Wet wet wet, but worth it!

Day 2 of the Monte Carlo Rally

After a busy day at school, I dumped my school gear in the apartment and raced off to meet the rally cars as they returned from a full day of adventure elsewhere. It was pissing with mid-winter rain. The rain drops were large, heavy drops that ensured whatever they fell upon, would be coated in freezing, wet water. Well prepared with my free Chuppa Chups promotional umbrella, my sumptuous fur-lined anorak, boots, gloves, 2 scarves and a hat I hustled down the county lane, (no footpath) towards the headquarters. The sun had almost disappeared, painting the wet scenery with a velvety brush of inky blue/black.

Once again, as is becoming habitual in my experiences in France, I was taken by surprise at the amount of people, mainly men, shrouded in black wet weather gear, that had parked their cars in the surrounding streets and were milling around the makeshift headquarters. Puddles the size of swimming pools; lawn that had morphed into squidgy mud; glaring lights that attempted to illuminate the scene into something intelligible and dark shapes of motor-mad fans milled amongst the drenching raindrops.

My first stop was watching a rally car being loaded into a fire-engine red covered trailer. There was whizzing, whirring and thumping as all kinds of mechanical wizardry wove it's magic to settle the car into the trailer. People swarmed around the car in fascination. To take the photo whilst holding my umbrella and gloves meant a great deal of dexterous manoeuvring. In the process my i phone was coated in wetness. I realised that this was "playing with fire" as potentially I could permanently ruin my precious apparatus.

The next stop was gazing at mechanics tapping into computers, and working with mechanical apparatus that were totally foreign to me. There were crowds of people watching the mechanics in silence. I stood there for 10 minutes thinking that I might see something interesting, but soon the wintry bleakness made me feel uncomfortable so I moved on.

 

Next, I took a snapshot of the local radio station talking into some microphones. Their technical dialogue was as interesting as watching paint dry, so I moved on to see what else I could see.

I was sopping wet, and despite my layers of clothing, I began to feel the wicked fingers of cold clawing at my bones. Not to be thwarted, my inner voice reminded me that this opportunity would never find it's way to my door again.

I saw that there was a tent-like canopy that had some blazing lights announcing that there might be some action to be enjoyed in this area. With red tape encircling the canopy I stood in the rain along with many, mainly male, spectators. It transpired that I waited for what seemed like about 45 minutes before the winning rally car came in to the final checkpoint where I was well-positioned. Right at this point in time, a grey haired git shuffled in front of me with his umbrella so that I saw nothing. After the rally car drove on, the grey haired git remained. I was furious. His umbrella spoke dug into the corner of my right eyeball. I was furious. Without thinking too hard, I found my mouth opening and out came a fluent string of polite but forceful french, announcing my disappointment at his lack of consideration for me. ( I was quite surprised at my wonderful ability to communicate with such confidence in french!!!) Someone else remarked to the grey-haired git that I was mad. He retreated with an apology.

 Here is a photo of the second car that arrived.

I didn't take many photos because my i phone became very wet every time I took a photo.

I think you can get a good idea of the atmosphere from the photos that I did manage to take.

The two attractive young girls with red bull backpacks were not only eye candy for the spectators and rally officials, but they also provided an effective block of my view. Er …..  youth and beauty takes precedence, me thinks.

After hanging around in this area for quite a while, I decided that enough was enough and I retreated back to the warmth and comfort of my apartment as fast as my little water laden legs would carry me.