Rally rally vrooom vrooom

The Monte Carlo Car Rally

The large rally headquarters erected a mini city right next door to Collége de Fontreyne, where I work. It was soooo easy to be distracted with the goings on next door. There was lots of noises and official men with all kinds of equipment. It was easy for the students to be distracted from their lesson.

The setting up took three days.

I had a pamphlet that explained everything that you needed to know about the rally. It had a timetable, maps of routes, and explanations. 

The rally took place over three days. Despite the efforts of the pamphlet to inform me, in french of course, I misunderstood almost everything that it said. This goes to prove that I am not yet ready to sit a formal french exam, showing my high level of comprehension.

Anyway, I thought that I was going to miss out on the action ….. and so I took it upon myself to be proactive. I thought that the rally cars were going to depart, on Wednesday morning, from headquartersi in Gap, to go to another destination, to race. So, I rose at the wicked hour of quarter to six in the morning to watch the cars depart. The sunrises at 8:00 a.m. , so it seemed like it was the middle of the night. The biting cold, reminded me that I was high in the Alps and the surrounding silence as i approached headquarters that there wasn't any action. I berated myself for somehow missing the action.

Not to be easily, thwarted ….. I stealthily passed through a hole in the fence. There were security guards around and I immediately saw the irony of the situation as I infiltrated the bordered headquarters. A bit like a foreign spy situation in Auckland in the late 1980s!!!!

I walked around as if I was an official, so that nobody would ask me what my business was. However, I couldn't take photos, because that would have blown my cover. Nevertheless, I did take this photo before exiting.

Isn't she a beauty?

I returned home and wondered how I interpreted the information so incorrectly!

Later in the morning, I heard the grunty sound of rally cars on the main street not far from where I live. When I stood at the bus stop, I was treated to a rally car zooming past every 10 minutes. On examining my informative pamphlet, I then realised that today was practise day. The cars get to do the circuit four times in preparation for the big event the next day.

I hopped on the bus and at the next stop, I saw that there was a full blown carnival going on! Making a snap decision, quick as a wink, I jumped off the bus to check out the action. There were lots and lots of stalls selling promotional products.

Here is a candy floss stall. Remember what candy floss is in french? Barbe au Papa. Dad's beard.

There were tons of people, groovy music, and lots of food stalls. I cringed at how I could so misinterpret the information in my pamphlet. All my undercover, secret squirrel work in the morning was for NOTHING. I was quite disappointed that I only had ten minutes to suck in the atmosphere before scurrying on into town for my university classes and my private french tutoring.

However, I did have time to snap this audacious number plate!

There were officials EVERYWHERE!!! And there was an overload of police cars. In this snap there are 5 police cars!!!!

Check out this shot of a massive boiling cauldron of something.