JE 43

Monte Carlo

Tim

Thursday, January 30 and Friday, January 31 – Monte Carlo

The shorts are coming out today! I don’t care if I look like a tourist in uber fashionable Monte Carlo! The forecast for the next two days calls for party cloudy skies, with temperatures in the upper 50s.

This post is going to be all about pictures! I’ll lead off with a couple from my hotel…

The view from my hotel bedroom balcony
Looking down the road from my balcony. This gives you an idea of how narrow the streets here can be.
Hotel Lobby
Another view of the lobby

I mentioned in my previous post that Monte Carlo is set into the side of a mountain, so although the city covers a small area, the steepness makes it difficult to cover on foot. To alleviate that there are several public elevators located throughout the area. And two of those were the ones I could have used last night to walk from the train station to my hotel. The issue was finding the first one…

About 200 yards from the exit of the train station, this sign indicates the location of a public elevator. Now, I’m not sure that I should be expected to spot that…at night!
If I had seen the sign, I would then need to realize that there is an elevator at the end of this long corridor…once again, at night!
I admit, the rest of the way is easy though. This picture is taken from the exit of the first elevator, with the second one right across the street.
And here’s the exit of the second elevator, with my hotel about 50 yards down the street.

Okay, enough of this boring stuff, let’s get on with some pictures of beautiful Monte Carlo!

Port Hercule
This is part of Fort Antonie, a former military fortification. This portion has now been transformed into a outdoor theater space.
Les Jardins Saint-Martin
Musée Oceanographique
Port de Fontvieille
Monaco Cathedral – where Princess Grace was married
Palais du Prince – The residence of the Prince, which sits high above Monaco and dates from the 13th century when it would have been a Genoese fortress.
The Casino can be seen in the background
The Palais du Prince is atop the cliff in the center background
Kind of ironic to see a vintage Fiat 500 parked in front of a Mini dealership!
Cute Vespa parked by an auction house
Think they’d take a Madison condo in trade??

I also took a tour of the Collection of Voitures Anciennes, which is a museum featuring some of the private cars in the collection of the Prince of Monaco. I’ll just bore you with a couple pictures here…

And finally, I was incredibly happy to learn that the start of the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique was taking place here on Friday! The staging took place during the day, and the public was allowed to roam freely amongst the cars! Very Nice! Once again, I’ll only post a limited amount of pictures here, so as to reduce the chance of reader abandonment!

The awesome Minis!

Saturday, February 1 – Monte Carlo Casino

The Monte Carlo Casino offers a few options when it comes to taking a tour and/or gambling:

  • Self-guided audio tours are available while the casino is closed, from 10am to 1pm. The cost is €17. The tour includes access to all of the casino rooms, with photography allowed and no dress code.
  • Gambling begins at 2pm. The cost to enter is €17, of which €10 is refunded by way of a credit towards gaming, drinks, or meals. There is only access to some of the rooms, photography is not allowed, and the dress code is fairly lax (jeans, collared shirt, sneakers). At 7pm, the dress code becomes more stringent.
  • An all-day pass for €17. This combines both items above, with the exception of the €10 credit.

I went with the last option. I’ll describe how it all went in the captions of the pictures below. Note that the exterior pictures of the casino were taken on Thursday and Friday.

Valet parking area
Hotel de Paris on Casino Square
Unfortunately Casino Square is undergoing some construction work. But it’s nice to see a Wisconsin company contributing to the project!
The Atrium
This photo and the following one show the only room that was open at 2pm for gambling. The remaining photos are of rooms that will be open later in the evening, with access for the high-rollers only.

So, how did the gambling go? I arrived at around 2:30, and it was pretty quiet. I wanted to play blackjack, and there was one table open with a €10 minimum. There were two people playing, so I joined in with a €100 bankroll. It was going fairly well, up and down, pretty much staying even. And then a group of three guys joined us. And they were playing stupid. I put up with it for a little while, but then started losing, so walked away. I ended up playing for about 30 minutes and lost €40. It was still pretty empty in the casino, but I stuck around for another half an hour, watching the limited action at the other gaming tables, and then cashed in and left. I did keep a €5 chip as a souvenir though!

My second souvenir of the trip!

4 thoughts on “JE 43”

  1. It does look beautiful! You aren’t going to want to gamble in WI again. I had lunch with Dad today. He said that Chuck told him that you couldn’t find a room in Monte Carlo so you went to Paris. He also thought you flew home last night. He already dropped your mail off. I will call him tomorrow to clear this up.

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