Monaco one day visit

Monaco was on my bucket list for a long time, but I have to admit that I had never dared to even dream of visiting it. I should have said actually Monaco and Monte Carlo, because both these famous names are part of the independent principality of Monaco on the French Riviera.

Well, I did it in 2009, thank to my dear husband who unfortunately, now became a memory as well… This trip was a gift from him for my birthday.

In that sunny day of June, I took of course as many photos as I could. I also uploaded many of them to my Fine Art America gallery and they are available as art prints. This is photo of the casino and residential area around it, viewed from the marina. * I actually sold a print of it from my Society 6 shop 🙂

I knew about this place since I was quite young, and that was mainly related to the American actress Grace Kelly. The princess’s tragic accident shocked the world. However, this independent principality of South-Western Europe was very well known even before. Its glory came with the famous luxurious Monte Carlo Casino and of course with the Grand Prix Formula One car race.

** In the first days of June they were just preparing the race track, starting right in front of the Monte Carlo harbor. I hope you can see it.

Monaco but especially Monte Carlo is a place of many legends and Hollywood movies, and it is also an expensive dream travel destination. However, many things are feasible if you have a creative mind like my husband does 🙂

Monaco one day visit

In order to arrive to our destination, we traveled all along the French Riviera – not too bad, is it 🙂 My husband found an affordable B&B hotel in Eze – one of the closest French villages to Monaco, shown in my previous article. From there, the next day we drove along the coast and spent many hours in this fantastic place.

Needless to say that we were both in a Wow! :)… It was almost like a fiction… While driving trough the narrow busy streets of Monte Carlo we tried to see as much as possible. There were so many luxurious buildings left and right, including hotels, restaurants and businesses… We would have walked more, but there was no place to park. We eventually found a spot for a few minutes, and I was able to take some quick shots.

I made this one as a digital watercolor painting:

The whole principality is surrounded by the Mediterranean Alps and several bridges are  facilitating the crossing from one side to another.

Fortunately parking was possible up the hill, but on the so called Le Rocher. There is where the Royal palace actually is, which is what I wanted to see 🙂

The Prince’s Palace is the current residence of prince Albert II, son of Prince Rainier III and Grace, Princess of Monaco (Grace Kelly). * He’s a the brother of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, and Princess Stéphanie. In July 2011, Prince Albert married Charlene Wittstock.

Part of the palace is open to the public in the summer season. However you have to leave the cameras at the entrance 🙁 Well, we had to follow the rules, so… We did with big regret, because what we’ve seen inside was absolutely marvelous. Besides valuable pieces of art, we could also admire a life size standing portrait of Princess Grace.

The statue below was made in the memory of Prince Rainier III. I just loved the seagull on top of it at that moment 🙂

Both he and his father updated and modernized the building, which initially was a fortress. The changing guard however is still there.

The view of the Mediterranean from above is magnificent. Here is where wealthy people have their villas, condos and yachts:

… and this is what it looks like viewed from the bottom of the hill:

Le Rocher (The Rock) is the historic downtown of the city of Monaco, very busy in all seasons. We wandered through the old narrow streets full of restaurants, small shops and tourists. There are old apartment buildings there too – probably very expensive as well…

Again, I made some of my photos look painterly using the digital media:

In Europe, the restaurants are empty between the lunch and dinner ours… This is one of the many restaurants with tables outside on the pedestrians streets downtown:

I will end my post for now with a view from inside of a beautiful small church downtown the historic Monaco. Thank God and my husband for giving me the opportunity to visit this place! 🙂

I hope you enjoyed the Monaco one day visit viewed through my camera. Click on the photos to see them in the original gallery along with many others that I couldn’t post on this one page article.

I initially made this post in 2019 and just updated it with some more images.

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