Shaken, not stirred

We arrived in France. Menton is a small but very chic French town only 700m from the ravine that divides France and Italy. There weren't any real anchoring options, so we paid up and went into the municipal dock, which turned out to be very surge-affected, and not very comfortable at all!

Pavvie in the municiple dock at Menton. Very surge affected!

A communal market building, lots of small stalls inside

A cool spot on a hot day

Architecture has a different flavour than italy

More baroque architecture

Old citadel that the mole extends from.

We'd been reading a little of the history of Monaco, and the founding of its famous casino to fund the oceanographic research of Prince Albert II. So we thought we'd have a look. Entry into the ports is very bureaucratic, and after our application had been refused twice due to "inaccurate information", and given that the cost is exorbitant, we decided, as usual, to catch the bus.

View of Monaco from the bus

Monaco has the most expensive real estate in the entire world. The principality is only about 2 square kilometres, and the whole city is built on incredibly steep land. The next photo's show the ravines that run between house.

Monaco is built on incredibly steep land

You can see why real estate is so expensive

Super yachts of every persuasion in Monaco

Part of the casino building

Rolls Royces and Bentleys could park outside the casino no one else though.

Another view of the casino

It didn't take long for us to realize that Monaco was not the place for us. The exclusive 'brand' shops that just sold labels for wealth and privilege, the outrageous prices, the fast cars and coiffed women, we couldn't wait to leave. At least we could say we've been to the second smallest country in the world (only the Vatican city is smaller) with the most expensive real estate, still with a fully functional rather than symbolic monarchy. Tick, done and gone. 

Monaco from the sea side

Real estate is so expensive, that they built the Princess Grace theatre over the water. Casino is on top.

The famous Oceanographic Institute

... and from another angle.

We couldn't resist another drive by view by sea, who knows what famous celebrity we might see hanging about on a super yacht. Still, to misquote that famous frequent visitor to Monaco, James; the place left us feeling shaken, not stirred. So it was back to France, and we headed for Villefranche, a lovely anchorage just outside Nice.

Villefranche, our anchorage viewed from Pavlov

The Citadel in Villafranche