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Your Bond location pilgrimages.
saunders
Living in a world of avarice and deceit
Have you made visits to any of the locations used in the Bond films? If so this is the place to brag and boast about them, to kick this off I thought I'd throw in a place just down the road from me that I hadn't visited till one evening last week when I treated the long suffering wife to a 007 field trip:
<B>Thames Lawn, Marlow</B> (used for M's home 'Quarterdeck' in <I>On Her Majesty's Secret Service</I>)
The original house is long gone having been mysteriously destroyed in 1998 after two fires in one weekend, but the original gates that George drove through are still in place and the road is easily accessible if you should want to touch, stroke, rub or maybe if like me, need to lick the ornate brick gate posts. The road outside is relatively unchanged since the scene was filmed forty odd years ago and I even had a pint in the pub that is just visible next door to 'Quarterdeck'. The gates face the rear of a large church where the camera must of been set up and just a few meters on the right of them the road stops suddenly at the edge of the river Thames.
I did get a few photos of me with the gates but I'm still along way off from being computer literate enough to be able to post them (my wife has just read this and said that she will happily show me how when I start taking her out to decent non Bond related places...women!!!).
<B>Thames Lawn, Marlow</B> (used for M's home 'Quarterdeck' in <I>On Her Majesty's Secret Service</I>)
The original house is long gone having been mysteriously destroyed in 1998 after two fires in one weekend, but the original gates that George drove through are still in place and the road is easily accessible if you should want to touch, stroke, rub or maybe if like me, need to lick the ornate brick gate posts. The road outside is relatively unchanged since the scene was filmed forty odd years ago and I even had a pint in the pub that is just visible next door to 'Quarterdeck'. The gates face the rear of a large church where the camera must of been set up and just a few meters on the right of them the road stops suddenly at the edge of the river Thames.
I did get a few photos of me with the gates but I'm still along way off from being computer literate enough to be able to post them (my wife has just read this and said that she will happily show me how when I start taking her out to decent non Bond related places...women!!!).
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It is a beautiful village about 1h outside of Montreal, the misses wanted to try a famous maple sugar pie from pastry Les sucreries de l'érable.
This place is amazing, and for anyone who loves cats, (as I do) you gotta see em to believe em.
There are around 45 cats roaming around, or sleeping, and half of them have six toes on their front paws!! Hemmingway himself had 50 plus cats, and these guys are direct descendants.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2527501559_da8ba25a5b.jpg
London
- Old War Office, Whitehall (OP, AVTAK and LTK - doubles for MI6 HQ)
- Vauxhall Cross building, Vauxhall Bridge Road (GE, TWINE, DAD and CR - the real MI6 HQ featured as Bond's MI6 HQ in these films, of course; incidentally, at one time I used to work across the river from it as well ;) )
- Somerset House, The Strand (GE - doubles for the square in which Wade's car breaks down; TND - entrance doubles for the 'War Office')
- The College Of Arms, Queen Victoria Street (OHMSS - Bond goes there for intel on genealogy)
- Brent Cross shopping centre, North London (TND - doubles for the Hamburg car-park in which the remote control-themed car chase occurs)
- The Millennium Dome/ O2 Centre, Greenwich (TWINE - Bond lands on its roof after falling off The Cigar Girl's hot-air balloon; I often visit the cinema there, true story :p )
- Buckingham Palace (DAD - Graves obviously lands from his parachute jump in front of it)
- Westminster Bridge, south bank side (DAD - specifically the door through which Bond goes to reach MI6's disused Tube station; in reality, when it's open, this door is the entrance to a little room in which high-vis-jacket-wearing chaps appear to congregate, as others on here seem to have discovered ;) )
- Wellington Square, Chelsea (probable inspiration for the square in which the literary Bond lives)
Paris
- Eiffel Tower (AVTAK - obviously Bond descends and races away from the iconic building in pursuit of May Day)
New York City
- Idlewild - now JFK - Airport (Bond flies into New York via Idlewild in both the novels DAF and GF)
- Times Square (Bond and Tiffany Case stayed in The Astor hotel, once located in this infamous junction of Broadway and other streets)
- Harlem (LALD - obviously Bond visits this part of Manhattan in both the novel and the film; I haven't been anywhere in particular in Harlem, but can claim to have walked around there)
Venice
- St. Mark's Square and The Grand Canal (FRWL, MR and CR - Bond visits St. Mark's Square in the latter two movies of those three and travels on the Grand Canal in all three)
I was on vacation there and didn't really think to visit any sites. But I had booked four scuba dives with Stuart Cove, which is a bit of a gamble. The captain of the boat decides where to go to on the day you leave, so there's no picking any particular destination. Imagine my joy when I was told my first dive was going to be to the "James Bond wrecks".
There was a surreal feeling as we went out to the location. We were given a ridiculously short explanation about the site - basically we were told that NSNA and TB had been filmed here, and there were two wrecks to see - an old "freighter" called Tears of Allah and close by some scaffolding that was once made to look like a bomber jet. That was it! As we pulled to a stop and the reality of the situation hit me, I started to hear the music from TB in my head. My dive partner - a wonderfully fit older man in his 60's who, with his imposing build and trim moustache looked liked a former British soldier -decided to look at the ship first as it was more visible. As soon as we went over the side, there it was. What a site! Straight down we went, all around it, then we swam through the ship starting at a hole in the side and out a cargo hatch at the other end. Later I saw that this was the path Connery took when being chased by the shark in NSNA.
