They don’t make wine in Monte Carlo, nor in the rest of Monaco as far as we know. But nestled between Northern Italy and Southern France, there is plenty of winemaking all around it. Most of what we knew about Monte Carlo before we went there we learned from James Bond: Roulette, Race Cars and Romance. We brought the third R with us.
Monaco is a tiny enclave that would be relatively unknown if it weren’t for the fact that their prince married a glamorous Hollywood star. That was 70 years ago, and people still haven’t gotten over it. The cathedral, not one of Europe’s finest, is visited frequently just because they were married there.
Today, Monaco’s lax tax requirements attract superstars of sports, film and finance. The people who actually work there generally commute from France.
For a visitor who would like to do more than gamble, Monte Carlo does have its attractions. The port is full of eye-popping yachts, undoubtedly owned by the aforementioned tax evaders. We believe a few oligarchs also take advantage of berthing there. As a typical visitor, all you can do is look and envy for a little while.
Monte Carlo is a center of the study of oceanography, dating to 1910 when the then Prince Albert became interested in the oceans and founded the Oceanographic Museum that is still there in an ornate palatial building. Even if staring at sea-related objects is not your thing, it is worth seeing the building, perched on a cliff over the Mediterranean. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, famed for his voyages on the Calypso, was director of the museum for more than 30 years. One fun tidbit for a visitor is the yellow submarine (yes, that Yellow Submarine) in front of the museum.
We particularly enjoyed the sector called Vieux (“Old”) Monte Carlo. It is actually the historic town of Monaco, also known as Monaco-Ville or Le Rocher (the “Rock”). The latter nickname is fairly evident given its perch above the city and sea. The streets are quite narrow and are festooned with Monegasque flags and the colors of the Grimaldi’s the princely family. There is pleasure in wandering around, stopping here for a coffee, there for a glass of wine or beer, and dining en pleine aire at one of the numerous cafés in the sector.
Of course there is the casino. With gambling legalized in so many US states these days, the thrill of wasting money on the turn of a card is not so rare these days. But there’s nothing in Las Vegas or Atlantic City to rival the Old World grandeur of the casino in Monte Carlo. Baccarat has never been our thing, so once we went in and saw the beauty of the gambling den, we left.
Monte Carlo sits athwart the Italian and French Rivieras, which are reason enough to be in this part of the world…to say nothing of the vineyards inland. If you happen to be in that part of the world, it pays to visit “the Rock”, if only to say you’ve been there.