Nathalie's Monte Carlo - the Casino

Last weekend, four fabulous blogger/photographers came to stay in Menton: Richard from Zurich, Nathalie from Avignon, Chuckeroon from Richmond-upon-Thames and Peter from Paris. To see them climbing Roquebrune's famous 2000 year old olive tree, please click on the link.

From today on Monte Carlo Daily Photo and from tomorrow on Menton Daily Photo - and for the next couple of weeks - you'll be able to see photographs of Monte Carlo and Menton through the eyes of these talented photographers.

Today, we see Nathalie's photograph of the Casino - a reflection in Sky Mirror, by the British (Mumbai-born) artist, Anish Kapoor.

Fabrizio from Turin was to have been here too but sadly, at the last minute, he couldn't make it. We missed you, Fabrizio and do hope you can make it on another occasion.

Larvotto Beach - the Jellyfish Net

There's a new net this year. Last year, there were two - one on each side of the central breakwater. This year we have only one and it stretches right across the beach. According to Nice-Matin this is a better and much safer net that the one we had before. You can see a diver in the smaller photograph inspecting the nets before the day begins. I don't know what the person in the background is doing - holding up a something green. A mystery?

Larvotto Beach - the Sun Beds

A shot of Larvotto Beach with the sun beds of La Spiaggia in the foreground. Only 9.30h when I took this - soon it will be full of near naked bodies taking the sun. You can see the line of the jellyfish net on the sea. Tomorrow we'll take a closer look at this.

Apologies for lack of comments. It's a Blogger's Weekend at Menton with much photography, eating, drinking and laughter going on - with Nathalie from Avignon, Peter from Paris, Richard from Zurich and Chuckeroon from Richmond upon Thames. News and photos of a great weekend - which still continues...will appear from Tuesday. Wish you were all here...

Larvotto Beach - the Parasol Store

Even the parasols have their special home at La Spiaggia.

Larvotto Beach - the Orchids

Orchids in a pot at La Spiaggia. Somehow you don't expect to see orchids on the beach but this is Monte Carlo after all. Aren't the pots pretty?

Larvotto Beach - the Waitress

It's 9.30h and this young waitress at La Spiaggia is preparing tables for lunch. La Spiaggia, located at the eastern end of Larvotto Beach, is known as the 'Happy Beach' and it's worth taking at look at the website.

Jardin Exotique - the Sun Goes Down

The sun is going down and it's time to leave the Jardin Exotique. There are more photographs, many more, perhaps a few will turn up from time to time, but meanwhile, time to move on - Larvotto Beach calls...summer is here.

Thanks so much to everyone who has followed this little series and to those who have kindly commented.

Jardin Exotique - Burned Trees

This is one of a series of sculptures by Philippe Pastor called 'Les Arbres Brûlés' - Burned Trees. You see the full sculpture in the smaller photograph.

Philippe Pastor is a Monegasque sculptor. You can see more in the Burned Trees series HERE when they were exhibited last year in the Casino Gardens.

All the sculptures in this series were created using scorched tree trunks from the Garde Freinet Forest, near to St. Tropez along the coast from Monaco. It was devastated by fire in the summer of 2003. They bear witness to the artist's intention to make the public aware of the fragility of the environment and the necessity of protecting it.

Jardin Exotique - Crested Saguaro

This weird looking plant is called a Crested Saguaro. However, to see an amazing version of this plant, complete with holes for the birds that nest in it (!) we need to go all the way to Arizona. Click on Julie's Scottsdale Daily Photo for a great photo and information on the plant too.

Jardin Exotique - Dying Love

Graffiti on an Agave.

You were all correct. Maria was the first, so please send me your street address, Maria, and a postcard of Monte Carlo will arrive in your mail box.

As you can see, despite the grafitti the plant doesn't seem to have suffered. It grows from the inside, those outside leaves slowly die off and as they do, so will the names of these young couples swearing their undying love to each other. Let's hope their love doesn't die as the leaf dies.

