This not really a blog.. Its more of a travelogue.. My job has taken me to three different countries outside India.. This include Japan, US and France. My latest trip was to the beach city, Nice or Nizza in France.. The four week stay in Nice gave me a chance to visit Monaco and its famous Casino MonteCarlo. Also a chance to make a trip to GrandCanyonduVerdon and to Grasse, the perfume capital of the world.
France and Moncco doesnt have a proper border..Its is just that there is a board kept there welcoming you to Monaco.. The only way to reach Monaco is via France.. either thru land, air or water.. Monaco doesnt have an airport.. they have only a helipad..
We first went to the palace and cathedral of monaco.. the palace, where the prince of monaco stays, is open to visitors only during some time of the year.. we just saw it from outside.. we reached there at 12 which the time of guard change.. the driver told us that the guard change is very beautiful and we should see it.. there was a huge crowd to watch the guard change.. but it didnt impress us at all.. the band parade in a school will be much better than that in India.. And the palace also was not very impressive compared to the palaces in India...
We visited the cathdral which also houses the holy remains of the royal family.. Old time hollywood actress MsKelly was married to a prince of the Monaco.. She was supposedly unhappy after marriage as she could no more enjoy the freedom that she used to enjoy as an actress.. she died in an accident and there is still lots of mystery around her death.. no one knows for sure what actually happened on the day of her death.. But people of Monaco still love her and u can still see fresh flowers being left on her tomb.. There are lots of stories about the life of her children and other members of the royal family as is with any other rich and famous family.. I dont even remember those stories now..
Then we drove thru the course of the formula1 grandprix.. the starting point, the tunnel etc.. there is not separate race cource there and hence on the day of the race the roads in Monaco are all closed..
We drove to another french city called menton which on the France-Italy border.. We actually drove to the Italy border and then came back to Menton and had lunch there.. looked into some of the shops there and then went back to Montecarlo.. the shops were all closed as it was sunday.. monaco has two casinos..
At the main Casino, they check your passport before letting you in.. also there is 10 euro charge for one day pass..we watched how the betting happens there. .also tried our luck at the slot machines and lost money..The smaller csino also has lots of slot machines and betitng going on.. but the entry is free.. But it doesnt have the huge attractive old building that the main casino boasts off.. you have really got to walk around and see the inside of the main casino.
Its a small country but the country for the rich alone.. Interesting to know that you dont have to pay tax there but even more interesting to know that you need a minimum amount in your bank to buy or rent a house there.. A country where government checks your elecricity and water usage to ensure that you are actually staying there and havennot bought a house just to evade the tax.
GrandCanyonduVerdon is supposedly the grand canyon of france..It was long drive along to the top of a mountain..to an observation deck at the top..the view from the top was great.. lingered around for some time there and took some snaps..on the way back stopped at places from where the view was good..we stopped at a reservoir built in the river coming from the canyon..there we could see a car having fallen into the water from where it was parked above the reservoir.. Also we stopped at a place from where we could see this reservoir from top.. The last stop was a bridge built across the canyon.. we were all wondering how it was built.. as it is very wide and built across such a deep river(which is now dry). Looked like two halves of the bridge were built separately and then put across the river and joined..
Thats all I can remember from a trip which was a month back..
