What's it like living in Monte Carlo

Well smell you, Princess Grace!

I love "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" because of its being partially filmed in Monaco. Next to Steve, Michael, and Glenne, Monaco, itself, was also a costar in the film.

Most commoners who work in Monaco live on the outskirts, in the neighboring towns of Cap d'Ail, Beausoleil, Eze, and Roquebrune-Cap Martin. A one bedroom apartment with a sea view might run you €3500 a month in Monaco, while a similar apartment just uphill in Beausoleil will probably be €1000 less. For grocery shopping, most Monégasques cross over to France where prices are cheaper.

Commoner! How dare you!

I used to shop at the Costco there, lotsa bargains.

The only Costco in France is in Villebon-sur-Yvette, 20 km south of Paris. They need to open a branch in the Côte d'Azur. Perhaps near Cap 3000 in St-Laurent du Var.

I could swear there is a Costco in Cap d'Antibes

Somerset Maugham said of the joint, “it's a sunny place for shady people.”

I never understood how someone like Grace Kelly could have such ugly children.

Roger Moore complained the place was finished when all the restaurants had to translate their menus into Russian.

Whatever you do DON'T pick up a roulette chip and throw it on the table. It's trouble

Do any people actually "live" in Monaco?! I thought that was just the place where rich people buy an apartment so they can list it as their home for tax purposes while they are jet-setting around the world.

I spent time in Monaco, in the early 80s, with a fellow student who was house sitting for his aunt and her friend. We gravitated between a small but luxurious flat in the centre, near the casino, and a large detached belle epoch villa with beautiful terraced gardens on the hill above the marina. The owners were not rich by international standards but ran local long established family businesses and their properties had been handed down over generations. They shared a housekeeper who commuted by train from across the Italian border. She appeared periodically to keep an eye on us and cook us fresh home made pasta and fried fish dishes. There was a weekly market for fresh farm produce and a budget supermarket tucked away below a highway so we didn't starve but eating and drinking out was prohibitively expensive. The place struck me ostensibly as a rich, highly manicured enclave with the hottest uniformed toy boy soldiers on every corner. But there were undercurrents of mafia sleeze and corruption. Intensely packed into a tiny area, we got to know a lot of people who lived and worked there. The locals were all on respectful nodding terms with the Grimaldi royal family and they all knew each other's business. Monegasques that I met had that French attitude of acceptance of the normality of having sexual affairs combined with the exuberance and earthy joy of the Italian way of living. Everyone from the top down shagged around. As the wives headed off to Paris to spend time with their lovers their men were all apparently up for fun with us, the hotel workers and the toy soldiers while the straights were fucking their au pairs.

How far is Nice from Monte Carlo?

Always sounded to me like a nice place to holiday but boring as fuck to live there.

R14, for just €2.00, you can travel by TER from Nice to Monte Carlo in less than 22 minutes. Distance-wise, it's about 23 km (14 miles).

As an American will I have to show a passport at the border coming by TER from Nice?

R15 I would say it's a place to visit for a day only. Unless you know pleople it is souless, superficial and in summer can be full of hundreds of bused in cruise trippers congesting the old town alleys and making hysterical scenes in casino square because they are not allowed into Hotel de Paris to take pictures. Recommend Nice as a base. It has accommodation to suit all budgets, world class art galleries and great places to eat and drink. Combine this with the option of cheap day trips by scenic train along the Med to places like Antibes, Cannes and Ventimiglia In Italy - all less than an hour away. Best time is May with good weather and just enough visitors to make it interesting. Make it Cannes film festival week and you can join the crowds rubbernecking on the Croisette and outside the Hotel Martinez. It is unbelievably easy still to blague your way into one of the hundreds of events taking place.

Thank you [R18_] this is incredibly helpful and interesting. What are the beaches like in Nice?

The beach in Nice is a narrow strip of pebbles not sand r19. Some is public, some private. The sweeping promenade is the highlight. It has a Santa Monica vibe with runners, cyclists and visitors mingling along the front.

You want sandy beaches go to Soverato in Italy. Nothing to do with France. It's in Calabria. Most European beaches are pebbles and rocks.

Alassio on the Liguria, not all that far from Monte Carlo, has a sand beach. It's a pleasant large town and mostly middle class and still a lot of Italians.

it always rains during the film festival

It's nicer, much nicer, in Nice.

The beach in Nice is all pebbles. Just head east to neighboring Villefranche-sur-Mer. There's a long stretch of sandy beach at Plage des Marinières.

Is there a plaque to mark the spot where Princess Grace crashed?

There's no reason to have pebbly beaches in France. France is the home to the Dune du Pilat which is an enormous sand dune - the largest in Europe - and it is growing bigger every year. It faces the Atlantic/Bay of Biscay and is slowly swallowing the surrounding forest. Just start taking some sand from there and truck it from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean coast.

R26, No, but there's a memorial plaque at Boulevard Princesse Grâce de Monaco between Nice and Villefranche.

Plenty of sandy beaches from Marseilles to Perpignan. Also nudist colonies with eldergay Northern Europeans with pendulous dongs and leathery skin.

There used to be a small section of "beach" east of the Cap de Nice where mostly male naturistes would frequent, called Plage Plateforme. But residents of the tony Palais Maeterlinck just up the hill started calling the local authorites to chase them away.

It's like living on a movie set. And things aren't what they seem. In fact, living in Europe, unless you are very wealthy, is not all that. I will even go so far as to say the wealthy in Europe are not up to the standards of living we have. The water tastes terrible in London and other major cities. The housing and the plumbing, the electricity, the heating and cooling, etc. so many things we take for granted are not as modern and efficient or clean in the way American cities are. I don't mind visiting, but living there is taxing, IMO.

[quote] I will even go so far as to say the wealthy in Europe are not up to the standards of living we have. The housing and the plumbing, the electricity, the heating and cooling, etc. so many things we take for granted are not as modern and efficient or clean in the way American cities are.

Oh really? Pray tell how many Flint type of water crisis scandals did Europe have in comparison to the US?

Ew. R32 sounds like a real asshole. Why so defensive? You could have worded that in any number of ways, but I guess you wanted to come across like a fucktard.

It's boring and ugly. This is going to sound pretentious, but my aunt used to live there - visited her three times. It's mundane, a concrete jungle. The coolest part is the bay - saw the Christina when Ari actually owned it - he had a crew of about 20-30. Also, some arab prices boat that was so enormously huge - helicopter and jeep were on the deck. Otherwise, its a very unappealing place - when you look up from the bay its all concrete buildings - the cafes are dead,the bars are dead. Its where exceptionally wealthy people park their money - and don't stroll the streets. You see crazy cars - and the palace is pathetic. You can take the train that runs through the seacoast towns, but 2 hours is sufficient. You will walk away with an empty feeling

r33, so instead of coming up with some kind of proof for your ridiculous claim you have to call me a fucktard instead? Oh gosh, you really, really showed me. What's next on your " USA! USA! We are number One!" agenda, that the US has a better healthcare system than Europe. Something not even Americans, who never left the country, believe?

R35 made me laugh!

I’ve been there twice. There’s a great bakery at the marina. There’s also oddly a discount store in the shadow of the casino and the late Prince’s auto museum. It’s a weird side by side juxtaposition of fabulous & infrastructure for the commoners. I don’t have much desire to go back. Better to explore and enjoy Villefranche, Nice & Eze.

When it comes to those microcountries, I bet it would be nicer living in San Marino

But San Marino is landlocked.