Page 28 of A French Adventure
Not yet eleven o’clock and already the Principality was heaving with people. Both Maxine and Vivienne heaved a sigh of relief as they stepped into the cool of Trent and Felicity’s apartment block and pressed the button for the lift to take them to the tenth floor.
Olivia was waiting to greet them and quickly took them through to leave their things in the small cloakroom before leading them out to the balcony, where Trent broke off his conversation with Thierry and poured them both a glass of champagne.
‘We are the first to arrive?’ Maxine asked.
‘Yes, we’ve said twelve o’clock to everyone else, but old friends are different,’ Trent said, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek, before turning to Vivienne and kissing her cheek too. ‘Welcome to Monaco, new old friend.’ He turned and handed them both a lanyard with a pit pass attached. ‘Put these aroundyour necks and when you’re ready, I’ll take you down for a quick look at the pit lane.’
Standing on the balcony, sipping champagne, watching all the activity of race preparation down below, Vivienne, grown-up woman that she was, couldn’t help but feel a little out of her depth. It was a surreal experience being on a balcony in Monaco, but one she was determined to make the most of. She took a couple of photos on her phone and WhatsApped them to Tim.
Half an hour later, Maxine having elected to stay in the apartment, Trent was guiding Vivienne along a crowded pit lane pointing out the different cars and celebrities and even introducing her to Toto Wolff, head of the Mercedes F1 team, who was apparently a friend of his from ‘the old days’. He didn’t explain about those days and Vivienne didn’t like to ask.
‘The time to come down here is after the race – it’s really buzzing then, especially around the winning team,’ Trent said. As they dodged around journalists and cameramen, Trent looked at his watch. ‘We’d better make our way back to the apartment ready for the race.’
As they walked back along Boulevard Albert 1er, they passed the podium where later that afternoon the winner would be presented with his trophy by one of the Monaco Royal family, usually Princess Charlene.
‘Tim, my son, is going to be incredibly jealous of me when I return home and show him all these photographs,’ Vivienne said, taking another quick photo on her phone, this time of the pristine podium before the champagne was sprayed everywhere.
Back at the apartment, more guests had arrived and the sitting room was crowded. The catering assistants Felicity had hired were busy placing the lunchtime food on the table, alongside more champagne in ice buckets, crockery and cutlery. Vivienne spotted Maxine out on the balcony talking to Felicity and made her way over to them.
‘You trust the catering assistants to do their job, why can’t you trust Olivia to find herself the right husband?’ Maxine was saying quietly as Vivienne joined the two of them.
‘It’s not the same thing at all. These people are professionals, good at their job. Olivia…’ Felicity shrugged. ‘I’m just trying to guide her in the right direction. She is her own worst enemy as far as choosing men is concerned.’
Maxine laughed. ‘Non, she is not. You have to stop interfering in her life.’
Felicity turned to Vivienne. ‘You’re a mother, I’m sure you’re the same with your daughter, worried that she will make a bad choice and then have to live with it for years. As a mother, you can see instantly the men they like are not right for them.’
‘Natalie has had a few dud boyfriends, for want of a better description, but she always sussed them out by herself in the end. You do have to trust them,’ Vivienne said, hoping that agreeing with Maxine wouldn’t upset her hostess.
She needn’t have worried because Felicity simply sighed as she looked into the sitting room where Thierry and Olivia were standing chatting to several mutual friends. ‘Look at them. Thierry would be absolutely perfect for her. Why can’t she see that?’
‘Probably because you keep telling her?’ Maxine suggested. ‘If you’re not careful, you are going to drive a big wedge between both them and the two of you. Let’s change the conversation.’ She peered over the balcony before straightening up. ‘Shall we go and get some food? Some of the cars are coming out to take their places on the grid. We need to have lunch out of the way before the race starts.’
The atmosphere out on the balcony as race start time got closer was jovial. There was a lot of light-hearted banter, especially amongst the men about who people hoped the eventual winner would be. Local boy Charles Leclerc driving forFerrari and starting from third on the grid was clearly a favourite and people were hopeful that he would finally win his home race. But the general feeling was that this season was proving to belong to Max Verstappen, who was once again in pole position on the grid, and that it would be the Red Bull driver who crossed the line first. Again.
Two hours later, Max Verstappen stormed past the finishing line in first place as expected, with Charles Leclerc finishing in sixth place. Everyone crowded into the sitting room to watch the presentation by Princess Charlene on the TV. The podium, being virtually next to the apartment block, was in their blind spot and was impossible to see from the balcony.
Afterwards, people began to say their goodbyes to Felicity and Trent, keen to join the jubilant crowds, and hoping to see a few celebrities.
Vivienne, standing with Maxine out on the balcony watching normal traffic moving again along the front and up towards the Monte Carlo Casino, wondered what time they would be leaving.
Maxine, as if sensing her thoughts, glanced at her. ‘Tonight Monaco will be Party HQ for the locals, andpeut-êtreone or two of the drivers who live here, everyone else will either have left or be busy packing things up. We stay a short time for the evening party here, yes? We leave after eight? The train should be a little quieter by then.’
‘Felicity has another party here tonight?’ Vivienne said.
‘Not a party-party, just friends hanging out and watching everything going on down below. Like I said, there will be many parties going on all over Monaco and on the yachts. Most people will want to be down there where the action is, hoping to see some celebrities enjoying themselves.’
20
Vivienne and Maxine said their goodbyes and thank yous to Felicity and Trent shortly before eight o’clock. When Thierry saw they were leaving, he said he’d walk them to the station. Maxine glanced at him, only to receive a warning glance from him, and she smiled understandingly. Olivia came across to say goodbye before following her mother to talk to two guests still out on the balcony, and the three of them rode the lift to the ground floor.
Maxine waited until they were outside the apartment block before looking at Thierry. ‘So chivalrous of you, Thierry, but I suspect you have an ulterior motive? You will not be walking us to the station, will you?’
‘Guilty as charged,’ Thierry said. ‘I’m meeting an old friend in, hopefully, about ten minutes.’
‘When that old friend can get away without her maman noticing?’ Maxine inclined her head at him. ‘You didn’t want to alert a certain other person to your plan in case she got the wrong idea.’
‘Life could get complicated if a certain person got the wrong idea.’
