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Published: January 14th 2023
Me and My Ride (!)
Monte Carlo CasinoDear All
Greetings! It doesn't feel too long ago since I was last travelling, and now I'm back again after a lovely little mini pre-Christmas break, to visit my 85th country. After returning from Scandinavia in August, I realised that I only have 10 countries to go before I can say I've done Europe! Three of these countries actually belong to the little group known as the six "micro-states" of Europe - I've already been to Malta, the Vatican City and Andorra, and thus for my following three mini-trips, I planned to cover the remaining three. First up was Monaco, and just as the Christmas holidays began, I was packing my bag and heading for four nights to the south of France. On the Saturday, I flew from London Gatwick to lovely Nice Cote d'Azur airport, and immediately felt myself relaxing and entering into the travelling state again! Nice is one of the nicest airports I've been to (no pun intended), and with its palm trees and Mediterranean sea breezes, it really felt like a holiday destination. I was visiting in the off-season, which was perfect as I really don't think I'd like to share my time there with hundreds
Monaco
View from Monaco-Ville of thousands of other tourists, and it really did feel like I had many places to myself.
After landing, I took a tram to the nearby Nice Saint-Agustin train station, to connect with the French SNCF's fantastic Cote d'Azur train line which regularly plies the route between Cannes and Ventimiglia in Italy, which was to become my new best friend over the next few days. I was heading directly to Monaco to spend my first two nights of my trip, and thus this write-up will be about amazing little Monaco - what a country!
I first heard of Monaco when I took a liking to Grace Kelly and her films as a teenager, and have ever since been intrigued by this tiny little country a mere two square kilometres in the south of France. The American actress's marriage to a European prince was very much a fairy-tale story come true - she seemed to devote the rest of her life to her new family and country, and her life remains in the starkest of contrasts to a more recent marriage between an American actress and a European prince about which I will not darken my blog entry with
any of my current thoughts on. Even after her tragic passing 40 years ago, her spirit really seems to live on in Monaco, with streets, buildings and charitable entities named after her, and images of her life adorning many sights along the "Parcours Princesse Grace" self-guided tour of the city.
I arrived in the country (it just doesn't feel quite right to call this tiny entity a country, but in fact it is) in the evening after dark had settled in, and was immediately impressed with Monaco-Monte-Carlo train station, every single bit of it being clearly designed to impress the visitor arriving from comparatively grubby France. The station was sparkling with lights, and the platforms made of a material which resembled marble - in fact, pretty much the whole place was made of this kind of material, giving off a clear air of grace and dazzling beauty. Numerous adjectives sprung to mind whilst walking its streets, including opulent, glamorous, glittering and achingly beautiful. Even the underground subway tunnels were made of this material, while the streets were lined with luxury buildings throughout. Half of the country climbs up the vertiginous steep cliffs, with road tunnels built into the cliff
face to make road travel easy, while an intricate network of public lifts, escalators and staircases effortlessly connect all these roads for pedestrians at their varying heights. The other half of the country exists on land which has been reclaimed from the sea, and even during my visit there was another land reclamation site being created just north of the casino. The place is heavily populated - the population of 40,000 people cram into its two tiny square kilometres, actually making it the world's most densely populated country at over 20,000 people per square kilometre, compared with the UK's figure of 280 and the US's of 36. Despite this, the streets didn't feel too busy with people, but they were absolutely awash with traffic, with a very sizeable number of luxury cars such as Ferraris and Lamborghinis, as well as countless motorbikes, all zooming about making it really quite noisy everywhere. It was fast-paced and hectic. The people were invariably elegantly dressed, and were surprisingly friendly and not at all snobby. Many were dog walkers, with tiny dogs, and there were police officers everywhere - with 515 police officers, Monaco also happens to have the title of the country with
Flying over the French Alps
EasyJet Flight from London Gatwick to Nice the highest number of police officers per capita, working out to be 1,300 per 100,000 people, compared with the UK's 212 and the US's 239. The country is packed with fascinating statistics such as these!
So having just spent a few minutes after getting off the train drinking it all in, I headed to my accommodation, navigating the train station's amazing infrastructure - the platforms themselves are up in the cliff face high above the city, so to get to sea level and the city's attractions you need to go down escalators and lifts, but to get to the road leading to my accommodation, you need to go up escalators and lifts. It just felt like the whole city was contained within one huge layer cake. I followed a main road uphill and arrived at my seriously posh digs for the next two nights - the most affordable accommodation I could find was actually one of the most luxurious I think. It was an Air BnB room in a palatial three-bedroomed flat, on the ground floor of a seriously opulent and grand building high up the cliff face - my room even had a very distant sea view of
the Mediterranean! The hostess was actually English, and not long after I arrived and mentioned I taught religion, she invited me to her church's carol service at Monaco's Anglican church, St Paul's, where none other than Prince Albert himself was due to do a reading - blimey, I couldn't ask for more than this, the chance to see Prince Albert during my fleeting visit to the country. I accepted the amazing offer, so more on that below.