We then tried to find the Vulcan Bomber wreck but had no luck. There was a lot of "vegetation" on the ocean floor (only 60 feet) and the scaffolding was better camoflaged than it was by Largo's men! Finally, with about 5 minutes left we found it. It's completely unrecognizable now, except for one detail. As I swam under it, to where the bomb bay doors were, I noticed the landing gear. Everything else which is left is simply tubular scaffolding but the landing gear is still there. That suddenly made everything real, and was absolutely thrilling. If someone had told my 13 year old self that I would actually get to touch - literally - the world of Bond my heart would have exploded.
Sadly, I hear that the site has degraded a lot over the last ten years - a result of both time and tropical storms. The Tears of Allah is especially becoming unrecognizable - everything has been blown off the deck since I was last there (including the wheelhouse) and it's starting to become buried in the silt. Here's a recent video from stuart Cove that shows what it looks like now:
Venice (FRWL, MR, CR)
Siena (QOS)
I've been to New York City & San Francisco as well, but they don't really count in my book. I wasn't looking for Bond locations.
Nothing too special, I guess.
USA:
Las Vegas-The strip, Circus Circus, McCarren Airport and where Frontier is now.
New York City-not in Harlem though
New Orleans-Bourbon Street and watched a funeral procession. Also made sure no one was standing to my right. Also visited a gator farm outside of town.
Los Angeles International Airport-DAF and MR
San Francisco-Sailed underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. It really needed a new coat of paint. Didn't think to take the trolley to City Hall at the time.
Have yet to make it to Miami
London:
Regents Park-MI6's base in the novels.
Millenium Dome
Vauxhall Cross
Buckingham Palace
Westminster Bridge
Thames River
Rest of the World:
Hong Kong-YOLT, TMWTGG, DAD
Tokyo-Toyko Tower (seen when the helicopter drops the henchmen in the water).
Amsterdam-Saw the canals and took the boat tour. Fortunately no dead old ladies were pulled up while on tour.
Phuket-where Scaramanga's island was based. Took a ride to Bond Island. Nice to see the mushroom island in person.
Alps-Swiss and Austrian side
Paris-Eifel Tower and on the Seine
I'll edit if I think of any more.
Las Vegas - Freemont Street
New Orleans - French Quarter
Phuket - Phang Nga Bay (called by tourist bureau in Patong Beach as James Bond island)
Sugar Loaf Mountain - Rio de Janeiro
Iguassu Falls - Brazil
Meteora Monasteries - Thessaly
Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco
Prater Park - Vienna
Maidens Tower - Istanbul
Il Campo, Siena - Tuscany
There isn`t a scuba diver on earth who doesn`t dig Bond!
Isn't there a Vermont location as well in FYEO?
Here is my list, at the top of my head:
-Pinewood Studios. I went to an interview for a job in a company which had its headquarters there. I was offered the job, but declined because I there was a much better offer somewhere else. I still have the other job, but always regretted not working at Pinewood, if only for a little while. Incidentally, I had the best chicken sandwich there.
-Burnham Beeches. I went there an autumn day of 2011. Beautiful woods. I didn't know at the time, but they shot some scenes of Goldfinger there. And some other movies in the past: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, some Hammer too I think.
-Windsor. I used to work there. Featured in the novel TSWLM of course.
-Liverpool. I lived and worked there a year. Where Hugo Drax's alter ego is from.
-The James Bond museum in Keswick. It does not exist anymore.
Paris - Eiffeltower
Schilthorn, Swiss - magnificent place, beautiful panorama. A must for every Bondfan!
Venice - several locations!
Cortina d'ampezzo - ice rink, centre of village, bobsledtrack
Amsterdam, prinsengracht
Siena - the square, the palio, place where the camera pulls up en we see Siena in full glory. Amazing city!
Done most of the London locations and Venice, and going to Monte Carlo this weekend so will definitely be going to the casino featured in NSNA and Goldeneye.
Found this on the internet:
"The boat chase scenes near the end of the movie were filmed on Loch Craignish near Crinan in Argyll. It had originally been intended to film these scenes in Turkey but due to various difficulties filming moved to Scotland"
This thread thanks Trigger much appreciated could it be that DC has a loch named after him!!.
Maybe! They already have a train that goes to Scotland called "Skyfall" so they should have a loch named after the man himself!
I am sick and tired of being jealous of some of you. :((
Whilst there it was interesting to see the Bond legacy. There was a Skyfall themed helicopter on show celebrating 50 years, and Bond music continuously playing. Even after the tennis final between Nadal and Djokovic they started playing Skyfall!
I would really like to visit Scaramanga's island someday. I'm sure it's become a tacky tourist destination, but still I owe it to my 13-year-old self.
Not that I have come across but of course that doesn't mean there isn't! I would love to know if there is. Could be a business idea if not! I know of a company that arranges self drives around Europe in an Aston Martin stopping off at various Bond locations. You need a spare £5000 though!
Timmer-not been to that island but I so need to. A friend of mine went and said it is as you guessed INCREDIBLY touristy (I think it's even called "James Bond Island") but well worth it!
I do believe there are Bond bus-tours in London. There must be. There would be so much to see.
As an aside, if anyone drops by the big smoke, I can show you the exact spot where Jennifer Lopez and Jim Caviezel filmed a very damatic scene from Angel Eyes. It's just down the street. I can stand where JLo actually stood anytime I want. In fact I quite often do, waiting to cross the street.
In the book the action centers around Echo Lake in Vermont, Enosburg Falls and Frelighsburg.
Here's a neat video on Goldeneye Mansion, the Jamaican guy has some great stories
How do I know this? My mates Dad worked on that scene as a technician.