Day 45 Monte Carlo

Day 45 Monte Carlo, Monaco

The French Riviera and Monte Carlo oozed exclusivity, extravagance and excess. The boat harbour where our shuttle docked had an enormous number of luxurious yachts from large to the largest possible size, some had their own helicopters sitting on the top deck. Money is obviously no barrier.

The Principality of Monaco occupies an area of 2 square kilometres and is home to eight thousand Billionaires and 68 different banks to service them.

Ros and Arnold organised a private tour for 20 cruise critic members for a day in the Cote d'Azur. We toured through Nice (walked through the famous flower market), Antibes (parking lot for private jets), Cannes, Miramar, past famous celebrity homes, before heading into the mountains to St Paul and Eze.

St Paul is a medieval walled town located on top of a hill. It is now home to an artist colony and is a tourist destination. We walked through the narrow walkways which seem to squeeze past the triple storey buildings. The ground level rooms had been converted into boutique shops and art galleries. Fascinating. We stopped at one of the local cafes for Salad Nicene, the local tuna, egg and lettuce speciality.

Our guide took us to our next hilltop destination of Eze. Another quaint, medieval walled city perched on top of sheer cliffs. By the time we had arrived, the minstrels (winds) had brought the clouds in from the sea and obscured the scenic view. Whilst in Eze we sampled some perfumes from the local factory.

On the way back to the boat harbour we were driven through Monte Carlo, past the Casino and many of the 86 banks. The streets were still decorated with the flowers from Prince Albert's wedding which had been the weekend before.

Once back on board the ship, we heard one of the passengers had lost $800 cash, drivers licence and credit card which he had carried in his zippered pant pocket. He toured the Palace in Monte Carlo with Princess Tours and did not feel a thing!