Cap d'Ail and Monaco

Many of the things we are doing are things we have done before but we are also trying out some new activities and finding new things....like the absolutely gorgeous walk (called Sentiers Littoral) from Cap d'Ail (the last town in France before coming to Monaco) into Monaco's Fontville section.

It was incredible and not too tough a walk. It was only a couple kilometers probably, and in fact, it was over too soon. It was mostly up above the water. At times it was hard to not jump right in, it was so inviting.

The color of the Mediterranean has to be seen to be believed. Near the shore it is clear and light azure blue but out a ways, it is a deep, deep blue unlike any water I have ever seen anywhere. Walking along here made me realize that we need to get out in that water more - on a boat, in a kayak, swimming, sailing, whatever - just out in it. That is my goal for next week.

Our walk led us right into Monaco which we thought we remembered well, but we were still blown away by how spectacularly beautiful it is.  We bought an all day pass for the bus - but finding the bus stops turns out to be a challenge.  The maps you get are (obviously) just two dimensional and Monaco is very three dimensional.  You can think you are in the right spot on the map but the real place you want to be is 100 feet above you.  The entire place is basically on the side of very steep hill.

We eventually rode the bus we wanted out to the end of the line (Monaco is only about a mile long), waited for it to change directions and then rode it up to The Rock where the old town and palace are.  The palace (bottom right-hand picture below) is huge and still lived in - in fact Prince Albert just got married a few weeks ago.  That must have been quite  a party.  The church (bottom left) is where Princess Grace married Prince Ranier.  They are both buried there as well.  My favorite spot in Monaco, however, is the exotic garden which runs along the cliff.  It has beautiful sculptures, incredible varieties of plants (lots of flowers and, well, exotic plants).  I just love it there.  If you are ever in Monaco - make a point of strolling through it.  The views of the sea are also really magnificent.  Yo ucan see all the huge yachts going in and out of the harbor and watch the helicopters ferrying the really rich to and from the Nice airport.

Then we took the bus over to the other side of town to the area where the casino and Hotel de Paris are.  Apparently the next town going east on the coast, Menton, used to be part of Monaco, but they voted to join France in 1860 when the county of Nice was given to France by the King of Sardinia. Napoleon paid Monaco 4 million francs for the area and allowed them to build the casino by providing trains and other services into Monaco.  France still provides much of the public services in Monaco.

Anyway, below, the top left picture is of the harbor looking down from the rock.  The other three are taken in front of the casino.  The bottom left is the Hotel de Paris - a VERY swanky outfit.  We attempted to walk through it last time we were here and we were asked to leave and we just in the shopping area.  I guess they could tell we weren't about to buy anything. The gardens and fountains in front of the casino are lovely and make approaching it from the hill above a real pleasure.  It is hard not to think of James Bond when you are here.

We didn't go inside the casino (it costs money to do so) and we were in there several times in 1998. We remember being disappointed by how dark and empty it seemed - at least the parts we saw.  

It is impossible not to notice the CARS in Monaco. All around the casino there were tons of Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes, Astin Martins but we didn't see a single Lamborghini - and we looked. Just watching the cars go by on the street any where in Monaco, you can tell this place is all about the Grand Prix and fast, fancy cars. 

 

A lovely day!