Ladies and gentlemen, step aboard our latest purchase.....a super yacht! Yes, this week saw us mixing with the high-flyers of the yachting world, at the Monaco Super Yacht Show. We were very lucky to be given free tickets by some friends down the road, so how could we turn down such an opportunity? At €80 each, we certainly wouldn't have bought them! So, we fronted up at Les Arcs train station at 7.30am to get the train to Nice, then change and get the train to Monte Carlo, Monaco. Monaco is apparently the most densely populated country in the world (no, it's not part of France, it's a sovereign city-state) and we were well advised that driving into the city is not an option even on the quietest of days. As you can see, the housing is not your typical French hill-top village....
The harbour was crammed full of incredibly large palatial yachts and launches, which enthralled Lew - I spent most of my time looking at the clothes and shoes parading around! There were more Chanel/Prada/Louis Vuitton labels than you could shake a diamond-studded stick at, so we felt quite "exclusive" with our Kathmandu label attire!
Even in the "residential" harbour it was standing room only on the water...
And out to sea were the unlucky few who didn't manage to book a berth in town early enough. We counted 150 vessels before giving up...
Back in the harbour there was plenty to look at besides the fashion parade. Most yachts had their backs open (I'm sure there's a more technical term for that) to display the toys and sun-loungers available to the rich and famous...
And whilst Lew assures me this photo was taken out of national pride, I'm not sure there wasn't some other attraction in the lens at the time...
As it was the morning after the America's Cup final (less said about that the better) we managed to talk our way onto one of the yachts to look around, as the Chanel model in charge of visits took pity on us! The yachts were available for viewings to the select few, by appointment only, for prospective buyers, suppliers, clients etc. We had to produce a business card to clinch the deal - it was a toss-up whether "agricultural consultant" or "physiotherapist" would be the strongest hand to deal! Luckily there were a couple of Kiwi crew on-board so we blended into the background quickly!
As the smell of money was getting a bit overpowering after a couple of hours, we escaped to have a quick look around Monaco, particularly the Opera House..
There were several sculptures in the gardens, including this one of Adam and Eve. Obviously the French versions had more to eat than just an apple, and why is a certain part of Adam's anatomy somewhat more polished than the rest?!?
A stunning display by the Red Arrows topped off the day.
From one extreme to the other. A few days after the show we went for a walk through beautiful chestnut forests to a monastery in the middle of nowhere, Chartreuse de la Verne.
This is a 12th Century monastery which housed an order of monks who must have been a bit careless with the candles - the whole place burnt down three times, before being left derelict until the 60's. Its been incredibly well re-built/restored, using traditional stone building techniques, and is a very calm and peaceful place to look around. It's now a working monastery again, housing an order of nuns of Bethlehem.
We've now got one week left here at Les Fadons, so we've been trying to visit a few places that have been on the list all year! Today we took the bikes on the car to Grimaud, where we had a look around the village before cycling down to Port Grimaud on the coast about 5kms away. This is a bizarre place: a marine village designed by Francois Spoerry in the late 60's as the Riviera's answer to Venice, with traditional French fisherman's cottages, numerous water channels and personal boat moorings at the end of each cottage garden. All on re-claimed land!
For some reason it didn't feel very real, and not much like Venice either. There were lots of tourists around (like us!) looking at the boats and houses, but no feeling of a community or village in any way. We weren't sure if anyone actually lived there full-time, or whether all the houses were second homes for rich Parisiens who use it as an expensive boat mooring. A bit like Monaco really, but less high-rise!
After a week like this one, we've come to the conclusion that we're not the French Riviera types, and we need to stick to our Provencal villages, with doors, knockers and pot-plants!
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