Wiki for Nice
Wiki for Monte Carlo
Tourist information for Nice
Tourist Information for Monte Carlo
Today we leave the ship at Tarascon/Beaucaire and bus to Monte Carlo with lunch in Nice. Our hotel tonight is the Fairmont Monte Carlo, which is adjacent to the famous Casino Monte-Carlo. Perhaps we’ll try the games after our farewell dinner in the Fairmont.
Actual:
Well, we left Avignon this morning by bus to do our last day of the trip. We stopped in Nice for lunch; the rest of the crew took off down the road to see things and catch a bite. The Jacksons went with us to a brasserie across the street from the bus and had a neat leisurely lunch (I had spaghetti Bolognaise) with crepes and coffee for dessert, while looking out over the Med. Incidentally the Med looks much nicer from this viewpoint than when I used to sail in/under it.
Then we had a nice bus tour of the place, and into Monoco and then to the Monte-Carlo section of Monoco. Our tour person gave us a lot of interesting facts that don’t pass along well, but were interesting at the time.
Monoco is vertical. Property is so expensive that everything is built vertically. A studio apartment runs around €2m. Driving to the hotel was really crazy with underground rotary intersections and very tight turns. The Grand Prix of Monoco uses the street and tight turn in front of the Fairmont as part of the course.
The hotel is very nice. We’re on floor 1, just above the water. The lobby is on floor 2. The walkway to the famous casino is on floor 7; we didn’t try it. Beautiful views; the second point of land to the east is in Italy.
We had wine in our room (left over from Avignon) with the Jacksons, then went to the farewell drink-and-dinner episode. We had a nice glass of wine with our thanks from the Vantage people. Then we had several more with a good dinner. We said goodbye to the nice people we’ve met during the week, and everyone was happy we’re going home.
We wandered into the hotel casino. D lost her €20 in nothing flat. I watched a weird version of Texas Hold’em (which I detest) for a bit to watch people throw money around. Then we walked outside for fresh air and pictures.
We were told that the River Discovery II is still in Chalon-sur-Saone and the river is still rising.
Since the internet service in this hotel is so good, we ended the evening with a three-sided video call using Hangouts with us in Monoco, Susan in San Francisco, and Bill/Lana/Jamie in Jacksonville. It was insane but a lot of fun.
Photos Owen
Photos Dolores
