Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu, Monaco and Theoule

PHOTOS ARE HERE - 

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I slept like a dog or is it a log, I am never quite sure, and was once again up at about 7 - and for those who are up at 7 every morning, good  for you…I am not! 

For me it is a herculean effort as I am not an early morning person…rather a late night person !

I was gone from the Hotel - which by the way was absolutely wonderful....I booked what I thought was a hotel and got an entire apartment including a kitchen for the price. Also it was so incredibly clean it was a pleasure - and was hot footing it down the mountain towards La Cote in general, and Cap Ferrat in particular by 7.45

I have never been to Cap Ferrat before, and whilst rather nice, it is as I suspected a sort of St Georges Hill type "posh ghetto", where all the squillion pound houses have huge security apparatus all over the place, acres of fences as high as the Eifel Tower and there is an army of security vans whizzing about making sure no one gets kidnapped! I suspect many of the residents are of the criminal fraternity - Abramovich has a huge mansion here - so it is maybe hardly surprising !

But I am quite sure that the houses themselves, behind the fences are just stunning. I had a quick peep at one....amazing and very beautiful!

BUT....the Bloody Germans….specially those that run their naff tourist industry at least should all be shot (It's OK, I am half German so I can say this sort of thing!)  Plonked RIGHT in the middle of the bay of Cap Ferrat was a huge liner with the words Mein Schiff (My Ship) painted down the side (It might as well have been written Mein Kampf!!) It was an absolute disgrace, and if a German had appeared at the precise moment I saw the ship I think I would probably have strangled him/her…and with perfect justification! It totally spoiled my morning.

Anyway, I calmed down (dear!) and headed off for breakfast !  Someone suggested I went and tried La Reserve at Beaulieu, and so I did! 

Wow…what a wonderful place! Amazing….real class (as opposed to American money-type class at the Chevre D'Or….I popped in there for a coffee and was shown the Brandy collection….one in particular which sold for £680 ...per shot…! yes… well….I had 2!) with a wondrous sea-side terrace where I was sat next to...next to some rather interesting Grand Prix people who shall best remain nameless! But all rather superior and glossy! 

I was stuffed full of French coffee (filth!…lol) fruit juice, fresh fruit salad, yoghurt and pastries by a waiter who for some odd reason thought I was also some big shot from the Grand Prix down the road. I am afraid I had to put him right……I am George Clooney! We had a good laugh at that....well, he had a good laugh....!

After breakfast I completed a task I have always wanted to do. The Rothschild family once owned probably the most beautiful house on the Cote D'Azur - The Villa Ephrussi - on a sort of bluff above Beaulieu at Cap D'Antibes. They (I think) donated it to the state (as one does…..!) many years ago, and now it is open to the public.

I was a little shocked as the place was pretty crowded but I was almost certainly the youngest person there - but wow, what a place. I am pretty disinterested in furniture and expensive plates - Sevres and KPM were on show (I have my own collection…haha!), but the gardens were the reason I was there, and they were just stunning. I SO wish Caroline had come with me, as something we really do have in common is a fascination for beautiful gardens.

They have fountains all over the place, and every 20 minutes there is a sort of music and fountain show, where they play Carmen and other popular classics, while the fountains dance away merrily. I joined the oldies (I am one really!) and  sat on a bench for the full twenty minute interval just to look at the performance again ! It was just wonderful (did I just say that?)

There is a rose garden, a Japanese garden, a rock garden, all with the most wonderful 'glimpses' of the blue sea, and Cap Ferrat Bay through the forest of trees that surround the house. 

But it was soon time to leave the house and go and 'do' what I came to 'do', namely to go and watch racing cars!

I headed back to Beaulieu station, and Pete's Parking - where, even to my own consternation on occasion, I seem to be able to get a parking space almost at will! - found me a place right next to the platform!

I hopped on the train and rode the wonderful short journey along the Med, dotted with Superyachts and pleasure craft, to Monaco Central in about 10 minutes.

The weather, I should tell you, is stifling…really, really hot. Even the locals are surprised how, after a warning that today might be thundery, it turned out so beautiful. There is not a cloud in the sky and we are in the 90's!

