95 - A matter of principal(ity) - Monaco

Sunday, June 30

Today the plan is to visit Monaco.  A bit of research beforehand revealed I should arrive in the morning if I want to be able to tour the casino, so that's how I ended up taking the 600 bus from Nice which dropped me off right in front of the Monaco office of tourism.  

A different angle on Nice as I exit east and the bus begins climbing the hill. There were plenty of cyclists out on the road this morning and I don't know how they do it, I was glad for the bus' air conditioning. 

 

Plenty of large boats anchored along the côte between Nice and Monaco and certainly no shortage of sunshiney villas along the waterfront. There was the occasional bus stop along the road, not too many people hopped on but I was surprised to see a few people get off along the way, I guess they were aiming for a specific beach or had a house to visit.

  

 After a brief talk inside the office, I made my way to the casino.  Pictures are only allowed inside the casino before 2pm and the last visitors are allowed at noon; after that, you need to be well dressed to enter the game rooms.  Based on the audio guide's tour, the casino was built in the mid-19th century and with much focus on promotion became a hot bed for people making and losing fortunes. 

Bienvenue à Monté-Carlo! 

Luck be a lady tonight this morning!

 

 

One of the main rooms of the casino, this one is decorated with the four seasons and a complex skylight.  

The oeil de boeuf windows were installed so the casino owners could watch the floor. I suppose it isn't all that different from modern day security cameras, but the feel is different...

 

Monté-Carlo's big thing initially was roulette. Traditionally, they only played with a single 0 in the spirit of "fairness". 

 

Betting starts here as early as 2PM but only for non-citizens of Monaco (les Monégasques).

In the White Room, they explained how three high-rolling women came to be immortalized in a painting decorating this room and how one lost her fortune in the casino; don't worry, the casino made sure such a popular figure was taken care of for the rest of her life.  I suppose it's the least an establishment can do for a major influencer who just donated her last 30 million francs to the place.    

Oh, yeah, I bet a certain MI6 agent would have visited this place a few times... 

The main game room (currently set up for training employees and dealers), the audio guide pointed out that the Montecarlo has served as a filming location (physically, not just a setting) in two Bond films, Never Say Never Again and Goldeneye

The elevator here can take one straight to the theater below! How convenient and yet stylish. 

Just checking to see how glamorous things are in here... 

 Now let's roll the dice on what to see next!

After the casino, I walked around a bit and stumbled across the hairpin turn of the F1 course.  This is when I discovered my Airalo ESim card apparently doesn't work in Monaco, but my camera function still does.  So while I wasn't able to search online about the whole Monaco course, I followed the checkered markings for a while and used the line shown in my tourist map.  

 

Looking like a few fancy cars are milling about here.  

Given all the normal street traffic, nobody seemed to be taking the hairpin at a screaming pace today. 

Eat your heart out, Oregon. 

 

It should come as no surprise that a hairpin turn features a tight turn radius but it's impressive to see all the same.  Hopefully the course is run attacking the turn uphill to benefit drivers with a banked turn.

 

 Nobody was racing but a convoy of fancy cars passed through, I'm guessing for somebody's party or something.

Per the map from the office of tourism, here's the complete Monaco circuit. It's not a particularly long one but between construction and the red/white marking jumping sides of the road, I'm glad I had the map to follow. 

 

From the hairpin, I wandered around town a bit with the goal of working my way to Port Hercule and the rest of les quois faire. I can attest to Monaco being very sunny and the streets periodically entertaining convoys of very expensive vehicles. I'm glad I took public transit here, I don't think my rental policy with Hertz would have covered the costs if I'd scratched a car in Monaco...

 

Prices have never been more affordable! I'll take two, please! 

 

 

I can hardly believe there was a nondescript store front for a place to buy private jets; this is literally just a shop on a road. Granted, that road is in Monaco but I digress.

 

 

No visit to Monaco is complete without a walk through of the Japanese garden, non? The other side of the garden (water front side) was completely occupied with construction of new buildings. 

What year was Back to the Future 2 supposed to be set in, cause this sounds like a thing Biff would do... 

Another little statue commemorating the Formula One legacy of the city. 

