Day 15 - [m]onaco
Sharing the streets with the rich and famous
Even the quality of the Fairmont Monte Carlo couldn’t provide a good night’s sleep. I am sure that it is the endless rotation of ‘someone else’s bed’ that’s doing me in. At least the shower was good. European showers have not been impressing me. The Fairmont provided the style of shower I’m used to staying in Accor hotels. I spent some of the morning pulling together the blog for the Nice trip but didn’t finish (as regular readers will have seen). There was much to process and I felt the day was leaving me without having seen any of Monaco yet.
I asked the concierge for some advice on how to best see Monaco in a day. She explained that walking from one end to the other would take about 45 minutes, so plot out a circuit on the map (that she provided) and off you go. I said that I would certainly like to find out exactly where the station is so that I can time tomorrow morning’s departure. She said, just walk down here and there’s a walkway through to the station. (I later realised that the walk up to the station literally crossed Monaco, from the harbour to the French border! Not more than 500m, if that.) Also, she said, you should visit the Palais Principier and the old town. I talked about walking the F1 race circuit and she turned the tourist map over and showed me how it had the track highlighted in red. The other important tip that she gave me was to leave the hotel by its rooftop, rather than walk out the front door onto the Hairpin Bend.
Armed with all this good advice, I set off. It was another gorgeous Mediterranean day, bright and sunny. Walking off the roof-top of the hotel I was right underneath the Opera building, which is very impressive. Scattered around in some of its manicured grounds are all sorts of lovely sculptures, ripe for admiring when you can tear your gaze away from the Mediterranean laid out before you.
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I wandered down the road towards the harbour. This street is a key part of the F1 course – the straightaway up the hill to the casino – and it’s a lot steeper than I imagined from watching the race; about as steep as the climb up to Reed Corner on the Bathurst track, I’d say. The view down to Monaco harbour was great. It showed Monaco in all its ‘extravagant wedding cake decoration’ glory.
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At the foot of the hill was the pedestrian access to the train station. I walked up there, then climbed the steep stairs to find the station very easily. I checked which platform I would need, and was happy that the morning’s departure would be smooth. It had taken me no more than 20 mins to get to the station, stopping along the way to take photos and check where I was supposed to be going. The morning’s walk would not be more than 10 mins. I discovered later that the little church where I turned in to the walk to the station was a tribute to a child who was washed ashore on a boat, the lone survivor of a ship wreck in the Eleventh Century. This child became the port’s patron Saint – Saint Devota – and her death is marked every year on 27 January with a holiday and fireworks; Monaco’s national day.
After finding the station and settling the ‘anxious traveller mind’, I decided to wander along the harbour shore and head to the Palais, have a look around there, then circle back to the hotel along the high road, stopping for lunch somewhere in the city.
The walk along the harbour side was a little claustrophobic. They are either setting up or pulling down a huge fair, full of rides, that screens the actual harbour from the city street. I walked right across the harbour front up to the entry to pit straight on the F1 track. There’s a statue tributing the legendary Fangio. It’s quite substantial and I’d never seen it in any F1 coverage that I’d seen.
The trail to the Palais led (directly) uphill – more stairs. It’s obvious that Monaco is a steep-sided bowl around the harbour, one look tells you that. But I am developing a bit of resentment about all the climbing I’m having to do. The climb was certainly worth it for the views.
The path led to a park right at the point of the headland on which the old town was built. Really a lovely environment with wonderful views across the Mediterranean. I kept walking and came across the Museum of Oceanography, a huge building purpose-built. I was told later (in tour commentary) that the building is 100m long, and that 85m of it hangs out over the ocean! I didn’t get to witness that but it’s a pretty amazing fact.
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Just outside the museum was a ‘tiny train’ tour. This suddenly appealed to me as a great way to see Monaco, have the sights explained to me, and not spend too much time walking up and down the hills of Monaco. I got a ticket and made myself comfortable. The tour met my needs very well. The first bit of it basically re-traced my steps already today, but added commentary to what I had seen (e.g., explaining about the town’s patron saint). Then it started visiting places that I hadn’t got to so I saw more stuff, that was also explained. I took a few photos from the tour train but they were mostly rubbish. I later re-took most of them. This one was looking back at the Casino and Hotel de Paris.
Eventually, the train pulled up in the square outside the Palais (one stop before returning to its origin). There was a crowd gathering outside the main gate to the Palais Princier (the Prince’s Palace). It was obvious that something was about to happen. So, knowing that there was only one more stop, I alighted and joined the crowd. In the fullness of time (about 15 mins), the guard changed. It was a simple, formal military handover of one squad to another, supported by a small band. The actual handover was precisely conducted but you could see that the guards were very used to this and so were quite casual in their bearing.
