unfortunately, the guy at the rental agency said – no sea kayaks
allowed in the port (only big yachts, I suppose...). Well, anyways,
we had a very nice sea kayaking session, with a rather scenic view of
the coastline, followed by a nice lunch by the beach. We took the
train back towards Nice from Monaco, so got a bit of a taster of the
Formula 1 biz (or rather, an earful!), since the practice session was
on...
We still had some tickets for the
Director's Fortnight festival in Cannes, so we decided to use them up
on Saturday. Since our dear friend Naim is heading off to Belgium for
work, we invited him along, so we could catch up with him before he's
off. Due to train hassle, we arrived at Cannes just before the
screening was supposed to start – we had very low hopes for getting
in. But much to our surprise, we did get in! We saw an Algerian movie
called the “Le Repenti”, a rather interesting film about a former
Muhajeddin, trying to adjust to civilian life, and finding it rather
hard...
After the movie, we had a lunch/dinner
at a very nice Lebanese restaurant...
Following the meal, me and Naim made
our way over to Monaco, where we were planning to meet up with some
friends, including Kartsa, a Finnish mate of mine from my UK years,
who works for McLaren. We were about an hour late, thanks to our dear
friends at SNCF again, but finally did meet at the classic Monaco GP
meetup bar – La Rascasse (yes, it is located in that famous corner,
by the race track). Great to meet Kartsa again, it's been a couple of
years since we last met! We were also joined by none other than Paddy
Lowe; the technical director at McLaren, who actually used to be
Naim's boss! He was a very nice guy indeed.
The journey back to Cagnes was rather
challenging, as it often is during the Monaco GP weekend. Naturally,
SNCF were on partial strike, so the last two trains were cancelled,
and the night bus took about 2 hours to get to Nice airport. Since I
didn't fancy waiting for an hour for the bus going to Cagnes, I
decided to cycle home on the velo bleu... Total journey time –
about 4 hours. Oh well, it was great fun anyway ;)
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