We took the bus to Monaco, but we should have taken the family yacht and arrived in style.
Except we don’t have a yacht.
And without a yacht, it is hard to feel at home here.
I guess my preconceived stereotype would be that Monaco is filled with the rich and the richer, and that pretty well sums it up. mere millionaires aren't in fashion here.
Walking around you notice the road repair crew, on their knees, carefully pulling out and replacing one broken cobblestone at a time. Or the high-rise apartment with a roof top forest; actual trees as opposed to a rooftop garden. The Au Pair, leading her little charges through the gardens, and so many Ferraris and Lamborghinis that you just quit looking at them, clustered around the main casino area. You need a coat and tie to even enter the casino, so we just skipped it. We did a little window shopping, and noticed the Prada Store seemed to be on the budget end of the street.
We did enjoy walking around a people watching. There was an art exhibit going on that had to do with falcons, and the fountains that are in the main park, in front of the casino, are beautiful.
I had a walk-away slice of pizza from a little shop tucked back on a side street, but we waited till we returned to Villefranche to really eat. The palace is built up on a cliff that sticks out into the sea, and below is a yacht harbor. It was fun to walk along looking at the yachts: the “mini” ones, bigger than my house, with smaller speedboats (large as a houseboat) pulled up on the rear deck, with a couple Sea-Doos pulled up on the back deck of that boat. The further out on the dock you went, the progressively larger the ships, all the way up to the mega-yachts that were Titanic sized, too big to even dock. Looking back on the city, it seems like wall to wall high-rise apartment buildings, crammed in and glittering in the sun.
In the midst of it all are little parks, carefully manicured. At the Princess Grace park you are not allowed to play, take videos, eat, sit… the list of rules is pretty long. But then again, maybe that is why everything in Monaco is so well tended, clean and precise. Perhaps that is the cost of a “picture perfect” world: giving up all those little freedoms you enjoy.
Monaco is fascinating in a weird sort of way, kind of a window, a glimpse into another life style.
I was glad to return to France.