For my first evening, I just downed my bags, stocked up on a few things from a nearby supermarket, and went for a mesmerising walk just a few hundred metres to the south of my accommodation high up over the dazzling and glitzy lights below and nonchalantly over the nearby border into France. I spent a happy time up there just surveying the awesomeness of this tiny country which seriously packs a punch from so high up over its centre, and was filled with that amazing feeling I get when I travel of exploring and seeing new places. I had the feeling this would be a good trip, and it certainly was.
The next day, after a bit of a troubled
sleep unfortunately due to the constant traffic noise right outside my room, which was not completely drowned out with the use of earplugs as well as a fan, I still awoke excited. I caught a bus into town, and indeed despite its tiny size, Monaco still has a small bus network with about six lines - very useful considering the hilly nature of much of the city. Alighting at the Monte Carlo Casino for my first sight-see of the day, I arrived at 9.30am when it wasn't due to open until 10am, so I went for a lovely walk around outside, drinking in the serious luxury of the Monte Carlo district of Monaco, and getting a coffee from a cafe in the poshest shopping centre I've ever seen. This was the Metropole Shopping Monte-Carlo, packed with shiny surfaces and chandeliers throughout. I started speaking French as my interactions began for the journey, and it felt really quite good speaking it. After just about getting by with my Scandinavian languages over the summer, it was a real treat to have been able to communicate so freely again in a foreign language, and rustle up my French again after many years of
not having spoken it. Once the casino opened for visitors, I bought a visitors' entrance ticket (the gaming wasn't open until later in the day), and had the whole place to myself during my hour-long visit, along with the cleaners and dealers who were setting up for the day ahead. There were around eight rooms of pure luxury, and I was led through it all very informatively by my audio guide, drinking in the paintings, stuccos, reliefs, high ceilings, and exuberant decorations throughout, along with the fascinating gaming tables and modern gambling machines, and the casino's very famous roulette wheels. Images of James Bond scenes and glitzy, glamourous people filled my imagination as I walked the empty rooms, imagining what the place would be like that very evening. As I was leaving, a yellow Lamborghini had parked up just outside, so I had a few photos taken with it, imagining what life really would be like for the other half (or more like the other 0.2% or so).
From the casino, there was a very convenient lift which took me down to sea-level, just in time to take a short ferry service that takes passengers for free from one
side of the harbour to the other, saving a walk of around 15 minutes or so. I was heading towards Monaco-Ville, the Old Town, and the Royal Palace, hoping to be able to make the changing of the guard there at 11.55am. The walk up to the place was amazing, along a very striking cliff face, using more stairs and escalators, and passing the achingly beautiful and seriously spectacularly-sited Oceanographic Museum. I didn't really have any interest in visiting this museum, but definitely wanted to see its amazing grandeur on its commanding perch high up on the edge of the rocky Mediterranean cliff face - it is a powerful building, and was a sight to behold. I high-tailed it through the narrow lanes of the old town, and made it to the Royal Palace just in time for the Changing of the Guard ceremony, which was interesting - lots of trumpeting, drumming and marching, but not a touch on the British Changing of the Guard back home if I'm honest! I took a few photos of the place when it was done, and over the main town and harbour lying back at sea-level below - the place and views are
just so photogenic! There was also a very interesting statue to the side of the palace, of Francois (or Francesco) Grimaldi (d.1309), the first of the Grimaldi Royal Family which amazingly still exists through direct lineage in Prince Albert today. This first Grimaldi arrived from the Italian state of Genoa in the late 13th century, along with his soldiers, all disguised as monks. They captured the "rock" of Monaco, and despite having links in some form or another over the centuries to France and Italy a number of times each, has ever since maintained some form of its own independence. Today it is recognised as a sovereign-city state within the country, and to some extent polity, of France. While it has its own Prime Minister, who can either be Monagesque or even French, significant power is still maintained by its head of state, Prince Albert II. I was most interested to see this statue of Albert's ancestor, the original Grimaldi, dressed indeed as a monk, but with his right hand concealing a sword hidden underneath his robes - fascinating!
