Monaco

Yesterday we took the train to the Principality of Monaco, a city-state that is surrounded by France and the Mediterranean Sea. It's less than a mile square but it packs a big punch - there is a lot to see in this small place.

Our first stop was the world famous Casino de Monte-Carlo. This casino is what put Monaco on the modern map. After losing the towns of Menton and Roquebrun (and their olive oil and citrus tax revenues) to France as part of a referendum in the mid-1800s, the ruling Grimaldi family of Monaco needed to find a new source of revenue to avoid bankruptcy. Plans were drawn up for a resort and casino, and it took on several incarnations over a couple of decades before the palatial building designed by Charles Garnier was completed. Gaming revenues almost instantly solved the Grimaldi family's financial issues, and over the decades the famous Monte-Carlo Casino has taken on an almost mythic reputation for opulence and elegance.

The casino is only open for tours by the riff-raff (aka "tourists") from 10am until 1pm because the high-rolling gamblers arrive at 2pm when the gaming tables open. There is a strict dress code to enter: no baseball hats or flip-flops for the tourists, and if you come to gamble after 2pm you'd better be dressed to impress. Unfortunately, a passport or national ID card is required to enter at any time; we had neglected to bring ours and as a result we were only allowed into the Atrium and missed out on seeing the gambling salons. But I did discover a fun fact: the citizens of Monaco are not allowed to enter the casino gaming rooms or gamble at the casino! When the casino was built in the 1860s, the regent Princess Caroline felt that gambling was immoral and did not want her citizens to become morally degenerate (I'm guessing she didn't want them drinking absinthe, either...). Gambling revenue would thus only come from foreigners, and as a trade-off Monaco's citizens would not have to pay income taxes. Caroline's attempt at controlling the moral character of the Monégasque citizens failed in the end though; over time the tax haven advantages and emphasis on gambling turned the city into a "sunny place full of shady people" as Somerset Maugham noted in the 1930s.

Just across the port from the casino is a high promontory called the Rock of Monaco. It's a steep hike to get to the top, but when you do the view is worth it! The Rock offers views on all sides of the port, the sea, and the lower-lying coastal land behind it. This strategic area was a defensive stronghold in the Middle Ages.

It was in 1297 that Francesco Grimaldi seized Monaco's fortress from a rival Genoese faction. Using a "Trojan horse" tactic, he and his men arrived at the castle disguised as Franciscan friars and were able to get inside and take control. Francisco's cousin Ranier I founded the monarchy that has more or less kept control of Monaco since that time, making the Grimaldi dynasty Europe's longest-ruling royal family. In the 1600s Spain and France recognized Monaco as a Principality, which is why its monarchs are styled as "Princes" but not "Kings". Fittingly, a friar wielding a sword is featured prominently on Monaco's coat of arms.

Having hiked to the top of the Rock of Monaco, we were now in the Monaco-Ville district, which is the location of the Royal Palace, Cathedral, and historical village. The beautiful Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-Immaculée is where Prince Ranier III married actress Grace Kelly in 1956. And it is also their final resting place -- Grace Kelly died in a tragic car crash in 1982 and Rainier was interred beside her on his death in 2005. The cathedral faces the sea and overlooks a pretty park that is built into the steep hillside.

From the other side of the palace square, we could look down on one of the newer districts of Monaco, Fontvielle. Because Monaco is so small, the Principality has been undertaking reclamation projects to enlarge its territory. Fontvielle was constructed on artificially reclaimed land from the sea. Note the luxurious rooftop gardens and fancy yachts in the harbor. If you want to buy an apartment here in Monaco, it will cost you -- small studios and one bedroom apartments start $1.5 million and go up in price rapidly, yikes! But just think of all the money you'd save with no income taxes, right?!

Just down the street from the cathedral is Monaco's excellent aquarium -- the Musée Océanographique. 

It's more than just an aquarium, as it is also part of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco founded by Prince Albert I in 1906. The Institute is now a global organization and lobbies for marine science education, protection of the ocean and marine environments, and preservation of marine species.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the director of the museum from 1957-1988. Here is one of the mini-subs he used in his research expeditions, the Anorep 1. It can only fit two people so despite the color there's no way we could "all" live in it. And now that catchy earworm of a song will be in your head all day. You're welcome.

The part of town just below the palace and beside the port is called La Condamine. Here in this district we walked through the Place des Armes and one of the prettiest open-air markets we've seen on the Cote d'Azur. Monaco is so posh even the market stalls are color-coordinated. You can see the stone walls of the old city up on the hill to the left.

Monaco's main harbor is called Port Hercule. This is where all the flashy yachts dock during the Formula One Grand Prix race that is held here every year. The port was also a location for the James Bond film Golden Eye.

