Monaco

We awoke to a gray day. The sun was obscured by a blanket of clouds. We dressed  hurriedly and were on our way. But first we stopped by the front desk to ask if the clerk would take care of our parking fee. You could only pay for six hours of parking at once. We would be gone longer. We needed help. The day clerk said that he would be glad to take care of it for us. Having solved this problem we breakfasted at a cafe on the way to the train station which must have been at least half a mile down through the zig-zaged streets. Coffee and croissants make a good breakfast when you are in a hurry. Buy it at the counter, sit and enjoy, no waiting for wait staff. The place was crowded with natives on the way to work, reading their newspapers, buying lottery tickets over the din of musical French in a light cloud of cigarette smoke.  It's almost like fast food. I guess it is food, fast. We catch the train for Monaco. It was easier here because there was a ticket agent instead of the usual automated ticket dispensers. It would have been a very nice train ride had it not been for rude Americans. One woman yells loudly, "Is this train going to Italy?" Then complains about all her misadventures and about how they don't do it this way in Dallas. We  spoke not a word and tried to appear European.

The railroad track follows the contour of the land as it meets the sea and we had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean  off the starboard side of the train. In less than an hour we disembark at the station in the principality of Monaco.  We have indeed crossed the border into the only true monarchy in the free world.  Monaco like Villafranche-sur-mur from which we came seems to be cantilevered on the side of a

mountain. We exit one of the four exits of the station into the minuscule country (.75square miles) of 30,000 residents.  It is one of the money laundering capitals of the world. (Infamously known as "a sunny place for shady people") Our goal is to see the changing of the guard at the prince's palace. We tend to like the military pomp of these ceremonies.  Ah, yes, the thunder of drums and flash of sabers! Monaco is the only city we've visited where you can take an elevator between streets.  I often have difficulty getting my head around this idea...but I did it..so...  We have a small map of the city in our guidebook and notice how reality is very different from the printed page.  The page lies flat, the city does not.  It's about ten o'clock in the morning and the ceremony is at 11:55 and we decide to walk to the top of the mountain upon which Palias Princier sits. The climb is steep and I cursed my miserly Scottish ancestry which kept me from the one euro bus ride.

The palace is the home of Monaco's ruling monarch, Prince Albert, whose full name and title is Prince Albert Alexandre Louise Pierre, Marquis of Baux. I'm not sure why he's not a king, since he is the head of the Gramaldi ruling family. The court yard is beautiful and there are great views of the city and harbors below. This would possibly have been a great place to view the Grand Prix of Monaco, an automobile race of international renown. A statue of Francois Grimaldi dominates the palace square.  Old Francois conquered the area in 1297 masqueraded as a monk. Although the Prince is the ruler of Monaco, the country administrator, telephone system, electricity ,water and so on are French.

We arrived early at the palace and got a front row view of the changing of the guard. We spent the waiting time looking at the various cannon on display  and admiring the views of the harbor but avoided the gift shop which was doing a booming business with the burgeoning crowd of tourists.  By this spectacular ceremony you would think that Monaco was a world power. It's quite entertaining with a brass band and pith helmeted palace guards.  I noted that the rifles were M-16's with bayonets.  Bayonet training was eliminated  from the American combat training regimen recently.  After the changing of the ceremony, the guards return to their respective posts and we leave the palace.  And it's all downhill.  We wanted to see the casino.  The most famous casino in the world.



Monte Carlo is a area of Monaco.  (I always thought it was the name of the casino.) Monte Carlo actually means "Charles's Hill" in Spanish and was named for the ruling prince at the time the casino was built.  Over the entrance to the casino reads Casino de Monte Carlo.  It is flanked on the right by the Hotel de Paris and on the left by the Loews Casino.  Casino de Monte Carlo is the gambling establishment frequented by James Bond in the 007 films.  I would have been great to have seen Sean Connery drive up in an Aston Martin DB-5. Connery did not appear but the exotic sports cars were there;  Ferrari, Maserati, Aston -Martin, Bentley and others. This place exudes conspicuous consumption. The casino doesn't open until 2:00 P.M. and we weren't interesting in waiting.

However, to feed the desire take a chance, we entered the Loews Casino.  The machines seem to have in insatiable appetite for euros.  One noticeable difference from Vegas was the absence of free drinks. There is a lot of security here and no cameras allowed in the casino.

After spending the allotted amount on casino entertainment we would catch the train to Nice for an afternoon admiring the artwork of one of the great French masters.