vr_trakowski (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vr_trakowski) wrote2007-05-22 11:53 am
vr_trakowski) wrote2007-05-22 11:53 am
Entry tags:
Day nine
My brother, my sister-in-love, and I expeditioned to Monaco. A little over two hours' drive to get there--no stamp for my passport, alas! No border at all, it seemed.
Monte Carlo is clean, crowded (Grand Prix this Sunday) and...squished. Everything packed into a small space--and a steep one.
We parked, and eventually chose to dine at the Café de Paris. Lovely Art Deco façade. The meal was good, the service very good, but we felt quite outclassed by the wealth around us. No lack of service, though, and plenty of evidence that money doesn't confer taste.
We went to a dinky casino next door and had fun wasting money, then looked at the Mediterranean and the outside of the Opera House. Stuff is clean--they wash it--and so it looks new instead of old and grimy.
We found a beach--narrow and of stones rather than sand. The others planned to swim but couldn't find a place to change that didn't cost. Some folks changed on the beach! Tops optional for women. Even the fat ladies, which I appreciated. My sister-in-love and I walked out and dipped our toes (sterile beach but I saw fish) but the beach kept trying to eat us. I wouldn't want to live there but it was worth it to visit.
.....
Stopped at a little town on the way home for dinner. Grubby, run-down, slightly scary. We ended up going to McDonalds because everything else seemed closed--the most professional server I'd ever met was behind the counter, but my brother didn't like his Chicken Mystique.
Monte Carlo is clean, crowded (Grand Prix this Sunday) and...squished. Everything packed into a small space--and a steep one.
We parked, and eventually chose to dine at the Café de Paris. Lovely Art Deco façade. The meal was good, the service very good, but we felt quite outclassed by the wealth around us. No lack of service, though, and plenty of evidence that money doesn't confer taste.
We went to a dinky casino next door and had fun wasting money, then looked at the Mediterranean and the outside of the Opera House. Stuff is clean--they wash it--and so it looks new instead of old and grimy.
We found a beach--narrow and of stones rather than sand. The others planned to swim but couldn't find a place to change that didn't cost. Some folks changed on the beach! Tops optional for women. Even the fat ladies, which I appreciated. My sister-in-love and I walked out and dipped our toes (sterile beach but I saw fish) but the beach kept trying to eat us. I wouldn't want to live there but it was worth it to visit.
.....Stopped at a little town on the way home for dinner. Grubby, run-down, slightly scary. We ended up going to McDonalds because everything else seemed closed--the most professional server I'd ever met was behind the counter, but my brother didn't like his Chicken Mystique.