The crowd rouses, the deafening whirl of the F1 car pierces the air, my ear drums only preserved by the supplied ear plugs. Through the branches you momentarily catch the colours of the car. Blue. Yellow. Red. Then muffled chatter and once again the focus returns the gray asphalt. The view, for €50 was expected, the street race track had thousands of people clambering on top of each other trying to squeeze that extra 1 cm of peripheral.
Monaco, one of the few circuits to offer General Admission had spectators spying the race from any vantage point. For the majority of the people, then would have seen a total of maybe 20 minutes of race action but the hype and atmosphere was electric! F1 paraphernalia, country colours, festival environment and gorgeous wo ... weather. As the race winds down, the laps tick into single digits, there's a heighten sense of anticipation. Oblivious to the safety cars and crashes they reveal to the crowd that Red Bull cross first and third. Mark Webber, Monaco Grand Prix 2010.
Coincidently, the weekend of the F1 also happened to fall during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. This was slightly less planned out, our accommodation in Nice warranted a short and yet enjoyable train ride to Cannes. The small port city was alive, and despite the somewhat lacklustre weather people had amassed and the city was buzzing with the not-so recognisable celebrities. Reporters were interviewing unfamiliar faces, street performers were cashing in on the hype and occasionally an instant congregation of photographers would scramble around an individual and what would proceed would be a frenzy of flashes only to pique the curiosity of nearby tourists. Unfortunately, I didn't spot any celebrities, but then again, I wasn't too sure who I was looking out for.
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