A Damp Côte d'Azur
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
18
34
Trip End
May 09, 2004
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Monaco,
France
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
We arrive in Nice at 8:20 am. It has been announced on the train that the railway workers in Italy are on strike, and that the train would no longer connect with the Italian express to Milan and Rome. In this case, passengers were to disembark and take the local train on to the Italian border.
Fortunately this train was to leave in a few minutes, and it was waiting at the platform right beside ours. We hurry aboard and are soon in motion on the winding tracks hugging the rocky coastline past tiny coves and romantic Riviera spots such as Beaulieu, Cap-Ferrat, and Villefranche. At 8:40 am, just five minutes late, we arrive at Monaco-Monte Carlo. http://www.monaco.mc/index.shtml.
The railway station has been built inside the mountain. It looks like a gigantic Paris metro station. We wander upstairs where there is a tourist office and a restaurant. Not having eaten a proper meal since yesterday in Montmartre, we are famished, but we are astonished to find that they have run out of everything.
01. A wet Monte Carlo
They tell us that they open early in the morning for the rush hour commuter traffic from Monte Carlo to Nice, then start preparing for lunch later on. We check out the tourist office, which is just opening. They kindly stamp our passports with the Monaco entry stamp (merely symbolic - we are disappointed that the French did not stamp our passports when we arrived at Charles de Gaulle). The helpful attendant points out the main sights on a map. We exit into the rain and having no umbrellas or rain coats, we decide we will just walk and get wet. At least it's not cold in this spotless city with clean attractive streets. The principality is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and as there is no income tax, residents can spend all their money shopping, and it shows! A few blocks down the street we come across a café. We enter anticipating a welcome serving of hot café au lait and croissants. Imagine our surprise when we were told they had also run out of everything! Fortunately the owner is very apologetic and rushes over to the boulangerie opposite to buy supplies for our breakfast.
Meanwhile I decide to save time by picking up the rental car while the family enjoy their repast. The lady at the tourist office had ringed the map at what she thought was 47 Av. de Grande Bretagne, the Europcar rental office, and it didn't seem far. I tell the family to save some breakfast for me, and off I go in the rain.
Monte Carlo is built on a steep mountainside, and there seems to be no level area at all. I descend on streets that zigzag down the gradient until I arrive at the start of Av. de Grande Bretagne. The numerical system in Europe is unlike that of North America. Number 47 would probably be in the first block in the States. Here each building is a number. I was at number 1. I now have to walk through the rain 47 buildings down the avenue. 47 buildings is a long way, more like 10 blocks.
