Day 5 on Le Cote d'Azur: The Principality of Monaco

Monaco was much different than I had expected. As is shown in the picture below, there's a unique juxtaposition of Old and New here, with the Castle and Government located up on a hill on the west end and the bustling entertainment district to the east. The whole country/principality/city/whatever is very touristy yet spotlessly clean as well. One expectation I did have was correct, but in a strange way: I thought Monaco would look all futuristic, and it did, if we lived in 1920 and were imagining 2050. In effect, the high rises are stuck in the 1970s.


So, as I mentioned, the old castle is situated up on a hill that overlooks the rest of the principality (as is appropriate for a castle to do). The most intriguing part of the walk up these stairs were the defibrillators lining the path, in case of sudden cardiac arrest. Hmmm. Luckily, all of us made it to the top of this wicked climb (though I myself enjoyed it; the view was extraordinary).


Once at the top, we wandered through the touristy area that had been likened to Disney World according to previous visitors to whom we'd spoken. This was true in some way, except there were so many fewer children and offensive colors. Otherwise, it was kind of a zoo.

That didn't take away from the aesthetic value of the architecture, luckily, and one of my favorite examples is this, just to give you an idea:


After eating a quick lunch, we headed on to our purposive destination, the Musée Océanographique de Monaco (whose official site is here, with a much better picture than I could have taken).

Here they have a bunch of neat exhibits, including a variety of aquariums featuring rare sea life, as well as one on Jacques Cousteau, who always pleasantly reminds me of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In addition, there's a whole section on Prince Albert I's voyage to study wildlife in the Arctic, which was followed one hundred years later in the early 2000s by Prince Albert II.

We had a bunch of pictures from inside, but this one turned out the best. It doesn't show you much of what I just talked about, but it looks really nice.


Leaving the museum, we took a bus down the hill into Monte Carlo, which technically is a different city than Monaco, but it's all really confusing. Refer to the Wikipedia post on Monaco on the previous page for more details. Anyhow, the area surrounding the casino, both residential and resort, is one of the most well-kept spaces on the planet. I don't even think Crayola could come up with a green sharp enough to depict how healthy the grass and trees looked in the garden in front of the casino.

They don't let you take pictures inside the casino, so I can't share that with you, but we did sit outside at a large café to enjoy people and car watching. I saw a Ferrari and several Aston Martins, including the one in front of the casino, pictured below. The funny part about that is this was the best picture we could get. There constantly were people standing in front of it for snapshots, and we couldn't get a clear look.


The other funny thing I noticed is that every time I saw a ridiculous car drive by, inevitably some piece of crap would come after. For example, when I saw the Ferrari, it was followed immediately by something called a "Twingo," which was the homeless man's version of a Ford Fiesta. Speaking of which, I really want a Smart Car. Sure, you can't "do anything useful other than drive it," but you can park it absolutely ANYWHERE.

Finally, as our day ran out in Monaco and it started to rain, we finished up our delicious dessert and Monaco's own beer. I'm not even much of one for dessert, but those people sure know how to make an ice-cream sundae.


I bid you farewell until tomorrow, when we venture out into the countryside.