If you are a Formula 1 fan but can't be here for the annual race in May, there are F1-related things to see all over the Principality. Like this statue dedicated to William Grover, the winner of the very first Monaco Grand Prix race in 1929.

I think this guy must've been channeling grand prix drivers of the 1930s. We saw him rambling around in this old racecar in front of the Hotel de Paris next to the casino. We couldn't figure out if this was a rental, a promotional stunt, or what. It was just one of the many interesting cars/supercars we saw today driving around the regular roads of Monaco.

Speaking of the roads in Monaco, here is the famous Fairmont Hairpin, part of Monaco's grand prix course. The F1 cars have to take this corner at about 30mph, which is quite a challenge when they can get up to speeds of 180mph elsewhere on the track. Due to its layout as a street course in a compact city, the race course at Monaco is the slowest race on the calendar -- on other tracks the cars exceed 200mph but here they have to drive more slowly because of all the curves. I like that the curbs are always left painted red and white even after the race.

We visited the Car Collection of the late Prince Rainier III to see some classic and recent F1 cars. Since Kevin was wearing his Mercedes Hat, I had to take this photo of him with the "Silver Arrow".

The Prince's car collection was amazing -- so many cars from different eras. I liked that he deliberately searched out this 1954 Sunbeam Alpine roadster.

Although it wasn't the exact car used in the film, the Prince restored it to match the one driven by Grace Kelly in the movie To Catch a Thief.

This interesting little corner of Europe seems to have it all: sun, sea, glitz, glamour, royalty, and flashy cars. We really enjoyed our short visit to this fairytale place where the motto seems to be "the sky's the limit"!

Video: Mallorca

 Here's a short video Kevin put together of our visit to Mallorca.

Cala Millor, Mallorca, Spain

Surprise! We took a side trip to España!

We left our apartment in Nice to meet up with Kevin's cousin Ann-Sofie and her family. Years ago Kevin was doing some genealogical research before we went to Sweden (his great-grandfather had emigrated from Sweden to the US in the early 1900s). He came across a long-lost branch of his family tree on an ancestry website, made contact via email, and we met up with Ann-Sofie and her husband Lasse while we were staying in Stockholm. We've kept in touch ever since.

Ann-Sofie and Lasse were on the island of Mallorca to watch their granddaughter play in an important invitational soccer tournament. It was only a one-hour flight from Nice, so we decided to go over for a few days to watch some games as well.

We enjoyed spending time with Kevin's family and watching the action-packed soccer games. We even learned how to cheer in Swedish, and we were very proud of how well the Lidingö team played. Although they did not win the tournament they won some very tough matches and did very well overall. Go Lidingö!

We also did a little bit of sightseeing while we were on the island. Cala Millor is about an hour's drive from the island's capital city of Palma. There is a long stretch of beach with a pretty boardwalk that has some great views of the clear turquoise water.

Cala Millor is on the northeast coast of the island and has a dramatic coastline with caves and cliffs towering over the turquoise blue water. 

We took a three-hour boat cruise and saw some of the highlights including some large sea caves and a natural arch carved away by the waves.

We enjoyed our too-brief visit to this sunny, beachy part of Spain. It was like a mini-vacation from our vacation!

Castle Hill, Chagall Museum, and the Hotel Negresco

We had beautiful weather on Monday and to get a little exercise we decided to climb the Colline du Château (Castle Hill). This hill is situated above the old town and overlooks the town and Promenade des Anglais on one side and Port Lympia on the other.

As the name implies, there used to be a castle here in the 11th century. At that time the original town of Nizza was located within the fortifications on the hill. But after a siege by the French in 1706, the castle, fort, and town were totally destroyed (recall that back then Nice was not French but part of the Duchy of Savoy). Currently Castle Hill is a beautiful city park, and there are ongoing archaeological excavations to unearth the foundations of the former cathedral and other original buildings of the city. There is also an artificial waterfall and peaceful cemetery at the summit.

After taking in the views from the viewpoint at the top, we walked down towards the sea and found the Monument aux Morts, a war memorial to honor the 4000 Niçois who died during World War I. Built right into the cliff, the monument is an astonishing 32 meters (104 feet) high.

From the monument, we meandered back into the old town, passing by the pretty Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate in the Place Rossetti. 

In the afternoon we headed by bus to the Marc Chagall museum. It's a unique museum because the artist was still living when it was developed, and the space was designed with his input about placement and presentation of the works. The paintings in the collection here have Old Testament themes (Genesis, Exodus, Song of Songs).

Chagall was born in Russia in 1887 (today Belarus) and many of his works reference his Russian and Jewish upbringing, although he lived much of his adult life in France and the US. He was not only a painter; he also created beautiful works of stained glass and mosaic tiles. All of his works showcase his mastery of color and surrealistic imagery. This painting is the fifth in the "Song of Songs" series. 

