After breakfast we walk to the port area to catch the number 100 bus to Monaco, the 2nd smallest country in Europe after the Vatican. It’s a beautiful bus route that follows the coast along through Villefranche, Beaulieu, Eze, Cap-d’Ail before arriving in Monaco. We got off the bus at Place d’Armes & crossed the road for a look around the market, Marche de la Condamine, we then headed up the hill to Monaco-Ville past pastel coloured houses & onto the palace. We were too early for the changing of the guards so had a wonder through the narrow lanes leading off the palace square. We headed back & found a position to watch the ceremony that happens once a day at 11.55am. When we 1st arrived in the square six policemen on motorcycles had arrived along with a black minibus & the guards had got out of the minibus & entered the palace. We watched the changing of the guards & then nobody moved but nothing seemed to be happening so we started to head across the square as I wanted a photo of Port de Fontvieille, we were stopped part way & then I remembered that I’d read part of the changing of the guard ceremony includes drummers & a trumpet, oops, luckily we were able to see the start & finish of this!!
After taking my photo we walked to the Cathedral & then to the Musée Océanographique et Aquarium, but we didn’t go in either. The Musée was quite an impressive building & had great views. We headed down through the fort towards Port Hercule. The stands were being erected for the Grand Prix on Sunday 26 May, I was amazed that the garages aren’t permanent, further along the road the fences were being erected along Boulevard du Larvotto.

We stopped for a roll & orange juice for lunch & then had a wonder through the centre before heading back to the seafront, passing Ste-Devote chapel & theatre de Princesse Grace & making our way up the hill to the casino. We passed a number of lovely hotels, this part is how we expected Monaco to be, it wasn’t as opulent as we’d thought. We’d seen about as many luxury cars as we see in Richmond, although the buildings are nicer, although no nicer than other parts of Europe. The casino is a beautiful building, with great views, we didn’t pay the entrance fee to go in but continued walking past Cafe de Paris, whose forecourt was fairly full of people “people watching”, looking across to the casino & Hotel de Paris & we saw a few more high end luxury cars parked around the square. It was starting to get quite cold & looked like rain (we’d had a weather miscommunication, Richard had read out 14c & 0% chance of precipitation but he’d meant for Nice). We had intended to get the train back, the station is actually built into the mountain, but were close to a bus stop so caught the bus back. On the way I’d stood so I could see the view on the right of the bus, having missed all the seats, but we got seats on the left coming home & again enjoyed the journey, through a couple of tunnels & very close to shear drops to the ocean one side & cliff walls on the other. We walked home & luckily were in our Rue before it started to rain lightly. This afternoon I’ve uploaded photos to this diary & done some ironing, as well as going out with Richard to the butcher for lamb chops & dauphinois potatoes for dinner, the butcher is so close, just the other side of a small square.
My phone welcomed me to Italy & Monaco, does that mean I’ve been in three countries today?