I took the high road along the coast as I worked my way towards the Hercules Port. Here's what those buildings under construction looked like from a different angle, along with some weird lagoon thing.

It took me a while to figure out the theme connecting these bronze plaques, but one plaque was like a coup de boule and I suddenly realized these were world cup winners.

The other side of the Montecarlo features plenty of gardens, I suppose with plenty of sunshine and irrigation these gardens do quite well. 

From the gardens I could admire the roof of what I think is a media center / movie theater. 

As cool as it would be to give a shot at driving ye olde Formulae One, I wasn't going to mess around with bajillion dollar cars everywhere. 

Et enfin, the Hercules Port! Replete with mega yachts. 

One warm walk later, I made my way down to the Condamines section of town to have lunch.  I didn't think there's much to the neighborhood but the start of the grand prix is located on the nearby street.  I'm guessing most of the working locals live in the buildings that are built higher up the cliffs than the, frankly, touristy Condamine arrondisement.

It must be by design that there's not traffic light just beyond the starting line; the temptation to jockey for position must be too great for those waiting for the hypothetical light. 

My meal was tasty and finished with a café that came with a cookie spoon!

Some fun facts about Monaco.  While eating lunch, I took a bit more time to read over my brochure/map.  I wonder how the city can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, but I suppose I arrived via an electrified bus so maybe there's hope.

Les Condamines featured fairly quiet streets and a few pedestrian paths but I didn't think there was all that much to it.  The sprawl of complexes up the cliff was impressive though.

One more Formula One sculpture, though I think this one is based off of someone winning the race in Monaco.

After lunch, I managed to find the car collection of Prince Ranier III (hidden under a bunch of stables erected for an upcoming horse race event).  Located just on the shore of Port Hercule, I stumbled across a pedestrian tunnel network for crossing a few streets by following signs with just a bit of blind faith. There were some interesting vehicles in the collection, I enjoyed the old and wacky vehicles the most.  

 

A pedestrian underpass, featuring mirrors and liminal space. 

Gearing up for some horse races!  I didn't sense any horses yet but I wonder if they'll be racing via the road course...

Just a few flags with the princely castle atop the cliff; when I'd arrived at the office of tourism they'd mentioned something about the changing of the guard that I'd missed by going to the casino first.  

 A no-nonsense name for a collection of cars. The building is fairly unassuming from the outside; it wasn't until I was right outside that I realized I was at my destination.

 

Modern racing requires modern solutions 

 

And it's a photo finish in the race for tiniest car!

Wooden wheel spokes! 

A convenient little well to store one's luggage! 

An interesting blend of car museum and perfume museum; I wouldn't have guessed these to have ever been a thing.

Think they klaxon plays "La Cucaracha"? Or how hard do you think it is to forget turning the headlights off after parking at home? 

No wonder this style didn't catch on: a sail would have been way more efficient!

Don't forget to wipe your feet, we're not animals. 

Ah, to be so rich that one need not plan purchases for a car collection... 

I was able to combine my ticket for the car collection with a visit to le palais princier, this required me to ascend the rock that the old walled city was built upon.  Having just come from an air conditioned museum, I didn't break too much of a sweat during the walk but seeing the palace guard patrolling in direct sunlight left me thinking I had no room for complaining about heat.  

 

Please, people, show a little class. 

What looked like a really tall cliff turned out to be a pretty tall cliff, but the walk up wasn't to bad. 

This guard took his patrolling in front of the palace very seriously. 

Holy crap, did they wear down a groove in the patrol path?? 

Ok, let's see what finery the princes of Monaco have stashed away in their palace. 

A part of the princely palace has been converted into a museum.  It contains some history but for the most part features art and furniture the family has accumulated over the générations.  I came away with the knowledge that the walled city of Monaco was infiltrated and defeated by the Grimaldi family of Genoa who would go on to rule the city and gain other estates based on alliances and marriages.  One such estate was les Baux de Provence, which I visited earlier in the week!

 

The self tour starts facing the courtyard, the walls and windows feature a surprising amount of detail. Me, I was thankful for some shade again. 

