After a quick refreshment, we were heading to the city and the beach. Our new friends and their families were with us walking along the city's busiest shopping street. People here were more "French" than any where else in France. There were a lot more young French, both men and women in their early 20s milling about.
The sea water here had a deep blue color like nowhere else. The boardwalk was filled with street performers, and tourists. The only drawback was its short and narrow shoreline with no sand at all, but crushed sea shelves, and large pebbles. I can only imagine how much it hurts your bare feet walking along the beach. Therefore, we found nothing attracted us beyond the boardwalk adjacent to the busiest boulevard.
Soon after the sunset, things started to heat up hundred fold. Music was everywhere. Throngs of people gathered on the beach to see bands of music performers, one per every couple of hundred feet or so. People danced on the street with their drinks. Families strolled with their kids in tow. It reminded me of Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade in California.
On the other side of the boulevard, there are rows and rows of big and fancy hotels, which probably would cost a few hundred Euro a night easily. Restaurants, and coffee shops line up the streets as well. As of any tourist coast towns, I found a huge number of brand name shops gathered here. This is another shopping heaven for women with money to spend.
Right on the beach front, we found many sea food restaurants bustling with customers even though the menu price were pretty expensive. It's quite hard to find an empty table outside. People love dining outdoor with city view in front of their eyes. We found mussels, and clams on almost all of the dishes here for some reasons.
We got back real late in the evening with not a whole lot to show for beside a full belly. The food is good and plentiful. Nice is just another coastal tourist town you'd find on both of the US coasts, nothing special. We got to get ready for a long and adventurous day tomorrow.
The tour bus took us on the coastline heading to Monaco was like traveling on a calm sea by a luxury yacht. It zig-zaged back and forth hugging the flat calm Mediterranean Sea on its right side. Around each bend we found another quaint harbor and seaside town. Everywhere there were palatial villas, hotels, casinos and beach resorts. The sea was bright blue, and the cliffs rose up, studded with lush green vegetation. It seemed the sun would shine down eternally on this beautiful paradise on earth.
As the bus sped toward Monaco, I knew that this country is pretty closed to the Italian border, the blending of cultures is obvious. No wonder, you'd see the difference in the look of people here from their French counterpart. Their skins are darker, and most have huge nose, some even have their noses with hook shape of the Middle Easterners.
From the top of the mountain looking down, Monaco is more like a large rock sticking out to the ocean coastline. Monaco is completed surrounded by cliffs, the foothills of the French Alps. The city is a small, extravagant enclave; these cliffs serve as a geographic separation from the rest of France. Aside from its isolation, the city below was so different from any place that I had ever seen. It is a fairytale kingdom of mansions, houses, ramps, tunnels and bridges built right into the hills.
The main portion of the city is centered around Port Hercules. The harbor is surrounded by shops, restaurants and municipal buildings, a commercial district called Monaco Ville. We found a small food court like situated here for our quick lunch with bunch of quick service shops. One thing I need to mention here is the food. From then on, on our remaining trip, we had to face with this dilemma, Italian food. Italian food contains way too much carb compare to our food in the US. Bread is their main table fare. Meat is very scarce. To our surprise, we had a very hard time to get the amount of meat or fish we were so accustomed to in the US. Their vegetables are non-existence. We could only find a handful of leaves on their salad bowls, and there is no dressing but olive oil and balsamic. I'll get back to this later.
On the left side of this food court, we found a bunch of high rise apartment buildings, one of which advertised a 1 bedroom flat for rent. To our horror, we found out that the rent for it was a mere 5 thousand Euro a month (equal to 6 thousand US dollars). Wow! How can people afford to live here!
These apartments were not as fancy as the ones in the picture below. Living here will set you back 10 thousands of US dollars a month in rent. The cost to own these are well above a million US dollars.
We followed the pedestrian pathway that winds around the cliffs toward Monte Carlo. The path leads through a tunnel past a vast convention hall named after the late Prince Rainier. On the other side of the tunnel the pathway follows the edge of the sea. Below the water is green, blue and turquoise.
Monte Carlo is studded with high rises. Many millionaires live in Monaco for its lavish lifestyle and lack of income tax. Many of whom come from those oil rich countries in the Middle East. They come here to spend their hard-earned money.
As I made my way down the streets, a parade of Ferraris, Bentleys, Mercedes, Porsches and Lamborghinis rode past, gleaming extravagantly in the sun. We arrived to where we set out to see, the casinos of Monte Carlo. After 30 minutes of milling around, we were so very disappointed. It is no way to be in the same sentence of places like Atlantic City Casino in the East Coast, or even to compare with Lake Tahoe Casino in Nevada, let alone to be compared with Las Vegas. The casinos here have very few slot machines, a few Black Jack tables, and even fewer Poker tables. They do have some of the very luxury rooms for the high rollers, in which are not being displaced to the public eyes.
To sum it up, I would say Monaco and Monte Carlo are just an over-hyped destinations with not much of value. It's a rich man playground with not much to show for. There are plenty of places with more beautiful landscape and buildings than Monaco.
Monte Carlo with its mountain in the background
Our tour guide was a Monaco citizen, who were born and raised there. She said it better than any thing I could put together here.
"I've been living here all my life. Today I am 30 years old with decent jobs. My dream of owning a place to call home here is nowhere closer to it was 30 years ago. Will I ever own a home here in Monaco? It definitely will never happen in my lifetime or in my children's lifetimes. I'd rather be trading mine for a US citizenship. Making 70 thousand US dollars with which I could afford to buy a home is better than making more than 100 thousands Euros here in Monaco and still asking for government's aid to rent a room."
Sometimes the grass is truly greener on the other side of the fence.
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