Hi Again From France -
Today (Thursday) was the day for our visit to Monaco. And, yes, Marlene had been to Monaco with her mother. And, yes, we forgot the Monte Carlo Grand Prix (car race) is being held in one week. And, yes, neither of us remembered much from our first visit. I remember seeing the front of the Monte Carlo Casino and over the years seeing a photo of me standing high above the Monaco football stadium. It turns out I was standing next to the Prince’s Palace in that photo. But, the weather was wonderful today and we spent about four hours in Monaco and understand the geography much better now than we did this morning when we arrived.
The down side today was the mess created by the auto race. The race weaves and turns around the harbor and up a hill to the casino, so all the facilities for the race are in place, with many streets lined with fencing. As it turned out when we arrived and were all turned around, we drove most of the race course. We couldn’t have done that if we tried. The auto race looks like a huge financial bonanza – money, money, money.
Speaking of money, it screams at your from every direction. Everything is well-kept and looks rich. There are 35,000 people living in Monaco and there are no income taxes. There are many high-rises and it feels generally very crowded. On the other hand, the geography is breathtaking. I’d say Monaco would be an acquired taste.
We took the auto route to Nice and exited to drive along the Nice waterfront and take the ocean road on to Monaco. Wow! There is so much beauty and it is truly for the rich and famous. Our first photo is of the Villafranche-sur-Mer harbor, where an ocean liner was turning around as we passed. By the way, the harbor is 320 feet deep, one of the deepest nautral harbors on the Mediterranean. You may recall from earlier dialogue that the US once stationed a fleet of ships in the harbor. The town is adjacent to Nice and only 6 miles from Monaco. Going the other directin (west) from Nice you have Antibes and Cannes. So, the bottom line is that Nice is not only nice, but it is surrounded by beauty and money. We arrived in Monaco and parked in an underground parking lot across from the Monte Carlo Casino. You see a photo of Marlene in the park above the parking garage. We had a nice lunch at the restaurant you see in the photo. What is called Monaco-Ville (old town) is up the hill from the harbor and there’s a photo of Marz headed down one of the streets. Look above the street off in the distance and that blob is actually part of a mountain. The prince’s palace is up on the hill and the photo of the harbor is taken from a vantage point next to the palace. We had the brilliant idea of taking a photo of ourselves (actually a goodly number of photos) and the one you see is the best, so it says much of how we are looking these days or, as I prefer to believe, it says much of the talent of the photographer. There’s also a photo of Marlene in front of the palace.
So, there you have our Monaco story. Monaco doesn’t fall on our must see list, but it makes the go see list by virtue of great geography and MONEY.
The Wilsons
