The travels of Tim and Megan: Monaco

Monaco

On Friday night we, along with our friend Libby, flew from London to Nice, in southern France, where we stayed so that we could spend the weekend in Monaco. We had planned the trip with Libby and Ben, although unfortunately Ben was not able to make it, as he had to work through the weekend. We arrived in Nice around 11.30pm and we managed to find our way into the city centre and to the Hotel Ellington without any drama.

The hotel was solid - a jazz-themed boutique hotel with a really fun bar in the lobby. Our room was pretty nice too, although we didn't get the fancy balcony that Libby's room had! We were woken early on Saturday morning by the intense sunshine (something we had not seen for months!) streaming in through the window.

We found a nice little cafe down the road from the hotel, where we had a very French breakfast with croissants, pains aux chocolats, jus d'orange, cafe au lait and yoghurt with berries (that was way too hard to do in French). After breakfast we wandered down one of the main streets of central Nice to the train station and caught a train to Monaco. We were tres impressed to discover that the train journey takes only 15 minutes and costs just €6.60 return! The journey itself was fantastic, as we were treated to spectacular views of the Mediterranean coastline. We arrived in Monaco around 10.30am.

The Principality of Monaco is a small sovereign city-state in the south-eastern corner of France, on the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world with an area of just 1.95 square kilometres. It apparently takes the average person just 56 minutes to walk across the width of the country. The population of Monaco is around 33,000, which makes it the most densely populated sovereign country in the world. Monaco is a constitutional monarchy and a principality, with Prince Albert II the head of State. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco since 1297 and the state's sovereignty was officially recognised by the France-Monegasque Treaty of 1861.

After initially being very confused by Monaco's labyrinth-like streets and hills (along with a number of other tourists), we found our way down to the waterfront area and then headed up the hill to the Prince's Palace. The Prince's Palace, official residence of the Prince of Monaco, was founded in 1191 as a Genoese fortress. Since 1297 it has been the home of the Grimaldi family. Unlike other European ruling families, the absence of alternative palaces and land shortages have meant that the Grimaldi family has ruled from the same residence for more than 700 years.

We did not tour the opulent palace, but we watched the guards marching in front of the palace and enjoyed the breath-taking views down over Monaco from the hilltop, before carrying on to the cathedral. St Nicholas Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Monaco, where many of the Grimaldis are buried, including Grace Kelly and, more recently, Rainier III. It was consecrated in 1875 and is built on the site of the first parish church built in Monaco in 1252.

Further around from the cathedral, through a beautiful little garden, is the impressive Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. We were all keen to visit the aquarium but decided to do that on Sunday so that we could continue to explore Monaco by foot in the sunshine. Just past the aquarium we noticed a huge four-car garage in front of big house. There was a guy inside the garage tending to one of his four amazing cars. There was a Rolls Royce and a Porsche in the front and a massive 4WD and what looked like an even more impressive sports car at the back. That's a lot of cash in one garage!

We were pretty hungry by this stage, so we headed back down the hill to the waterfront area, taking in the amazing views of the super yachts lined up in the port as we went. We found a place called Le Bambi, where we could sit outside in the sun and look out to the port and all the boats. Le Bambi did some pretty solid chicken paninis, although they charged us €6 for a coke!

After lunch we headed for the Monte Carlo district and the world famous Monte Carlo casino. Don't be fooled by the very strict dress code set out in guide books and websites; so long as you are fairly respectable they will let you in - we were all wearing jeans and Tim did not have a jacket or tie but we had no worries getting in. You do need your passport to get in though.

Aside from the gambling rooms, the casino complex also includes the Grand Theatre de Monte Carlo, an opera and ballet house, and the headquarters of the Ballets de Monte Carlo. Strangely enough, the citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms! The magnificent building was opened in 1863.

Inside the casino is every bit as impressive as the outside of the building. The walls and ceilings are decorated with art work, similar to some of the royal palaces we have visited. We all managed to leave the casino as winners, albeit rather small winners. We started on the slot machines, where they have those old fashioned machines with levers that you pull down to spin!!! Tim and Libby both made a bit of money on those, while Megan was far more lucky on the roulette tables.

We watched some of the more serious punters on the tables for a while before we decided to have a go ourselves. There was one guy who put €2,000 on the table in four €500 notes (we didn't even know there were €500 notes!), then scattered the chips he was given all over the place and 10 minutes later repeated the process, again without any luck...pretty quick way to blow €4,000. Tim had a bit of luck with the old red-black-black-red combo, while sneaky old Megan made €25 in one pop.

After quitting while we were ahead, we sat outside the Cafe de Paris next to the casino and enjoyed a drink in the sunshine. There is a big roundabout in front of the casino and it seems that only incredibly expensive cars are allowed to drive around it. While we sat there with our drinks we saw dozens of Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, as well as the odd Lamborghini and Rolls Royce...it was insane!

It was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to disappear behind the hills, so we had a walk through Monte Carlo and down to the Promenade de Champions - a long walkway along the seafront that has a collection of the footprints of some of the world's most famous footballers moulded into the footpath. We saw the footprints of Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, as well as the supreme football genius, Zinedine Zidane (photo below).

Then it was time to catch the train back to Nice, where we rested our very tired legs before having a couple of drinks in the hotel bar. We made our way towards the Massena Square, where we found dozens of restaurants, including one called Le Maori, complete with Maori artwork on the menus!!! But we opted for another restaurant across the road from Le Maori, where we had a fantastic dinner and some fairly decent French wine. We also wowed our waiter with our extensive French vocabulary, before heading home via the Haagen Dazs ice cream shop - so good!