Mark's MR2 adds a bit of class to the Casino
entrance to the famous tunnel
speed restrictions in operation today
Just how practical is a MK1 MR2? Well for the last couple of years we’ve had some long weekends camping
at the Le Mans 24 hrs race – no problem. Then last year we drove a
Supercharger from Land’s End to John 'O Groats and back again in 4 days –
again no problems. This year we thought we’d push our luck a bit further and
try to make it all the way to Monte Carlo and back using just a 2 man tent and a
MK1!
The plan was to get to Le Mans and
watch the motor race then head off on the B roads taking in the scenery until we
got to the Cote D’Azur. The final
destination was to drive the MK1 through the streets of Monte Carlo and show
them a proper sports car!
The drive down from Calais was no
problem until we accidentally got on the inner Paris ring road – a bit like
the North Circular on a Friday night and not for the faint hearted ! Following
that slight diversion the A10 and A11 pointed us towards our usual camping site
at Le Mans. Next day we drove round the circuit on ‘Mad Friday’ and parked
up at the Indianapolis corner to watch the parade of (mainly British) machinery
go past.
The long wait for the race to start
went quickly, helped by a supporting race of Group C cars which used to run at
Le Mans in the late 80’s and early 90’s. These included the famous
‘Silk Cut’ purple Jaguars that dominated Le Mans during that period.
The race itself was one of the most
closely fought since the late 60’s heyday of the Ford – Ferrari wars. The
incident packed race included a 4 car off at the Porsche Curves, which was
extremely dramatic as we were only a few hundred metres away when it happened.
The race was close, and even after 24 hours the winning car of Tom Kristenson
was on the same lap as the runner up car of Johnny Herbert.
So a great race and another great
Le Mans but this time we were heading South not home. South of Le Mans is the
Loire valley and some lovely long roads with flat, vineyard strewn landscapes.
We drove through several sleepy provincial towns on the way past Tours and
Bourges and decided to camp near Vichy. This area of France is pretty quiet and
there were very few tourists at the camp sites, which gave a nice feeling of
space and countryside after the crowded sprawl of the Le Mans weekend.
The next day was spent touring
along the ‘Route National’ roads and only going on the ‘Paige’ toll
roads when necessary – in this way you can avoid the hassle of driving through
the big cities. In fact, both Lyon (France’s second city) and Grenoble can be
bypassed using toll roads and toll tunnels. Following this route we saw the
landscapes change from the flat of the Loire to the foothills and mountains of
the Alps. We finally decided to stay in the town of Castellane in Provence. This
place is a big centre for outdoor activities and is a great spot to camp. The
area promotes itself as ‘Europe’s Grand Canyon’ as there is a huge river
gorge running through the area. We spent the next morning driving round the
steep mountain roads scaring ourselves every time we looked down the cliff faces
– most of the route has no safety barriers so you have to be pretty aware !
Most of this route has to be driven slowly but there were some fast sections on
the way back which are well worth putting your foot down for!
Next day and we had made it to
Nice, but not before driving through some rough looking industrial areas to find
our campsite (which was excellent). It seems that the campsites in this region
are generally inland from the coast and not in the best locations – I suspect
that decent locations cost a premium and campsites are not high on the list for
generating profit.
Finally, the next day, we drove
into Monaco and Monte Carlo. A word of warning, the Riviera is very built up and
there is a lot of traffic – and there is a lot of bad driving. The guys down
here will cut you up no problem at all. What is good is that you can cut them up
as well and a bit of horn beeping and gesticulating (on the whole) is perfectly
acceptable. If you behaved like this in the UK you would be in some serious road
rage situations but down here the best thing to do is give as good as you get.
You can get to Monte Carlo by
driving along the coast road past the front of Nice and then onto one of the
‘Corniche’ roads which link Nice to Monte Carlo. The seafront at Nice needs
a cool head as, although it’s straight enough, it starts at one end with 5
lanes and finishes at the other with one. Once you’ve negotiated this try to
get onto the middle Corniche road – this has the best view and is not too busy
when compared to the lower one which goes through all the small towns and is a
bit of a nightmare. Incidentally, guess which one we took!
Monaco is so small that it is
really just the city of Monte Carlo and not much more. We parked up and walked
round to get our bearings. This place is obviously well heeled and the yachts in
the harbour were fantastic. We had forgotten to bring a map of the Grand Prix
circuit so we tried to find a few of the famous GP landmarks and then walk round
the course. The easy things to spot were the famous harbour swimming pool and
the tunnel where Schumacher had gone off in this year’s GP. Once we’d got
our bearings it was relatively easy to follow the course as you could see the
red and white painted kerbing and also fresh tarmac had been laid on the
sections of the streets used for the GP. In this way we found the hairpin and
finally got to the Casino square. We then hot footed it back to the car, took
the T bar off and drove a Mk1 MR2 round the Monaco Grand Prix circuit – superb!!!
Mark Dalton
June 2004
