Monaco Grand Prix Circuit Walk

So the plan for today was pretty simple. Do some writing and stuff in the morning, in the evening head out to Mobile Monday at Monaco (and in the process catch up with everyone here to cover the Global Messaging 2007 event on Tue/Wed), and in the afternoon do a bit of sight-seeing. For sight-seeing make that find a bicycle and tour round the Monaco Grand Prix circuit.

A grand plan that had a number of flaws in it. Firsty, I couldn’t find a cycle hire shop anywhere. I had some places googled out, but they were all for the French obsession with scooters. I guess I can take heart from the Concierge service at the Fairmont Hotel being unable to find one either for me. The second was, even if I had found a bike to hire, the French traffic looks absolutley manic, and I’m not sure I’m up to the sort of fast reaction required to live through that – let alone having to always remember they drive on the wrong side of the road here. Finally, an open air stadium is being built over part of the track in the marina, so I couldn’t get round the whole thing, even if I wanted to.

But nothing was stopping me from having a walk around the track!

Having seen the track now, the challenge of Monaco makes a lot of sense. One of the things the TV coverage fails to get over is just how close and tight and twisty this track is. There’s not a single straight piece of road, there’s barely enough room to get two cars next to each other, every corner is off camber… and when you hear drivers talk abotu a bump just after Casino, you don;t imagine something that lits and drops a whole meter on jsut one side of the track. It’s crazy.

You can see why poeple pay top dollar for this circuit – the closeness and noise must be fantastic. You can see why it would never be allowed if it wasn’t already on the calendar.

Anyway, a lovely walk, and the full set is up on Flickr.