Draco's HeadQuarters

The Anarchist

I wondered, when looking to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where exactly did Draco's HQ are? I need this location for my fan-fic involving the treacherous... Olympe!

Tracy

On one fan fic, it's in Corsica. However, I'm not sure if that's actually true in the movies. I always assumed France for some reason...I'm probably wrong.

Hardyboy

Draco is the head of the Union Corse--the Corsican mafia--so Corsica is the best bet. I don't believe he's ever been placed in a "headquarters," though. . .in the novel OHMSS he meets Bond in France, but the location was changed to Portugal in the film; and in Benson's Never Dream of Dying Draco appears in Corsica but isn't seen in a home setting. The long and the short of it is, Anarchist. . .let your imagination run wild!

justvisiting

In the film, his Silver Shadow Convertible had French registration plates and an "F" Country of Origin sticker on the trunk (boot) lid. The car picks Bond up at his Portugal hotel in the morning, on his way to a round of golf, and the car is pulling up to Draco's headquarters at dusk, so it is probably a ten hour drive. As the headquarters are near a port, I would GUESS perhaps Marsailles.

The Anarchist

Thank you all for ideas! It is very nicely welcome!

justvisiting

Follow up to my earlier post: I said Marsailles because you can drive there, but I don't know if you could drive from Portugal to the island of Corsica (with a ferry boat ride through the Mediterranean) in one day. If one can (and could in 1969), maybe it is Corsica, which would be logical.

Dortmunder

I don't quite know about where it is in the movie, but in the novel, I think that it was in Marseilles. I know that Draco had a HQ in Marseilles, but I'm not 100% sure if it was the one that Bond went to. I don't think that it would be plausible to have it in Corsica in the movie. Corsica is a long ways from Portugal.

justvisiting

Here is something someone can do. Check the French license plate number on the Draco's Silver Shadow, which would most likely be registered to an area where he lives and works. I believe the last two numbers identify the general area of France where the car is registered. I think a "69" used to represent the South of France, but I am not sure this is how it works. You can check a website to decode a French plate. I will try looking myself.

Even without going to these lengths, I am pretty confident the location is Marsailles. Marsailles is a port, and you will notice that when Draco's Silver Shadow pulls up to the building, you can see cranes and ships horns in the background. I think the filmmakers were trying to get the audience to infer this. I didn't think much about it before, but now I want to provide you with as much proof as possible. Too bad the film makers weren't more explicit.

As someone else said, Draco is Corsican, at least in the novel. Marseille is very near to Corsica. Marseille is also a major port, and supports a great deal of commerce. Draco is a big businessman, and Marseille is an ideal location to be involved in running shipping operations.

justvisiting

Updating my most recent post, I looked at a website, and "69" does indeed represent Bouches-Du-Rhone, the Departement (a policitcal area) in which Marseille is located. From what I remember from the Bond film, Draco's Silver Shadow has red plates that end in "69".

I also realized that Marseille has no "s" at the end.

I am certain that the producers would let the audience assume it was Marseille, and that it would not create this much interest or discussion. Nevertheless, I thought it was a good question!

Tobias

hi i know this thread is old but i thought i might add to this considering the journey was the hotel bond was staying at is in the north of Portugal not far from porto because they go over the april the 25th bridge which is a famous bridge in lisbon i never been there but i have heard of it im just wondering how long would they have to drive to marseille as they have to drive through Spain first and that is quite a long way and then they have to drive through the south of france as marseille is not far from italy