Bus Step

Boarding the bus in Monte Carlo.  Monaco has a really good bus service.

Ice-cream time

Ice-cream time at the Monaco Dog Show yesterday.

Monte Carlo Railway Station 2

Doubtless a boring photo if you live in Monaco and know the railway station,  but if not, here it is.

Locked-in Love

Padlocked love.  I've never seen these before in Monte Carlo. I wonder if the authorities will leave them as they do in other towns and cities.

Shadowplay

Shadowplay in Monaco.

Le Tour Odeon

Well, it's hardly the most exciting photo in the world, is it?  But if you don't live in Monaco, or nearby, meet the Tour Odeon (Odeon Tower).

From Wikipedia:

Le Tour Odéon is a double-skyscraper currently being built in the Principality of Monaco. It's the first high-rise in the city-state to be built since the 1980s.  At 170 meters high, Tour Odeon will be the second tallest building on Europe's Mediterranean coast, after Gran Hotel Bali (186m) in Benidorm, Spain. Had Tour Odeon been built in neighboring France, it would be among that country's 10 highest buildings. It will be the 199th tallest building in the world - by floor count - upon its finish date.
Building Height : 170 meters, 50 floors.
259 residences, including 73 for-sale private luxury residences (including 2 Sky Duplex apartments of 1,200 m² each and 1 Sky Penthouse of 3,300 m² over 5 floors).
10 subterranean levels with 543 parking spaces.
Retail shops, offices and business centre. Wellness center including spa, a fitness center and a swimming pool.
Both the building's architecture and the shadows it casts on the cityscape have been criticized since the beginning of the project. In particular, residents of the adjacent French twon of Beausoleil have criticized the building for blocking the views and above all diminishing real estate values. An association was created, and the mayor called for discussions between French and Monegasque authorities.  After a construction incident, some locals attributed the tower the nickname 'Odious Tower' The project continued as planned.

Click on THIS LINK to read a Daily Mail piece about the  £250 million penthouse, the most expensive penthouse in the world! 

Six Hands, Two People

Here's half of yesterday's photo but blown up larger.  Count the hands ...

(see small photo below if you missed it)

The Gold Bike

You'd expect the Billionaire Club to have a gold bike, wouldn't you?

interestingly it's electric - greatly encouraged in the Principality.  We saw it yesterday from the other side - remember the wobbly buildings ...

Vroom vroom

Avenue Princesse Grace.  Vroom vroom and the buildings start to wobble ...

Underpass

 

If you walk through the underpass than runs under Place Sainte Devote, you can have fun with the infinity reflections in the mirrored walls.

Halte MCCC - Monaco's hidden railway station

This rather boring photo is to show you Monaco's hidden railway station.  In fact, it's in France - Roquebrune -  and is open once a year for the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters. 

The station is below the Monte Carlo Country Club, hence its name, Halte MCCC.  To find it you walk on the road, below the tennis, past all the television trucks and the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel, which is below you and onward for about 600 metres.  Turn up a narrow path and eventually you find it ...

As you can see it's pretty primitive and anyone with dodgy knees would find it difficult to get up into the train as the platform is on ground level, not raised.  But for people going to the tennis, of course it's brilliant.

Bubble Bath

It's amazing what girls will do for a bit of attention in Monte Carlo...

Little and Large

Sometimes you spot little gems amongst the high rises. This was taken on Boulevard Princesse Grace.

International Women's Day

Not a painting to be hung on your wall but a chest of drawers for sale at a Foire in Monaco last October. However, the reason for showing this photo is not to influence your interior decor (as if I would dare...) but to use the image of a woman to celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day.

You can see a young girl running towards her future on Menton Daily Photo today.

Here's to all my women friends - I couldn't exist without you...

Reflections on Avenue d'Ostende

Avenue d'Ostende is the road that runs down from the Casino to Saint Devote and Port Hercule.

This road used to be called the Montée de Monte-Carlo and is well-known by anyone who watches the F1 cars of the Monaco Grand Prix as they race up this hill.

Brassed Off

Are some banks in Monaco a bit too grand?

Metal Birds

Helicopters take off and land all day long in Monaco. It's a great way to arrive from Nice airport. And there's always a bird (a real one) to fly along with you.

The Heliport in Monaco is in mourning at the moment. A couple of days ago a helicopter from Heli Air Monaco was employed to fly over, and report on, an éboulement (landslide) in the hills above the coast. The weather was appalling, deep fog, the helicopter crashed and all three on board were killed - and all for a few tumbled rocks.

Jean Reno?

This guy was part of a football team made of up French firemen - in Monaco for a national game. Some of the players dragged this man forward, teasing him and telling me he looked like French actor, Jean Reno and insisting I photograph him. So I did.

The Recycling Bins

I wouldn't normally post a photo of a rubbish bin, but these have to be the neatest, cleanest re-cycling bins I've ever seen. In France, they are enormous and usually overflowing and often dirty.

We're in Fontvieille, almost opposite the Columbus Hotel and with the Princess Grace Rose Garden behind that tall hedge you see on the left of the small photo.

The Street Sign

Even the street signs in Monaco are beautiful. Rue Princesse Florestine is just off the pedestrian street that runs up from Port Hercule, where the Monaco Yacht Show starts today.