Luxury at its Finest

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No trip to the Côte d'Azur would be complete without a stop in Monaco. Monaco is an independant principality that is basically a small urban area on the coast of France. It is the second smallest country in the world (Vatican City is the first) and the most densely populated given its small size. It's legendary wealth comes from its status as a tax haven for Europe's wealthy. Well that, and a beautiful location on the sea.

To get to Monaco, you basically take an exit off the highway in France, high above the ocean and drive down towards the water. It took about 30 minutes through heavy traffic until we happened upon the famous casino from the James Bond films. Parking there was quite easy, so we parked under the casino gardens and walked over to the convenient tourist info office.

We had been wondering if we could get a passport stamp in Monaco, and had not found any information online about it. In Lichtenstein you can get a stamp for 2 euros at most tourist shops. We asked the nice girl at the info desk and she just brought out a stamp and there we were! Easiest stamp ever, and now we're off the hook for trying to go to a new country this trip :-) If you're wondering where EXACTLY to get the passport stamp, you can get it at the Tourist Info Office that's just at the other end of the gardens at the Monte Carlo Casino.

The casino gardens are beautiful, and we had a 12 euro club sandwich and 12 euro banana split for a snack at an outdoor cafe. The casino entry fee was 10 euro per person, which was probably worth it, but we don't really gamble, J wasn't really dressed right in jeans and t-shirt, and were running short on time (we had reservations in Italy for the night's stay).

We limited our stay in Monaco to a few hours and many pictures. We saw the obligatory fancy cars (although in general, Audis were the most popular), and classic eccentric old rich (think little old ladies in furs with small dogs, and Karl Lagerfeld, but without the talent). We'd like to spend more time in Monaco in the future - it's definitely a unique part of the world.

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Photos

Fountain Portrait
At the third (!!!) fountain.

Ferrari
Yeah, the driver did look like a snotty rich kid.

Lamborghini
On the side of the car there are stickers of the Ferrari horse crossed out. Oh yeah, and the driver looked like a talentless knob.

Luxury Yachts
The biggest is the "Atlantis II", and the smaller is the "Carinthia VII".

Monaco into the Sun
See where the buildings end on the hill? That's the border with France!

Bentley Portrait
J and the Casino in the reflection.

Comments

[angela]

nice cars
very nice! we always have nice cars in our neighborhood since it's posh. funny that we live there, too! hahaha that's nice though. i didn't know that it's the 2nd smallest country! i got a history lesson! hehe