Monaco, Monte Carlo, E’ze, Nice

View of Monte Carlo from our ship this morning.  Our weather has been perfect so far, I guess it’s time for some clouds. Rain is predicted. Dave and I are on our own today. Scroggies and Seegers are doing the walking tour later. 


There are underground tunnels for traffic here. Apparently not everyone is allowed to drive in the tunnels but the buses can.

MONACO

Monaco is a Principality, ruled by Prince Albert II, son of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, 67 years old. All streets lead to the palace!


NO INCOME TAX in Monaco, hence all the very rich people. It’s the second smallest land (2.5 square kilometers) after the Vatican City. 39,000 residents and 125 nationalities.

lol

Trivia: Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier at a Gala while she was here filming To Catch a Thief in 1954. We saw the road where she died in the car accident in 1982. The family wanted just a small tasteful monument to her:


This is the church that casino dollars (Euros) built. Princess Grace and Prince Rainier were married here in 1956 and both are entombed here.



The flag is flying when Prince Albert II is in residence. This is the palace.


And we saw the changing of the guard:


Good view from the Palace. We could see our ship!




Princess Caroline’s house on the left; Princess Stephanie’s on the right.


This is the Hall of Justice. We asked what kind of legal problems they have here: 1) Divorce, 2) Real Estate disputes. 

So public bathrooms in Nice cost .50€ but they had seats. Toilettes are free in Monaco but be prepared to squat…no seats! (I guess you get what you pay for.)



MONTE CARLO


The Hotel de Paris


And the famous casino. We could get to the lobby but you need a passport, 19€ and more elegant dress to get into the Casino to gamble.




If you would like to buy an apartment here, they run 140,000-160,000€/sq meter, unless you want a garage, then 200,000€/ sq meter. To get a bank acct here, you must deposit a minimum of 600,000€. Residents must live here 7 months a year for the tax benefits, but most pay staff to stay and show the utilities in use, etc.😂

We saw the stands and some of the Grand Prix track. There will be 3 races: E cars, Old time cars and the traditional race televised on May 25. The circuit is 3,400 meters; drivers will do 78 laps.


This is where the Prince will award the trophy to the winner:

E’ZE

We traveled to the lovely village of E’ze (pronounced ehzz, soft e) where we walked many steps uphill to the Eagles Nest. So happy it was just cloudy. Would have been more treacherous over cobblestone steps in the rain!



Even the trash cans are posh here:


This is the gate to this hotel “The Golden Goat”. Lots of expensive cars here.



This arch is the entrance to the village.


NICE

Not very far away, Nice, where the main industry is tourism. Lots of rich people vacation here on the French Riviera. Some celebrities who have lived or vacationed in Nice or Monaco/Monte Carlo:
  • Elton John
  • Tina Turner
  • Sean Connery
  • Roger Moore (all the James Bonds?)
  • Ringo Starr
  • Pavarotti 
  • Michael Jordan visited on his yacht last year FYI
Very humid today, just a few sprinkles! (But a bad hair day….paid 12€ for a cap here). We could see our ship from some of the higher spots.



Statue of Apollo in the main square.


These surrounding statues on the square celebrate all of the tourists who come from all over the world. They are lit at night.

Flower market as well as other goods sold all over the city.

Because windows were very expensive, some of the sides of buildings only have painted windows. Can you tell which?


I imagine this Promenade would look gorgeous in the sunlight! On July 14  In 2016 while crowds were waiting for the fireworks to celebrate Revolution Day, a terrorist drove a truck into the crowd and killed many people. 


Then a war memorial on the way out of Nice.


And this!

Dave’s Priority:
I mentioned earlier that after we booked the trip Dave realized that we’d be gone over Masters week and he was not happy. (The Masters is bigger than Christmas for him!) Once we were here, Mike worked his VPN magic and Dave was able to stay up til 1 a.m. our time to watch the end on his phone. This was an important win for Rory McIlroy and Dave got to see it! THANK YOU MIKE SEEGER!








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