There is a particular silence that falls on a Riviera platform when the departure board swaps a time for the word “supprimé”. I have heard it often. I have contributed to it. It is the sound of several hundred people deciding, at once, not to make a fuss, because a fuss has never yet brought back a train.
My train is the 8:08. I catch it on the French side of the border, where the rent is merely alarming, and for some years I have boarded it a fraction ahead of the Man in the Gilet. We have never been introduced. We do not need to be. He stands where the doors ought to open; I stand where they actually open. Last Thursday he took the last seat with what I can only call a feint. “Well played,” I said. “Vulture,” I added, at the volume I reserve for the inside of my own head.
On Tuesday 10 November there will be no 8:08, and nothing to feint for. SNCF Réseau is closing the line between Nice and Ventimiglia, Monaco included, all day for engineering works, and keeping it shut on Wednesday until about half past five in the afternoon. I read this on NEWS.MC in early October and did what any Brit does with bad news. I put the kettle on and pretended it was next year.
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It isn’t. On 30 October the Prince’s Government repeated its advice: postpone your journey, work from home, adjust your leave or your hours, share a car. For those of us who can’t work from a kitchen table, that means: take annual leave in order to go to work. I had plans for my annual leave. None involved a bus shelter.
SNCF is laying on replacement coaches, and its notice warns, in capitals, that seats are “very limited”. I respect the candour. I also intend to be early. So, I have no doubt, does the gilet.
In France, 11 November is Armistice Day, a public holiday. Monaco’s public holidays this month fall on the 2nd and the 19th. So the trains return late on a French holiday, on a day when Monaco expects me at my desk. “Marvellous,” I told the kettle. The kettle said nothing. We are both British about these things.
My editor, with the warmth of a man who has a deadline, suggests I simply work from home. I pointed out that this column is written at home already. He replied that it shows.
Readers keep asking what became of Jeff Daniels, who kept this Diary before me. Last I heard, he had gone to stay with his mate Jack. Neither has been heard from since, though their recycling bin suggests they are in good spirits. I have inherited his column, his readers’ questions and, on a good day, his seat on the 8:08.
Getting into Monaco on 10 and 11 November
No trains will run between Nice, Monaco, Menton and Ventimiglia on Tuesday 10 November, or on Wednesday 11 November until about 17:30. SNCF is running replacement coaches from Monaco station to Nice, Menton and Ventimiglia, but seats are very limited. Wednesday 11 November is a public holiday in France but not in Monaco.
- Replacement coaches: Monaco station to Nice Grand-Arénas, Nice-Vauban, Menton bus station and Ventimiglia station. Every 15 minutes from 6:30 to 9:30 and 16:30 to 19:30, every 30 minutes otherwise. Board at the Parvis Sainte-Dévote exit. On Wednesday the last coaches leave Monaco at 17:00 for Menton and Ventimiglia, and at 18:30 for Nice.
- ZOU! buses 600 and 601: Nice (Square Normandie-Niemen) to Monaco and Menton bus station.
- BlaBlaCar Daily: free for passengers on any trip to or from Monaco; the Principality pays the drivers.
- Wednesday evening: the first trains leave Monaco at 17:51 towards Menton and Ventimiglia, and at 19:05 towards Nice.
- Nights: until 11 December, no trains between Nice and Ventimiglia from 22:00 to 6:00, Sunday to Thursday nights.
Overheard on the Rock (well, nearly)
Nothing printable, so two things I noticed instead.
Since late September, nearly 60 SNCF Réseau workers have spent their nights in the Monte-Carlo tunnel, between the last train and the first, putting back about 1,000 metres of damaged track, Monaco-Matin reported in mid-October. I have grumbled about that line in bed while they were in there doing something about it. I withdraw roughly a third of what I said.
The Principality has paid for new trains, due in 2027 and 2028, with the aim of one every ten minutes at peak. I look forward to them, because the gilet will have nothing left to beat me to.
Until then I shall be at the coach stop by six with two printed timetables. One is a spare. It is not for him. If it ends up in his hand, it is only so he stops asking me questions.
See you in the queue. Behind me. — Alistair
Alistair Ingram is NEWS.MC’s house columnist, with a little help from A.I. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of the publishers. Tips and gripes: diary@news.mc
