It's nice to have a calm sea again and warm sunshine after a miserable Tuesday on turbulent rolling seas, and our Port of Call in Calvi France being cancelled, as the tenders apparently wouldn't be safe to shore?
So as I sit on my sunny verandah composing this Monaco blog, the Noordam is slowly pulling out of the Monaco Port while providing me a panorama view of the French Riviera and this surreal kingdom and lifestyle I experienced today.
The oppoulent Casino Monte Carlo built in 1875 is in plain view now and the many modern villas, hotels, and glass towers representing many styles of European architecture, both old and new, and as they are built into the hillside each level is tiered for maximum sea view and exposure. It kinda reminds me of the mountain view looking at distant West Vancouver from the water, but everything in this Monaco view is so much closer to the water and the red tile roof tops and consistent orange/yellow building exteriors capture your eye quickly.
Then I see the stacked Monaco yacht club that doesn't just have the typical half dozen or so multi million dollar beauties, but each yacht here is jaw dropping and according to our guide they often start at the 10 million Euro price point...can't even think of their expensive moorage and operational costs!
Our young and very knowledgeable guide is from France, which is just minutes away from Monaco, and French is the most common language spoken with Italian of course also very popular. I noticed quickly how superbly clean and well kept every area of this kingdom was and without exception it was very impressive, and especially for Europe, and all the visiting tourists.
Our group size was nice and only 9 strong today, with a very comfortable Mercedes bus/van to navigate the narrow winding hillside roads I have become very accustom to now.
We began our land tour on foot past the incredible aquarium that our own Jaques Cousteau had quite an influence in and he lived in Monaco during the reign of Prince Ranier and Princess Grace for many years. Next through the paradise gardens beneath the huge royal homes of Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie. These beautifully manicured gardens lead us to the many stairs next to the seaside view and up to a large open plaza where the Palais Princier De Monaco, or official residence of the heir Prince Albert and his wife Caroline, of South Africa...along with their entourage.
Our timing was great as we just got to see the changing of the guard...only 4 guards involved and not like Buckingham, but prepared me for the pomp and grandeur I was about to see inside the palace.
This self guided audio tour was about half hour and I snuck several pics inside but got caught somehow and the mean woman made me delete each one while she watched them all disappear....bummer!
The life size wall paintings and ceiling murals were superb and yet not ancient like most of what I have seen these past 10 days. The incredible gifts to the Prince and Princess were on display from various royalty and dignataries but were within the last 25 to 75 years so you could kinda connect a bit?
Very oppulent of course and carefully designed with looks and the feel of medieval but built within the past decades, rather than centuries.
Monaco still has construction going non stop as real estate and development is a big contributor to their local economy, so you see cranes working away building unique sky scrapers, just as you would see in most modern downtown cities in NA.
I asked for some values to purchase these lovely new sea side villas, and a studio unit starts at over 1 million Euros, as the average cost per square meter is 50K Euros/meter!
As we drove 20 mins to Eze in France for lunch, our first stop and meeting spot was at the Fragonard Perfume Factory. We had a nice factory tour and learned the basics of perfume, lotions, and soap manufacturing and all the flowers and natural scents that are used in abundance to make some of the best quality and branded perfumes in the world. It definitely was quite the variety of floral smells that you could recognize from the parking lot...unless your shnoz was severely messed up. The pricing for non branded and simple bottled product was supposed to be very good as other tours were gobbling up the apparent deals...I have no room to be packing perfumes and lotions for the next 4 weeks, but the tour was interesting and this factory has been around for a very long time.
I enjoyed the very hilly and beautifully quaint village of Eze...great little cafes and lots of art and specialty shops built into the steep and narrow cobblestone streets with stairs everywhere, it was quite the maze and easy to get spun around and lost...especially for me!
I found a nice lunch spot with free wifi so that was superb and I was able to download several nice pics from earlier today and ready to include with this blog update.
Lastly, some of the points I learned concerning Monaco today that were interesting to me are as follows:
-The kingdom of Monaco has 5 districts and is the second smallest country in the world, covering only 2 square miles, and next only to Vatican City;
-There are 32K people living there and approx 25K are residents while the other 7K are actual citizens of the Kingdom of Monaco;
-To become a citizen you must have the royal blood lineage of the Grimaldi, who originate from Genoa in Italy, or get married to the prince or princess. To become a resident of Monaco, you need to be filthy rich;
-The average annual income of residents in Monte Carlo is over 250K Euros and the unemployment rate is zero;
-The city is understood to be very safe and little to no crime with an average ratio of 60 residents per local cop;
-There is no personal income tax payable by Monaco residents however sales tax on goods is 20%;
-The most famous Grand Prix in the world is held annually in Monte Carlo on the third Sunday of May and the record for the fastest lap on the 2 mile winding road is 1 minute and 14 seconds by Schumacher;
-Princess Grace was killed in a car accident in Monaco on Sept 13/82, that went out of control in a sharp turn while being driven by her daughter Stephanie, who asked her mom if she could drive, and was 17 at the time, and survived the crash.
There are likely many more astounding facts that attest to the surreal life and times of this tiny kingdom squeezed between France and Italy on the French Riviera.
After my organized group tour there was still plenty of time before our late sailing so as the bus wasn't able to take us by the famous Casino Monte Carlo so I set out to walk there and see if it looks like it did on the big screen with James Bond? While walking up to the great landmark I walked with others on the roadway that is being transformed into the Monaco Grand Prix, on this Sunday!
All the spectator stands are up and the giant sponsored banners were going up while each curve has temporary tire walls and it's pretty exciting while you pretend how loud and crazy this very spot will be in just 4 days!
Now as you arrive at the opulent Casino, it's a bit like Vegas with fancy cars buzzing around, except these are crazy expensive cars and you name any exotic and it's there and in real life...even Rolls Royce convertibles! Of course this is late afternoon so folks are pretty casual popping into the casino and the super luxury Paris Hotel, right next to the casino. Lotsa fun just people watching in the square and the close restaurants are busy and all taking early reservations for the Sunday race cause the casino and hotel and these popular outdoor cafes are right on the soon to be, Grand Prix track.
I could only get into the huge Casino lobby and it's just like you see on the big screen, and lots like the palaces I have been into this week with beautiful ceiling murals, larger than life paintings, gothic pillars and in the main casino is huge chandeliers hanging all over. Of course just to walk in the main casino ballroom you need to spring for another 12 Euro and I had little time, this was good enough...too bad no pics allowed and you have to check all your items and camera/phones before you even go inside the main lobby.
So that was a fun and surreal way to spend the last couple hours in Fantasy Land and glad I was there to see the Casino and the Grand Prix setting up...pretty cool stuff for a prairie boy! lol
Strangely and amidst crumbling ancient countries and world economies, this tiny sovereign kingdom seems to thrive and the very rich get even richer. This opulent lifestyle would declare a measure of personal success, when it's just measured by what is owned...I enjoyed my great glimpse of the rich and famous today! :-)
Tonight we are sailing calm seas to Marsailles France, to be in port for another shore excursion on Thursdsy AM...Stay tuned!
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