The Wow Factor that is Monaco.
On the 13th August we left Menton to go along to the next bay Canoles to drop anchor, the main objective was to catch the bus the next morning from its little coastal town up to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a french medieval town up in the hills, said to be definitely worth a visit!
We spent the afternoon chilling on board and watching a young spanish couple trying to master their paddle-board, without much success. We offered to help! With ours still pretty poorly, we got in the water and tried to explain what to do.. but it soon became apparent that the easiest way was to get on their board and show them. HAHAHA, ooh how different some boards are! I (Chantal) who hadn’t fallen off our board for years, but David roared with laughter when, as he put it, the teacher became a cropper within 4 minutes! Despite unceremoniously falling in, we still managed to teach them and they went off happy and a bit more in control!
The following morning we jumped into the dinghy and went to the tiny little dinghy port to catch the bus, only to be told very bluntly that we couldn’t leave our dinghy there at all, so sadly Roquebrune-Cap-Martin will have to wait until we next visit Menton, where we can leave the dinghy to get a bus!
So on the 14th, we set sail the short 4NM’s to Cap D’ail, right next to Monaco, which bordered the municipality which we decided we had to visit, and grabbed a mooring in the marina for the night, passing the beautiful building that is the Institute Oceanographique on our way.
Our first job however was to unblock the water inlet for the air con as it was going to be too hot to stay in a marina without it! An hour later we had dug out the culprit, the remnants of a plastic bag.. it was a rather painful exercise as it shredded as it came out, using nothing more than a pair of tweezers!
We then went for a walk past Fontvieille with its little port and into Monte Carlo.
Fontvieille
Monte Carlo
We made our way through its streets admiring the stunning old buildings, amidst the new, and the bronze statutes of F1 cars from a bygone era.
Until we got to Casino Square, which was full of people with the most extravagant cars!
And then to the most famous bend in Monte Carlo.. The Mirabeau Hairpin
Where David spied something he just had to walk down the flight of steps to see.. in the heat I stayed put but couldn’t resist the photo op…
Well we can’t visit Monte Carlo without showing you some of the other vehicular sights around, it takes all sorts here!..
But my favorite… you could hire them for an hour to cruise around the town, albeit incredibly slowly, although we didn’t.
We then went down to the waterfront and marina, in search of the infamous La Rascasse to stop for a drink and to watch the lights come alive as the sun went down.
And finally made our way back to Cap D’Ail and Seaclusion. We hadn’t planned on stopping for a second night but bad weather was on its way and we hadn’t even seen the palace yet….
Forecast for the morning… and it wasn’t wrong, so much rain!
Finally, it stopped, the weather started to clear so we headed back into Monaco to go and visit the Palace. Cap Aíl was a good 20 minutes walk from the outskirts of Monaco before walking up to the top of the hill where the palace was. Thankfully, in a way, just before we started the climb, I went to buy some water, only to realise the wallet was still on the boat! As if we hadn’t done enough walking over the last day or so, we headed back and 40 minutes later than when we started, we started up the steep slope to the palace. But it was worth it, even though we missed the changing of the guards.
Built as a fortress atop Le Rocher in the 13th century, this palace is the private residence of the Grimaldi family. It is protected by the blue-helmeted, white-socked Carabiniers du Prince.
The Prince´s Palace, Monaco
Most of the palace is off limits, but you can get a glimpse of royal life on a tour of the glittering state apartments, where you can see some of the lavish furniture and priceless artworks collected by the family over the centuries, even if some of them did look like Rowan Atkinson in Black Adder!
The Palace wasn’t the only place atop La Rocher, there was a whole village with other stunning buildings, a cathedral, the Oceanographic Institute amidst narrow lanes with shops, a post office, bars and restaurants, far more French than Monaco, absolutely charming.
With wonderful views both sides of the hill, across to Monte Carlo and over Fontvielle old port, with some rather plush apartments, roof top pools to boot!
We then meandered back home, walking through the Old Port of Fontvieille, which afforded another spectacular view of the Oceonographique Institute and out past the Helicopter Landing Zone….which had a regular intake of users, god knows what it would be like on Race Weekend!
Finally, having exhausted most of Monaco, we were ready to set sail westward along the French Riviera again.
15th August 2024