After drinking in the palace, I stopped by Monaco Ville's lovely Saint Nicholas Cathedral, resting place of both Prince Rainier
III and Princess Grace, to pay my respects to this lovely couple, and then headed over to a cute little local restaurant for lunch, La Tavernetta. It had very friendly waitering staff, one of whom was proud to tell me he had worked for Barclays Bank after finding out I was English - most tourists there seemed to be French or Italian. I had a delicious Ravioli Bolognese, and feeling in need of a bit of a rest, decided to do a bit more exploring by way of the city's very efficient, and in fact free (!), bus system. I took a fifteen-minute bus ride first to reach the northern limits of the tiny country, with the French-Monaguesque border here being actually set on a roundabout, half of which is in France, the other half in Monaco! What an interesting border, and I guess if you continually drove around the roundabout, you'd simply be entering and re-entering each country numerous times! I then took another bus to the southern limits of the country, getting there about 20 minutes later, around the Stade Louis II football stadium, home to Monaco's very successful football team which actually competes in the French football
league. It is apparently one of the country's top three teams, along with Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille. Finally, I headed back into town again for a stroll around the commercial centre of La Condamine, with lots of posh shops and clientele, and its adjacent Monaco Hercules Harbour, taking in some seriously huge and riotously expensive luxury super yachts - each one was as big as a small apartment building, and there were certainly more than a dozen of these biggest ones amongst the countless "smaller" ones. This was another reminder, of the many I encountered in Monaco, of how the other half (or 0.2%!) live! I finally took a bus back to my accommodation again for a rest, before the real piece de resistance of my time in Monaco - carols with the Prince and Princess!!
After a well-needed rest up in my room, my lovely accommodation hostess drove us to Monaco's St Paul's Anglican church, back in the northern side of town again. This was actually the evening of the World Cup Final, and with France playing Argentina, and much of Monaco supporting France, the streets were filled with shouts of joy and dismay - there were clearly
lots of goals in the match. The Carol Service was due to start at 7pm, but as the match went to penalties, my hostess predicted (quite rightly!) that the Prince would be late, as he'd be watching the match! Indeed, the match finished around 7.05pm, and he arrived at 7.15pm! I thought out loud to my hostess that he may get stuck in traffic, but how ridiculous - they would stop the traffic for him of course! There were a few dozen of us, mostly Brits I think, but seriously High Society (or High Society Wannabe) Brits, patiently awaiting the arrival of the Prince. It was quiet, until all of a sudden from outside came the sound of a number of vehicles pulling up. Security guys with earpieces quickly headed into the church first, followed by Prince Albert himself, along with Princess Charlene!! I was actually not expecting to see them both, and neither was my hostess as the Princess is apparently not quite so commonly seen as the Prince, and I was so pleased to see them both - she really did look naturally stunning and beautiful, definitely princess material! They were only a few metres away from me
as they walked in, before they took their places at the front, a few pews in front of where we were sitting. The service itself was simply wonderful too, with amazing singing from the tiny choir of only eight voices, four male and four female - they made beautiful harmonies, and had really powerful voices. The service also involved nine Christmas Bible readings, and the Prince read the eighth one, fittingly about the arrival of the Three Kings - good choice service planners! He was really quite softly-spoken I thought, and spoke with an American accent - of course, it dawned on me then that his mother was the very Grace Kelly herself! My hostess had advised me not to take photos as it would not have been considered good etiquette, and I completely understood this. The only photos I do have are of the Order of Service with the Prince's name for reading number eight, as well as a press-released photo shown in the following day's Monaco news. The Prince and Princess regularly attend this service apparently, and sometimes stay for mince pies and wine afterwards, but this time they didn't and headed straight off in their motorcade again
afterwards, and we called it an evening too.
This was single-handedly the most amazing experience of my time on this mini-trip, and actually one of the most amazing in my travel career too! Little did I know that on my two-night trip to Monaco, I would see both Prince Albert and Princess Charlene so up-close and in the flesh - how wonderful! Of the British royals, I have incidentally only seen the then Prince (since King) Charles twice, once passing by in a car a few metres away and once also a few metres away in a crowd, both when I was a child.
That night I slept much better, and I contemplated just how highly enjoyable and fortuitous my short time in this tiny country had been. After my admirations of Grace Kelly in my younger days, I never thought I'd be seeing her son so close up on my first visit to Monaco! What a real surprise and treat!
The next day I was heading back to France, and I was really looking forward to exploring more - the trip had certainly gotten off to an amazing start!
I will write about my time
on France's lovely Cote d'Azur in my next one - so until then, merci d'avoir lu, et au revoir for now!
Alex
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The Opulence of Monte Carlo
Great Blog!...Wow, you got to see Royalty up close. That is very cool. The performance at the church sounds lovely. I would have enjoyed that. People around the world are so nice. I'm glad your host invited you along. It is a cute part of the world. Keep traveling. MJ