Let’s see, Monaco… I went there five times during the summer I lived in Nice because everyone who came to visit me always wanted to go there! You can get there from Nice by train, bus or car very quickly… The local bus tickets were only a couple of euros, but on the way back we once got stuck in traffic. The train was faster. And the scenery was great, driving from Nice to Monaco. I lost track of the amount of Ferraris that passed us on that narrow, winding mountain road when we rented a car.
Monaco is a tiny area. I knew a travel guide back then who gave me all sorts of interesting facts about things like how much money you need to have on your bank account to become a resident, but I’ve forgotten all the details. There was a pretty garden with a view, a Mövenpick ice cream stand, and defibrillators everywhere on the streets – and nobody stole or vandalized them! There was the famous F1 Grand Prix tunnel and skid marks on the road. The atmosphere was posh, but gracefully so. Poshness just belonged there.
38 replies on “Monaco, Gracefully”
Beautiful shot of the city – it is definitely a posh place!
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Thanks!! Definitely!
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I would not have thought of Monaco as “graceful”… but, put your way, it certainly looks so!
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Hmm, why not? In my opinion, Cannes and those areas were much more of a show-off, Monaco was quite low profile and subtle. Though my experience was limited by my budget, I must admit!! 😉 I can only imagine what those fancy hotels there would’ve been like!
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Just a preconceived idea, I guess, since I’ve never been there.
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I was surprised that I actually did like visiting Monaco each time, it was more approachable than it sounded.
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maybe some day I’ll give it a go… It’s just not top on my priority places to visit when I’m back in France 😉
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Yes, it doesn’t seem like a place a zero-waste girl would want to go, I can see that 🙂 I do recommend the areas nearby, though maybe you’ve already been: Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Villefranche-sur-Mer in France and even San Remo in Italy is nice for a short day trip.
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Ahahaha most places on the planet are not zero waste, I hope to travel to them anyway. I hope Monaco won’t disappoint in the way that I only think of it as very fake and only for the richest, like Cannes or St-Tropez.
Villefranche, Beaulieu and San Remo find more easily their place in my peaceful places registry 😉😊
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I liked how Ushuaia had banned plastic bags by the time we went there, was it like that when you went?
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I don’t quite recall… It seems that we would put all of our groceries inside our backpack, though, so yes, it might have been implented already (March 2014 is the last time we were there)
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We were there in November 2014. Grocery stores only gave out cardboard boxes or sold reusable, recycled “real” bags.
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yep, I remember the cardboard boxes too!
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Hehe, best use of Grace-fully. I drove from Nice to Monaco too. We left our car somewhere and spent a few hours looking at yachts, not going into the Grace Kelly mausoleum (or what is it) since we weren’t proper (shorts), not going into the casino since we were not all 21 yet even though we packed high heels for this purpose. But no knife or torch. We were three girls, did you guess? Fun times.
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Hahah. Come to think of it, I didn’t go to those places, either. The Casino sounded fun, though, but I wasn’t dressed right, either. Though let me add, France had plenty of fancy dress codes too, not just Monaco. Mostly we just walked around, chatting and hanging out, inspecting places… One of the times we had dinner in a nice terrace restaurant overlooking the harbour, and it wasn’t expensive at all (says the Finn).
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I don’t remember eating or drinking anything. Just as well too since a penalty awaited us at the car parked without a ticket… Not that we paid the penalty either. We are Balkans people after all. 😀 I should tell you one time how we got the car back in Vienna without paying the tow-away costs…
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😀 Oh yes, please tell me that story before I rent a car in Italy again, since I seem to get a ticket every time!! 😉 PS. I’m happy you noticed the Grace-fully thing 🙂
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Hehe, might write a post about it. But it was in Wien, Austria. 😉 In Roma we still get a ticked once a few months too…
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I’ve had two holidays in Nice, the second one should have been for one week but was extended to two as we were grounded due to the volcanic ash that Easter so we visited Monaco several times, mostly by bus as it was so cheap. Not the worst place in the world to get ‘stranded’!
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I agree! Lots of people were stranded in far worse places, hahah! 🙂 That was in 2010, right? I remember because I was doing cabin crew training then (for the 3rd time) and we were unsure if we’d get to do our practice flights or not because of the ash.
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Yes, you’re right it was Easter 2010 and we could stay in our rented apartment an extra week as the new tenants were unable to fly out !
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☺️
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Pretty shot! I admire the grace (and wealth) of Monaco in your pictures 🙂
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Thanks!
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[…] The Snow Melts SomewhereMonaco, Gracefully […]
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Nice title. I can never think of Monaco without thinking of Princess Grace. What an asset she was – and so full of grace herself. Wonderful pictures. Even the blurry one – I think it adds mood.
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Thanks, Robyn! Grace Kelly was what I first thought of and I couldn’t shake the thought. She definitely was graceful in those old movies – I love movies from that era, Hitchcock and others. There was some sort of exhibition in Monaco when I went there, with her face on posters all over, but I can’t remember what it was and I didn’t go…
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I love those movies too. There was so much unsaid, so much left to one’s imagination that is lacking in today’s movies. Not better – just different and distinctive. Such a tragic end to her life though.
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Yes, tragic… Old movies had a real plot and dialogue that were carefully thought through and charismatic actors… I feel like today movies rely on special effects and action scenes…
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Too true. We have shorter spans of attention as a consequence.
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Love the photos. Monaco is on my summer 2017 itinerary, so this is a fabulous teaser. 😎
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Great! 😊 There’s lots to see around Monaco, too
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[…] The Snow Melts Somewhere Monaco, Gracefully […]
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Monaco looks a very beautiful place, but to stay there for any length of time I’d probably need to win the lottery. A week or two would suit me well enough. I always think of Grace Kelly when anyone mentions Monaco. That all seems so long ago now.
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Thanks, Millie! Grace Kelly felt very present there, somehow 😊 In my mind at least! I think most people visit Monaco from France. Back in 2006, the cheapest hotel rooms in Monaco were in a price range of thousands of euros rather than hundreds.
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Nice blog. Im visiting Monaco for the first time next month for the Grand Prix #wellExcited!
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Have fun! I wish I could’ve seen the Grand Prix but visiting just after was interesting too
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