Jardin Exotique - Grafitti?

Grafitti in the Jardin Exotique? Anyone know what this might be? A Monte Carlo postcard to the first person to tell me. Answer tomorrow!

Theme Day: Shadows...in the Jardin Exotique

Fencing like this - looking as if it's made of tree branches yet in fact fashioned in concrete, is typical in the south of France and Monaco. Here, we see shadow of this fence on a walkway in the Jardin Exotique.

Today is Theme Day on CDP and the theme, of course, is Shadows. To see how over a hundred fellow-bloggers from around the world have interpreted this theme please click here to view thumbnails for all participants. You will be surprised and delighted and entranced.

Jardin Exotique - Into the Light...

We're out of the grotto - we need light and blue and sun and colour.

Jardin Exotique - Get Me Outta Here!

Time to leave. We've climbed 300 steps but with the heat in the cave, it's tiring - oh look, it's tiring anyway!

You can see the guide at the entrance, waiting for me. (He didn't mind) I was the last out because I'd held back to take a few quick shots with the self-timer. Those with flash simply hadn't worked.

Thanks for all the comments on the cave. Tomorrow we are back in the garden for a few more delights.

Jardin Exotique - Last Look at the Grotto

Last day in the cave - these shots show some of the visitors so you can get an idea of the size of the grotto.

Animal bones have been discovered in this cave, which have enabled us to learn about the fauna, and thus the different climates of the Quaternary period. Red deer, Asian dogs, wolves and rhinoceros lived during temperate to hot periods, while reindeer, polar foxes and marmots related to cold or glacial periods.

The cave, interestingly, is always constant at 18.5 degrees and that's hot when you are climbing steps, which is what we are about to do tomorrow - we are on our way up and out!

Jardin Exotique - Strange Forms

Coincidental with this series, I happened to watch a fabulous BBC programme the other day called Planet Earth in which the great David Attenborough was talking about stalactites and stalagmites. I'd not known how they form - you probably do - but if not, it seems water drips, drip, drips and the water contains calcite (calcium carbonate) - for each drop of water, the minutest amount of calcite remains and slowly builds until a stalactite or stalagmite is formed. If a stalactite and a stalagmite meet, then it's called a column.

They look so soft and slimy to the touch, don't they? In fact, they are really hard and not slimy - just wet - and strangely beautiful.

Jardin Exotique - the Theatre of Magical Wonders

We are looking down at one of the main chambers in the cave. You feel as if you are in an amazing theatre - a theatre of magical wonders.

The cave is a major prehistoric site where excavations carried out between 1916 and 1920 discovered significant and very old archeological remains from three successive humanities. The Pre-Neanderthals (around 250,000 years ago) left us flints (tools in hewn stone), the Neanderthals (around 60,000 years ago) scrapers from fragments of flint, and Cro-Magnon man (from around 35,000 years ago) beautiful blades in flint and bone spear heads. All these peoples occupied the entrance to the cave, the inside of which was used as a larder.

Jardin Exotique - Stalactites and Stalagmites

We have not yet reached the main cavern, but even here, as we continue to walk ever downwards, we see the columns and pillars, stalactites and stalagmites. This observatory cave is a natural cavity, created by the flow of rainwater which has dissolved the rock and enlarged the cracks over millennia.

Jardin Exotique - the Prehistoric Cave

At the lowest part of the garden, suddenly we see the entrance (see smaller photo) to a prehistoric cave. Yesterday's sculpture was the clue and most of you got it right!

As you see the gates are locked with a padlock but it didn't take long for us to find a sign with information as to when the next tour would begin. This is free, all part of the entrance fee to the garden.

There are 300 steps down and 300 steps up.

Let's go...wonders await us.

Jardin Exotique - the Sculpture

What's this guy doing at the Jardin Exotique? Tomorrow, we'll find out...