France
borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the
Mediterranean Sea .
Monaco has an
area of 2.02 km 2 (0.78 sq mi) and a population of about 38,400 according to
the last census of 2015. [10] With 19,009 inhabitants per km², it is the second
smallest and the most densely populated country in the world.
The
Palace
From
the warren of Monaco-Ville,
with its souvenir shops, stroll through Monaco’s governmental heart to the royal Palace. Get there at 11.55am for the daily changing of the guard on
the square in front. Six chaps with rifles march about to a drum and bugle
accompaniment and take up posts defending the princely seat against … it’s not
very clear whom.
Though,
from the outside, it looks more like a big sanatorium than a palace, the
Grimaldi pad is grandly Renaissance within, from the fresco’d and be-columned
courtyard to apartments effusive with flamboyant décor.
The
brother of our George III died in the Duke of York chamber in 1765, conceivably
from an excess of gilt and stucco.
The
Palace entry ticket used also to assure access to the Napoleon Museum next
door, but the museum no longer exists. Prince Albert closed it in 2014, selling
off its contents. (He got €1.9 million for one of Bonaparte' bicorne hats in
the November auction.)
Leaving
the Palace, take in the all-round views from the square, the glorious rock-side
St Martin gardens and Monaco’s cathedral. The tombs of Prince Rainier and Princess
Grace are to the left of the choir. They make a striking, sober contrast with
the neo-Byzantine over-ornamentation of the rest of the church.
Oceanographic
Museum
Though
competition is not too stiff, this is the principality’s best museum- and
likely to welcome its 50 millionth visitor sometime this 2015 spring. A
neoclassical pile built straight up from the cliff, it looks far grander than
the princely Palace.
Columns and pediments give it a sort of Victorian mission
to educate. Which it does, very well. The vast place is packed with marine
fascination, notably a fine aquarium (including a shark lagoon pool) and a 90ft
whale skeleton which, if it rose from the dead, could swallow Monaco whole.
Attractions
have recently been boosted by the opening in April 2012 of Tortoise Island, an
outdoor space devoted, unsurprisingly, to tortoises and turtles. The space also
includes a play area for nippers and a lounge section where parents may sit,
take a drink and survey their offspring. Meanwhile, from June 3 this
year, the museum hosts a special shark exhibition in an attempt to get us up
close and personal with the toothy monsters - and thus de-demonise them.
(Apparently,
sharks kill only 10 people a year, while jelly-fish account for 50 - and
mosquitoes for 800,000.)
The
Oceanographic Museum is packed with marine fascination, notably a fine aquarium
and a 90ft whale skeleton
The
Casino, Monte Carlo
Standing
in the Place du Casino, you are in the high-rolling heart of the principality –
and, indeed, of Europe. Nowhere else does one sense such a fancy concentration
of wealth and the easy assumptions that go with it. Behind, the
Allée-des-Boulingrins gardens progress by sumptuous terraces.
The
fountains, flora, lawns and contemporary sculpture are light opera in
horticultural form. To the right, the monumentally ornate Hotel de Paris
demands a bevy of duchesses to do it justice. And straight ahead is the Casino,
its deliriously decorated façade perching precisely between the grandiose and
the ridiculous.
Inside,
it’s extraordinarily lavish, salon upon salon of soaring rococo – huge columns,
gilt, marble, chandeliers, haut-reliefs of nude women, wall-filling paintings.
Gaming, say these surroundings, is among the highest attainments of human
civilisation.
The
place demands orchestras and a full-dress ball. What it gets are jabbering slot
machines and coach loads in from Turin and Tonbridge, all grimly betting
apparently under doctor’s orders. Unmissable, though. There’s more serious
class (and gambling) in the Salons Privés deeper in the heart of the
extravagant building. And also out on the terrace – opened in summer 2011 for
outdoor gambling. It’s debatable whether the sea views and exotic horticulture
ease the pain of seeing your money dissolve.
Renovation
has also left the casino with a fine new Salon Blanc – a sort of white lounge
bar – at its heart. You’ll find it en route to the outdoor terraces. There’s a
lot more class, too, in the casino’s other bars and restaurants. If words like
“zen” and “cutting edge” work for you, then the Buddha Bar is obviously your
place. There’s probably no hipper bar-restaurant franchise in the world.
The
casino surrounds got their version in 2010. Think around €65 for a meal. The
BB’s ground floor bar opens onto its own terrace and holds what I can only just
bring myself to call a Happy Lounge between 6pm and 8pm. That means cheaper drinks.
Meanwhile,
Le Train Bleu has wagon-lit surroundings for Italian food, if you’ve €70 to
spare and Les Privés will feed you top-flight French cuisine from €80.
The casino's fountains, flora, lawns and contemporary sculpture are light opera
in horticultural form
Café
de Paris
Directly
outside the Casino, this Art Nouveau brasserie has the key see-and-be-seen
terrace in Monaco,
and the most arrogantly churlish waiters, perhaps, in the world. (That gets you
out of leaving a tip.)
Take
a table and watch the spectacle that is Monte Carlo. Note the chaps in uniform
impatiently waving Citroëns out of the way so Bentleys might proceed
unhindered.
Note,
also, that the blokes driving the Bentleys look more like money launderers than
movie stars. And that their lady-companions look like (let’s be charitable)
their nieces. Behind, the Café has its own casino – a much less formal, even
futuristic affair.
It
also has slot machines on a covered outdoor terrace, for the benefit of
smokers. Smoking has been banned inside Monaco casinos
for a couple of years now (with a catastrophic effect on takings). On this
terrace, you may once again lose your money and your health simultaneously.
Though some people win. One fortunate person recently dropped €194,027 on a
2-centime-a-go slot. The machine to aim for is ‘Aliens .v. Predators’
Jardin
Exotique
For
a microscopic spot, Monaco crams in
an awful lot of gardens and, to my mind, this is the most interesting.
Perched
high up at the entrance to the principality, it drops almost perpendicular down
the rock face, so it takes a bit of clambering over. Worth it, though, for a
world-class collection of cacti and succulents. Some date from early last
century and have grown huge, so it’s like wandering through a sort of vertical
New Mexico.
Except
that you don’t get the outstanding sea views in New Mexico. The entry price
includes access to a cave within the gardens full of stalactites and
stalagmites (be warned: there are 300 steps) and an on-site museum of
prehistory which, I have to admit, I’ve never visited.
Visiting the Jardin Exotique is like wandering through a sort of vertical New
Mexico
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