Monaco

It was in my teens when Monaco first fascinated me and it has been on my ‘bucket list’ ever since.
You see I was confused. My stamp album referred to it as the Principality of Monaco, and on asking the question of my father, he informed me ‘A Principality is a country ruled over by a Prince’. That raised a second question in my mind ‘well doesn’t our Queen rule over Wales, which I’ve often heard referred to as a Principality? Never mind, back to Monaco.
Then, in my working life, I was told that this small nation has more millionaires as a percentage of total population than any other country on earth (recently estimated at 30%). There was always a suspicion that this local wealth might be subjected to what we would today probably call money laundering.
Incidentally, if you fancy a little piece of this nation’s real estate, then expect to pay in the region of 50,000 US dollars per square metre (YES!- that’s per square METRE!)
The country has, in fact, a population of just under 40,000. It is the second-smallest state in the world, behind Vatican City, and is also the most densely populated with these residents squeezed into just 2 square kilometres, bordered by France and Italy today. Once a colony of Genoa, Monaco has been ruled over by the Grimaldi family for centuries, with Prince Albert II currently the country’s Sovereign Prince as head of state.

So, fast forward to April 2016 and our Mediterranean cruise ship was booked to call at the French Riviera resort of Cannes. It was a ‘no brainer’ with Monaco just over thirty miles from the port, a day in the Principality was too good to resist. As they said in that 1969 movie it was ‘Monte Carlo or bust!’
Arriving in Monaco, we could see that the preparations were well advanced for the famous Grand Prix event, for which the country takes six weeks to set up and a further three weeks to disassemble.
Our whistle stop tour took us, first, to watch the ‘Changing of the Guard’ at the Prince’s Palace in Palace Square, similar to our own ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Then it was on to the cathedral of St. Mary the Immaculate, a view of the Marina with surely one of the world’s most impressive collections of super yachts, and a chance to admire the magnificent floral displays in the Principality.

Our final stop was at the Hotel de Paris and the world famous Casino.

We resisted a flutter and soon came back down to earth and met up with our coach to take us back to Cannes and our cruise ship. But we had, for just a few hours, stepped into a different world.