Monaco's original footprint was only along the cliffs, though it benefited from a harbor below. 

Apparently the Grimaldi coat of arms features armed monks because dressing up as monks was how the family gained Monaco.

 "Latone transforms the shepherds of Lycie into frogs". ...I got better

Here's some really old documents, featuring letters from Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu to the princes.  

The red velvet on the walls was an interesting touch. Also, there were a lot, A LOT, of paintings of Honoré II and also Louise-Hippolyte

It is both art and furniture, not just artful furniture nor functional art. 

"It's a marble that they imprisoned a real alabaster-d like you for basalt; we're busting you outta here. Just don't take this favor for granite"

At some point, Monaco's economy was switched to focus on tourism (and I guess attracting wealthy clientèle).  Oh, and American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III.  So, I guess I learned a little history after all but it helped me realize what a rare gem the museum in Marseille was.  

I timed my visit to the palace perfectly, the place was closing down just as I finished up.  From there, I admired the views from the palace plaza and walked a bit of the old town.  I wouldn't say there's a whole lot to see in the old town but I'm glad I took a bit of time to meander.  

 

 Does becoming a literal princess count as part of the American dream?

 

 

The view from the palace plaza wasn't too shabby! A coworker had mentioned that this part of town was nice but I ended up skipping it. 

Got 'em with the classic "brother surprise"! Only the boldest of tacticians would think of disguising themselves as part of a order of non-militants; that's why nobody dresses up like the Red Cross to commit war crimes. 

They all look like ants from up here haha. The fact that some of the yachts just look like regular boats from this distance is telling.

The streets of the old town were nice, there wasn't a whole lot going on at this hour: a few bars were open and some restaurants were getting ready to start the tourist dinner service. Not too many shops that caught my attention but I did like some the of paths passing through buildings to connect streets. 

 

I finished my walk around the old town after passing through some gardens that bordered the aquarium (apparently a passion project of one of the princes) and came to find a large gathering near this church. There was both a ceremony going on and an afternoon market breaking down for the day.

Having taken the bus to Monaco, I opted to take the train back.  Whereas the bus took me almost an hour to arrive in Monaco, the train was scheduled to make the transit in almost half the time. Of course, that's assuming I wouldn't snooze too much and miss my stop, so I needed some refreshment to stay alert on the train. 

 

I was pleased to see my aperol spritz came with what was effectively a slice of pizza 😋; that hit the spot 

 

The train ride went well but got crowded: each stop until Nice saw more and more people get on and nobody getting off. But I managed to squeeze out at Nice-Riquier and walk back to the hotel. I didn't have time before a call with my family for a dip at the shore so I settled for a cool shower, which was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate. It's crazy to think this is only the beginning of the summer and I'm already sweating so much, on the other hand, I'm glad I'm here now and not later when I'd be too hot to do anything 😅 

 

I got a little turned around in the train station, even with only three lanes (voies) to choose from and everyone congregated on only one, I wasn't quite sure where I was supposed to stand 😆 

 

Walking back from the train station, I stumbled across the bus I'd taken this morning. I was impressed with the set up of the bus recharging station: those are some heavy duty electrodes with hydraulics!  

Dinner featured a catch-all appetizer (squash flower beignets and courgette farci) with some stewed squids.  I tried striking up conversation with another lone dinner at a neighboring table about whether she had just a salad or a salad Nicoise but our combination of languages (English/French to Russian/Engish) weren't conducive to robust discussion 😅

For dessert, une tranche d'une torte de blette. I'm told it's a Nicois dessert but I've yet to find chard (blette = chard) a particularly sweet vegetable.

Finish up the night with a stop by the beach. Unlike Biarritz, there's plenty of light to lounge on the beach with.

Hmm, I hadn't thought about using a restaurant name associated with Traveler's Diarrhea; it's a bold choice, Cotton. 

Overall, I find Monaco to be like an even richer Cannes: a lot of flash, glitz, and glamor. Albeit, I think Monaco had more substance than Cannes but one day is plenty for me in the principality. I wonder what daily life is like for the median Monaco resident; aside from the staples of sunshine and tourism, what else are they doing?