Monaco - Day 23

Today we headed up to The Rock or La Rocher, which is where the Monaco cathedral and Royal Palace are located, and which offered beautiful views over the city, the yacht filled harbour, and the Mediterranean.

The Cathedrale de Monaco is a stunning cathedral built in 1875 in the Romanesque-Byzantine style. Inside are housed the tombs of Princess Grace (who died tragically in a car accident in 1982) and Prince Rainier (who died in 2005).

We strolled around in front of the Palais du Prince, the royal palace, where the royal Grimaldi family live, although we did not venture inside. We witnessed the changing of the guard in their white uniforms.

On our second night in Monaco we were taken to a hilltop village called La Turbie for a dinner. Before the dinner the Australian lady who runs the restaurant with her French husband took us for a passionate tour through the medieval walled town. A very proud resident of the village and a frustrated tour guide we thought. It was nice to see such a town in a more natural state, rather than the more tourist oriented towns.

The town had a Roman ruin called the Trophy of Augustus which was built in 6 BC to celebrate Augustus’ conquest of the Gaulish tribes between 25 and 14 BC. It exerts the power and protection of Rome.

We topped off the night with a front row seat to fireworks near our hotel. This was probably the best view of fireworks we had ever had. More were to be held weekly over the next four weeks, including Australia, but the ones we watched were put on by France.Read more