Monaco is ghastly…absolutely ghastly, and Caroline was quick to remind of this unfortunate fact when I spoke to her tonight, as we went there together some years ago. 

As it is so small, everything is built 'up' and many of the old classic patrician houses that used to grace the town have gone, replaced by particularly monstrous sky scrapers where rabbit hutch 'appartments' go for squillions !

I meandered down to the Grandstand I am in, stopping in on the way to the Co-op to buy some bread and salami for a do-it-yourself sandwich, and some water. I suffered the indignity of being asked to show my receipt on the way out of the supermarket, as if I was some sort of cheap shop-lifter, which I grumbled at in a sort of grumpy-old-man sort of way! No one seemed to care.

I made my way to randstand K and was told to sit in row M. I pushed my way past rows of people, mostly it seemed from Manchester and beyond, or Dusseldorf, and sat down, rather miserably in my seat, and made my sandwich, which was damned good !!

Next to me sat a rather quiet young man, and so I turned to him and enquired of him how he was!! He said he was fine and that he was looking forward to the F1 cars, but was a bit miserable sitting where we were…..WHAT !!! A man after my own heart, and so we spent the entire time chatting away about F1 - he knew much more than I did, though I was able to get my own back a little on the history. He was interested that the last time I was here was when Jochen Rindt chased down Jack Brabham, who then crashed into barriers at La Rascasse on the last lap to lose the race. 1970 it was, I think....he wasn't even born.....bless!

My seat was well placed, with a wonderful view over the Port, up to the chicane and down to la Rascasse corner…. I had a quick look for my seat for the actual race, and it is in the Grandstand about 5 down from where I was today….a good place methinks !

Soon all hell broke loose behind us, as, in the pits, the cars started up and left on the first of their practise laps….the sound was absolutely deafening…quite quite mad. Luckily I had bought both earplugs, as well as a rather fetching pair of Ferrair themed headphoney things.

Earlier, I had also bought a Panama hat, and so tried them on together…..No!! I looked like a cross between Norman Wisdom and ET, and so took them headphones off, and gave them to the little boy sitting a few away from me, much to his delight and I think to the consternation of his father ! Bloody Perv giving my little fella a present, he thought.... he looked that type! 

Suddenly a Lotus (that's a car!) appeared down the road, popping and banging like an old Citroen  and flashed, I thought rather slowly, past us. Honestly, if I had a car that made a noise like that I would take it down the garage, but hey !!

A Virgin was next, sounding if it is possible even worse, and going certainly and without doubt slower than I would have driven it…. and continued in the same vein all afternoon! Honestly, I felt like ringing Branson and telling him I was available for ooh…a couple of million !! I do understand though that these F1 thoroughbred cars are being asked to me a little lazy in the confines of the Monaco circuit, and so are not revving quite up where they should be!

Suddenly Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull flashed down the road and past us at a speed which was ...well, a bit more like it. The speed differential between him and some of the others was quite remarkable. The whole car seemed to move ahead so effortlessly, and I think due to its handling seemed to join up the corners - I am at what is knows as the Swimming Pool Complex - it was the proverbial poetry in motion !

Michael Schumacher appeared in the Mercedes closely followed by Nico Rosberg who I have to say seemed smoother in his driving. Apparently Rosberg was third in the final reckoning. The whole Grandstand of course Oohed and aaahed when MS drove by...he is after all 7 times World Champion....I just wish he retired now before he either kills himself or shreds his stratospheric reputation completely, as he is clearly not up to it any more at 42.

Massa in the Ferrari seemed very fast as well, with the Ferrari engine making a very different noise to all the others….more a scream than the wail of the others, but the fastest of all was Alonso who pipped Hamilton to the fastest time of the day.

I have to say practise is not the most exciting day of the race weekend, I was bloody hot, and as I wanted to get to my final destination tonight, so I sloped off back to my car after about 3/4 hour and headed off to my next port of call which is a rather nice place just west of Theoule-sur-Mer.

The weather as I have said is baking and so I took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the views from my room, before a rather wonderful dinner overlooking the pool with the med in the distance.

Tomorrow is rest day on the Grand Prix front, and so if the weather is nice I intend to mooch around La Galere for the day before hoofing it back to Monaco on Saturday for qualifying.