The museum had a temporary installation called "Chagall and Me" where they displayed works by other artists inspired by Chagall. In the Song of Songs display, a parfumer (...perfume artist?) who has worked with Cartier and Hermès created several distinctive scents to accompany the paintings...a high-end version of smell-o-vision.

Kevin made a lunch reservation at the Hotel Negresco for Tuesday so that we could get inside to see this iconic hotel that has an impressive collection of art as well. We made sure to arrive a few minutes early so that we could explore a bit and we were not disappointed. We waited in the Royal Lounge which has a beautiful stained glass ceiling and a Baccarat 16,000-crystal chandelier that was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II but never delivered (due to the events in Russia in 1917).

The hotel was opened by Henri Negresco in 1913 and passed through several owners until it was bought by the Augier family in the 1950s. Jeanne Augier oversaw the hotel's transformation into a hotel-museum bringing a collection of 6000 works of art and historic furniture. She died a few years ago at the age of 95 but under her guidance the hotel became synonymous with luxury and glamour. In the "Le Versailles Bar" hangs one of three existing copies of the famous Louis XIV portrait signed by Hyacinthe Rigaud in 1701.

The Michelin-starred Le Chantecler fine dining restaurant is only open for dinner, so we instead enjoyed lunch at the La Rotunde Brasserie. We were, as usual, the first ones there and enjoyed some fancy cocktails with lunch. Kevin's drink was the Negresco's take on a Negroni (the "Negresconi") -- a well-crafted portmanteau to go with a well-crafted beverage. À votre santé!

Bienvenue à la Côte d'Azur, France!

It's been quite a week since we left Lake Como! 

We returned to Milan for our final night in Italy, just because catching the ferry from Menaggio and a train from Varenna might have been touch-and-go for catching our reserved 11am fast train from Milan to Ventimiglia. (After spending a month in Lake Como, we knew that the "schedules" for both the ferry and train were more like "suggestions" in terms of precision). We stayed in an unmemorable hotel near the train station for convenience, but I think we would have preferred to stay back over in Brera if we hadn't had to catch the train. I will say that the Milan Centrale train station is quite a work of Art Nouveau/Art Deco architecture, with some fascist-looking elements thrown in for good measure thanks to Mussolini being in charge during the completion of the station. In hindsight, we probably should have flown from Malpensa airport to Nice -- it would have been faster and less hassle than taking several trains and stopovers. Lesson learned!

Ventimiglia is the last Italian town on the Italian-French border of the Riviera Coast. It is the "end of the line" for Italian trains, so from there we took a French regional train (no reservation needed -- yay!) to the French town just across the border called Menton. This charming town has it all -- sea, sun, and lots and lots of citrus. I can confirm that the limoncello we tasted here was magnificent.

We explored the harbor and the beach boardwalk and then walked up the steps toward the formidable church of Saint Michael the Archangel at the top of the hill.

The streets of old town Menton are a maze of alleyways and stairs leading up and down, like a town designed by MC Escher. We were glad we booked one night here so we could explore this town fully before moving on to our Airbnb in Nice.

Here is a quick map courtesy of RickSteves.com with an orientation to the Cote d'Azur (also known as the French Riviera). You can see Ventimiglia and Menton all the way to the right, and then moving westward down the coast you'll see Monaco, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cap Ferrat, Nice, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, and Cannes. When we left Menton, we took the regional train which hugs the coast and has beautiful views of the sea from the windows.

Our Airbnb apartment in Nice is a little less spacious than the one in Menaggio, but it has most of the things we will need for a long stay here.

If we lean waaaaay, way out on the balcony we can just barely see the blue of the Mediterranean Sea. Like our apartment in Menaggio, this apartment is on the third floor with no elevator. So we will continue getting our daily workout just going up and down the stairs!

We got acquainted with our new city by taking a couple of long walks. The first walk was along the Promenade des Anglais ("English Promenade").

This uninterrupted path hugs close to the water all the way along the 7 kilometer stretch of rocky beach. Back in the early 1800s, English aristocrats used to winter in Nice to escape the gray drizzly winters back home. They funded the construction of a paved walkway so that they could stroll in all their finery along the sea. We like it because there are no intersections or traffic lights, so you can walk as far along as you'd like without needing to stop to cross a street. 

Our second walk took us to Nice's seaport, Port Lympia. The long history of Nice includes: initial settlement by Greeks in 300 BC (Nice gets its name from the Greek city name Nikaia after the goddess Nike), the addition of a nearby Roman settlement of Cemenelum (that eventually merged with the rest of Nice and is now the hilly district of Cimiez), and for most of its history from the middle ages until 1860 the city was called Nizza and was actually a part of Italy (well, since Italy didn't exist yet it was actually part of the Duchy of Savoy and then the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia). The port is a relatively recent development compared to the town's history -- it's only been open since the mid-1700s, and originally was much smaller than it is today.

