As we had a fairly late night last night and both of us were a bit hung over this morning we did not set off quite as early as we had planned! Consequently our intent to drive along the French Riveria coast through Nice and into Monte Carlo was abandoned in favour of the most direct route to the principality. We arrived early afternoon to bright sunshine, a welcome change to the grey clouds we left behind at Carcassonne. We made for the casino being well signposted and picked up the Grand Prix circuit.
Our first 'lap' was a bit tentative - the roads look quite different in their non-race configuration though there's still enough kerbs around to see where the F1 cars have trod. I also wasn't sure how much we could actually get around but as it turned out we could do it all except the right turn in Casino Square, this being a traffic island hence going the wrong way, and the new chicane - we had to drive down to the old chicane used in the pre-modern era (was it Lorenzo Bandini who ended up in the harbour? You can see how easy that would be!). Anyway, having done it once I had to do it again, and then again - all the landmarks like Tabac, the old hairpin and of course the tunnel. I have an on board video but too large to post here with mobile broadband! When we get to a hotel with free WiFi ....
We shared the driving today, a mixture of motorway and some A-Road through the Italian hills; lots of tunnels and bridges. Angela doesn't like Italian motorways as the driving isn't quite as well disciplined as France or the UK but she seemed to adapt pretty well!! As it happened she drove the final few miles to the hotel which involved a few hairpin bends which she did enjoy - no brakes needed, just chuck it in and wrestle it through. We may have some rubber left for the Nurburgring!
Sauze D'Oulx is primarily a ski resort so Sunday evening pretty well everything is closed, including the hotel restaurant! The receptionist was able to get us a late table at a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed a beverage and a snack ....
No comments:
Post a Comment