Monaco on my mind...

When a friend of mine invited me to stay with her in her hotel whilst she was in Monaco for a business trip I jumped at the chance. Casinos, celebrities, luxury and glamour all ran through my mind as I searched for the cheapest way to get there. Monaco doesn’t actually have an airport – it has a heliport though, a hint as to how small this country really is. The nearest airport to Monaco is Nice, the second biggest airport in France – one of many useful facts I learnt about the region whilst I was there. I arrived on a lovely October afternoon and enquired about the easiest way to get to Monaco from the airport – there is a coach service that runs every hour and takes about 50 minutes to get to the Principality. Its 15 Euros but I managed to get my ticket for 11 Euros (discount ticket for under 25s – I just made it being exactly 25!). The coach dropped my off at my hotel in Fontvielle – the Columbus Hotel situated near the Heliport and the Princess Grace Rose Garden. After dropping my bags off in this chic boutique hotel I ran down to the Rose Garden to delight in the sweet scent of over 100 variants from the Rose family and to marvel at the sculptures. I wandered around the port of Fontvielle and decided to use the tour map…I soon realised how easy it would be for me to find my way around the country. I discovered the local shopping centre with its massive supermarket I knew I could do Monaco on a shoestring. I was due to meet a friend later that day who would also be staying with us at the hotel so decided to take the train to meet her at the airport – there’s only one train station in the World’s second smallest country and you can get to the main station via carefully situated subway tunnels it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the platform from either side. I discovered that I could get off at Nice St. Augustine and walk to Nice Airport in less than 10 minutes for a bargain return fare of 7.80 Euros! I was fast becoming a native of this part of the world and was becoming very much at ease with the knowledge…pity my GCSE French didn’t strengthen this knowledge.

Our first day in Monaco was spent wandering around Fontvielle, the royal palace grounds and La Condamine. Fontvielle is a port area where many high fliers moor their huge yachts and private boats – it’s a wonderful sight if you like boats. There are a few great restaurants along the port that offer Italian and French cuisines as well as an English pub. Every Saturday there’s a flea market on the port – with some glorious little treasures – at quite reasonable prices considering where we were. We wandered up to the Royal palace which is quite steep trek but well worth it in the end. I wanted to take a picture with the guard but when I asked him, he told me that he wasn’t allowed – so we just took a picture of him– I was very disappointed. The old town (Vielle Ville) is situated by the Palace and its cobbled side streets make for a nice walking experience – there are plenty of ice cream shops and tourist gift shops as well an internet café. The Cathedral de Monaco was delightful and the bright sunshine made the architecture look even more commanding. Further up is the Museum of Oceanography which we decided not to enter but if do decide to go has a lovely aquarium apparently. You can get some wonderful views of the entire country from the Jardin de St Martin. The weather in Monaco was idealic and I can’t stress enough how in awe I was that it was 26 degrees in Europe in October. Having walked through the old town and taken more pictures than I care to admit to we decide to walk back down to La condamine, a lovely little shopping/café district. We discovered the most divine vintage clothes store – with vintage Chanel, Cavelli and Louis Vuitton – I wanted to buy the entire shop but decided to take a business card instead for future reference.

The next day we went to the heart to Monaco, Monte Carlo – with its grand Casino and gardens one would think that it’s the capital of Monaco – however Monaco-ville is in fact the capital. It’s a glorious part of town with luxury shops, hotels and gardens that are every tourist dreams for taking holiday photos. We decide not to go inside the Casino de Monte Carlo however we did go inside the Café de Paris’ casino. I found this to be quite a dull and worrying experience – the fact that people were inside this dark place when they could be out basking in the sun bemused me. We left and headed for the Japanese Garden – a quaint little garden all influenced by Zen thinking and was a relaxing treat.
After a hard day of touring activity we went to a little jazz bar we discovered named “Le Jazz” near La Condamine which had a happy hour from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Its interior was plush and classy as one would expect to find a jazz bar and the music was a wonderful mix of classic soul and soft rock.

The next day we headed out to the beach at Larvotto on the other side of country. It’s a tiny pebble beach but very well kept. The sun was doing it job very well so we managed to catch some sun – I decided against going in the water as the weather wasn’t quite hot enough for me but my travel buddy told me it was lovely through chattering teeth.
After a couple of hours and a freshly made crepe we decided to check out Monte Carlo beach. On the way we went to Le Sporting, a gaming and events centre with restaurants and bars. Unfortunately an event was being organised for Prince Albert – so we were politely shuffled out of the building when we were discovered peeking into the glamorous interior. We decided against walking up to the Monte Carlo beach as the sun was beginning to set so went to The Champions Promenade near Larvotto beach. The tour book professed a walk full of the world’s most famous footballers so I was extremely excited expecting to see the footprints of Pele and Zidane. The most famous players footprints were of Maradona and Shevchenko – and there are about 12 prints but we took some pictures of our feet in Maradona’s "golden foot" – he has small feet by the way – size 6 UK to be exact!

The final day of our trip was spent lazing by the pool and wandering along the port side watching locals catch fish. I did manage to get up early enough to catch the changing of the guard at the Palace; this takes place every day at 11:55am and is a nice little treat for those die-hard monarchists. All in all Monaco is a true gem in Europe’s crown and is worth a visit – even if you could do the entire country in less than 48 hours.