We had some really great weather to do some exploring around the Riviera this week, so on Thursday we took a short bus ride to the cape called Cap Ferrat, where there is an absolutely gorgeous gilded age palace that was built by heiress Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild. The mansion had room after room of precious art, antique furniture, and more porcelain china on display than anyone could ever use in one lifetime.

But what was really stunning was the garden. Or I should say gardens, plural. There are nine gardens you can walk through and each has a theme (Spanish garden, Rose garden, English garden, etc.). The gardens have some really jaw-dropping views as well.

After touring the Ephrussi Villa, we walked to the little town of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and had lunch, then took a walk along part of the cape. The many hues of blue in the water below explain why this region has the name Cote d'Azur ("Blue Coast"). This is one of several beaches on Cap Ferrat, called Anse des Fossettes.

Heading back on the return bus to Nice, we stopped off briefly at the pretty town of Villefranche-sur-Mer. It's a cute but somewhat touristy town -- cruise ships often anchor here in the deep harbor and tender the guests into town. We noticed that prices for drinks at the waterfront bars were much higher than we were willing to pay, so we headed back to the bus stop and on to Nice.

On Friday we walked north from our apartment to the neighborhood called "Liberation" where they have a nice produce and fish market. We bought some perfectly ripe figs and a couple of super-ripe heirloom tomatoes.

Afterwards we took the city bus over to the Cimiez neighborhood to have a look at the ruins of the Roman arena and bath complex there. The ruins date back to the 3rd century AD.

Saturday, we planned a daylong excursion over to Cap d'Antibes. The town of Antibes was a Greek outpost in the 5th century BC and was later occupied by the Romans. During the Middle Ages it was part of Burgandy and the Holy Roman Empire. Unlike Nice, which has had more of an Italian influence, Antibes has always been French. The French fortified the city with walls and a massive defensive fort to keep the Italians (well not really the Italians but rather whoever was ruling Liguria at the time - Savoy, Spain, Austria...) on their side of the border. 

Antibes is also home to Port Vauban, the largest yacht harbor in Europe. It has over 2000 mooring spaces and can dock megayachts up to 100 meters (980 feet). One of the biggest ones we saw was the $200 million megayacht Faith measuring in at 97 meters.

The farmer's market here in Antibes had many more items than we saw in the Liberation market over in Nice -- spices, preserves, charcuterie, cheese, handicrafts, and artistically displayed fresh produce.

Right next to the market was a sign proudly proclaiming "L'Absinthe Bar". We were intrigued so we decided to go in, even though it was only 11am.

Stepping into the bar was like stepping into a museum dedicated to Absinthe. What is absinthe, you might be wondering. Well, it's a high-alcohol botanical liquor that tastes a bit like licorice or anise seed thanks to its main ingredient, wormwood extract (scientific name: Artemisia absinthium). It can have a white or greenish hue and was a popular drink with artists and writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Alcoholism was such a problem back then and the 70% alcohol content of absinthe led to claims that it deteriorated moral character. By 1915 it was banned in many countries, including the US and France, and only recently since the 2000s has it been re-discovered and made legal again.  You don't drink it straight, but instead it is mixed with plenty of ice water from an absinthe fountain on the table that is slowly dripped into the glass over a sugar cube on a special "absinthe spoon" until the sugar dissolves. There's quite a ritual to it, as the water dribbles very slowly out of the spigot. Was 11am on a Saturday morning too early for a sample? Not if you wear a vintage hat and pretend you are a character in a Manet painting. After just one glass each, we left the bar with a bit of a buzz but with our moral character (more or less) intact.

From Antibes we walked across the cape to the beachy town of Juan-les-Pins. The beaches on Cap Antibes are sandy instead of pebbly like the rest of the French Riviera. If you forgot to bring water shoes or love digging your toes in the sand, this is the place to be.

For contrast, here is a photo of the beach in Nice with the pink-domed roof of the historic Hotel Negresco in the background. If you love the water, but hate sand getting everywhere, this is the beach for you. 

The only problem with the pebbles is that they are not easy on the feet -- ouch! We packed good-soled water shoes just for this purpose. Today we took a day off of sightseeing and rented chairs and an umbrella to relax at one of the beach clubs close to our apartment. It was the hottest day of the week and the water was very refreshing. So were the beers.

As we headed back to the apartment in the late afternoon, we walked past the beautiful Belle Epoque-era Negresco hotel. Lots of famous names have stayed at this hotel such as Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, and Paul McCartney. We took note of this Rolls Royce parked out front, loitering for a few minutes (wet watershoes in hand, no less -- très classy!) to see if anybody of note stepped out to claim it. No luck but if we happen to find out who it belongs to, we'll be sure to let you know.