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I left the courtyard in front of the Palais Princier before the handover was complete. I’ve had the good fortune to see military drills and ‘routines’ quite a bit. This group were disciplined, but it was nothing special in itself. I wandered into the old town, and it was clearly a very old town as none of the roads were trafficable (little more than pedestrian lanes), yet the town was humming with activity and every door at ground level was some commercial enterprise.
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Earned the nickname “Malizia” |
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| Street scenes of old Monaco-ville | ||
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While viewing the old town, I discovered that there was another path down from the ramparts that led to a market square. That sounded ideal for my next walk, looking for a place to get some lunch. I found a place, banally called Monaco Bar and had a very pleasant club sandwich for lunch. After lunch I set off down Rue Garabaldi, which the tour train had told me was the main shopping strip. There were certainly shops everywhere, many of them top flight brands. Leading off Rue Garabaldi towards the harbour were streets, full of places to eat and more shops. On this beautiful day, it was a very busy place, filled with tourists.
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Walking along Rue Garabaldi I happened upon a real estate agent window. I took a photo of what was on offer. Shortly after, I took a photo up a very short lane of what I think might be some ‘dormitory housing’. Google Lens translates for me that the top-left offer is for a 2-room apartment that has been renovated: only €4.6m. (That’s two rooms, not two bedrooms!) The bottom-left offer is for a new 4-room apartment in the new apartment building built opposite the Fairmont Hotel on reclaimed land: price on application, which I translate as “if you have to ask you can’t afford it”.
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One of the first things that the tour train commentary mentioned was the very high level of security in the principality. Apparently, one police officer for every 60 residents. Unsurprising, I suppose, if you think of the target-rich environment for criminals and the security conscious nature of those targets. I saw the police everywhere, usually patrolling on foot, on a scooter, or in a car in pairs, but also stationed at various locations around the city. In the picture, there was a constant presence of a policeman standing at this intersection where one turns right into the forecourt of the Opera House, or left up to the plaza in front of the Hotel de Paris.
Eventually, I was down to the little church and then climbed back up the hill to the casino. (The high road I’d seen on the map was a tunnel! There are a few running below Monaco.) The tour train had done two laps of this segment as it is clearly the most famous part of modern Monaco. The plaza in front of the Hotel Hermitage is choked with the ultra-brands. The plaza between the Hotel de Paris and the Casino is gorgeous (and choked with tourists). The gardens above the casino plaza are beautiful and well-maintained.
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As well as walking around all this gorgeous cityscape, I went into the casino foyer to see inside. Of course, you can’t enter the casino unless you intend to play, and there’s a dress code. However, they do allow the peasants in to the foyer to get a sample of the rich ornateness of the casino. It was worth the look (but difficult to properly photograph).
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I was now very close to my hotel again and felt that I had seen enough of Monaco to have a feel for the place. For Canberra readers, Monaco is literally no bigger than the Woden/Phillip commercial area, though incredibly densely inhabited and steeply-sloping away from the harbour. It really doesn’t take much to see the main sights. It has led me to believe that Monaco is a place to visit when you have something to do there (there were two conferences/workshops going on at the Fairmont while I was there) because you run out of things to do without that. And, Monaco is too expensive to just sit around idly.
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I spent the latter half of the afternoon updating my previous post, napping and reading. I had decided to have dinner in the hotel again, this time at the Japanese-Peruvian-fusion restaurant, Nobu. That turned out to be a great idea. With the seven course degustation menu and three glasses of wine it cost me nearly AUD400 but that’s Monaco prices and every bite of the food was a delight. (If I’d picked a la carte for three courses it would have cost nearly as much as the degustation, and the wine-by-the-glass was nearly half the bill.)
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| Daily facts: Location: [M]onaco Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny and warm |
The real estate prices are crazy!! TT
ReplyDeleteYes, they are. A classic example of scarcity driving 'value'. I'm pretty sure, though, that most 'residents' of Monaco actually live in France or Italy and commute. I can't see how you could live in Monaco if you work in retail or hospitality, even renting a one-room apartment.
Delete$$$$$ Lunch!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it stung to pay that bill. I noticed though that it included something like 30% in tax and have realised that most of the expensive stuff that I've been paying has included large tax components. I'm going to pay more attention to the receipts that they absolutely insist that you take.
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