Monaco and Rothschilds


Friday, March 2, 2018

There are three roads which parallel one another along the coast between Nice and Monaco to the east, the low, middle and high roads.  These roads are literally carved out of the rock for some portions, with tunnels, and there are few opportunities to go from one to the other.  We took the middle road east out of Nice, and had almost no views at all due to rain and low clouds.  The clouds lifted and the fog dissipated as we came into Monaco, a tiny principality on the coast of France between Nice and the Italian border:



This is where the richest of the rich are; our guidebook says that one out of three residents of Monaco is a millionaire!  The ordinary car here is a Porsche, and Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Teslas and Rolls Royces are all over the place.  We went to the Casino cum Opera House:



It’s kind of strange, but it’s all one very large building, and the two share a lobby.  The casino is enormous:



Inside the joint lobby, on one long wall, is the opera:



At the other end is the open door leading to the casino, with a well-placed bouncer to make sure that only the worthy are allowed in (read, rich):



As you walk along the outside of the casino, you find another door in, for those who are super-worthy—the entrance to the Salon de Jeux Prives.  I can only imagine what it takes to be admitted through this door.  


A fellow named Francisco Blanc (or Frank White) has a statue here—he founded the Société des Bains de Mer, the company which operates the casino and brings so much money to Monaco.  He clearly has a proclivity for elaborate facial hair as did Victor Emmanuel II:



The annual Grand Prix de Monaco is held on the streets here, and this turn, with its fall-off at the apex of the curve, is apparently the most exciting place to watch the race as the cars come down the hill:



We walked towards the Grimaldi palace, through a lovely public garden, and had a wonderful view of the world-famous oceanographic institute here, which, for a time, was headed by Jacques Cousteau:



Prince Albert of Monaco is forever looking to tame the sea as he stares out in the park:



We visited the St. Nicholas Cathedral, where Grace Kelly and Prince Ranier were married, and in which both are buried:



We arrived at the palace in time for the changing of the guard.  Not quite Buckingham Palace:



After lunch we drove back west along the low road to a peninsula which juts out into the Mediterranean between Nice and Monaco, and on which Beatrice de Rothschild built a villa holding back nothing.  This is a truly remarkable home, loaded with amazing art and ceramics.  The sun finally appeared as we approached the villa—the first sustained sighting since we’ve been in Nice!  Here’s the villa:



Here are a couple of rooms in the villa:




Beatrice had a remarkable porcelain collection, much of which is displayed here.  Among the most unusual things is a complete 18th-century Meissen monkey orchestra:



A sunroom with a lovely setting is now a tea room where one can sit and enjoy a hot drink and the view:



The gardens go on for acres and acres, and are broken up into themed gardens, including a Florenitne garden, a Spanish garden, a French garden, a Provençal garden, and on and on.  There are beautiful playing waters:



We returned to Nice and had a closing dinner Friday night, and we all took off on Saturday.  We will travel to Malta, and will continue our adventure from there.

Comments

  1. Mark JacksonMarch 3, 2018 at 1:52 PM

    That's the famous Station/Loews/Grand Hotel Hairpin corner on the descent from Mirabeau to the seafront; it's so tight that for the Monaco GP the F1 teams have to fabricate special front suspension and steering parts in order to have enough lock to get around it. Not a lot of action there, barring some rare low-speed bumping, as it's really impossible to pass or to gain an advantage.

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    Replies
    1. Victor PoleshuckMarch 3, 2018 at 11:07 PM

      Aha! We were told some take it too fast and leave the road/track. I know nothing about car racing, but when I went to driving school at Watkins Glen, there's a turn, just after the grandstands I think, of about 90 degrees or even less, with a fall-off at the apex which was the biggest problem for us novice drivers. Some did go off into strategically placed hay bales.

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