Port Hercule

We had a pretty bad nights sleep. I was still awake at 12:30am listening to every single sound outside. People would walk past the car park talking and I’d get up to check that it wasn’t a group and it just turned out to be people on the phones most of the time. Then at 4:30am the binmen turned up crashing and banging around.
We were up at 6am and it was a chilly 5°c outside. I put the fire on and made coffee and we drank then quickly and then put the bed away.
I wanted to be out of here before the traffic started and at 7am we left the car park and the seafront watching the sun rise out of the sea.
By 7:15am we were back on the coast road. Traffic was light at this hour and it’s just how I wanted it. We’d spent all yesterday evening looking for free places to park in or near Monaco that wasn’t on a stupid incline or at a roadside and we thought we’d found one but it wasn’t on any of our apps.
We passed through customs and for the first time ever we got stopped and they came in and checked our cupboards and toilet for any strangers. Then we were back in France and on the edge of the Maritime-Alps heading into Monaco.
TomTom said my vehicle profile didn’t match where we were going but I’d checked google and thought we’d get through and after negotiating the 16% gradient and countless switchbacks we came to a little side road and just off of it was gravel parking.
It was now 8:15am and we’d made it to our park up for the day. It overlooked a huge sporting complex and we were so lucky getting here early as there was a big event here today and by 9am the place filled up with cars.
Nobody gave us a second look which I was happy about and at 10am we locked Wanda up and started the trek into Monaco.
We parked on the mountainside in Beausoleil just above the Monaco marina. From the road side we can see it but the problem is, it’s straight down 250 meters and it’s slopes and stairs. The slopes are a 25% gradient.
Going down was obviously the east bit but even walking down we were at a crazy angle. It would be a killer climb on the way back.
It was almost a straight run down the slopes and steps and once at the bottom we found a souvenir shop where we brought our Monaco mug. Then we continued towards the Marina stopping at the Monaco Casino from James Bonds Casino Royale for pictures. Given all the hype about it, it wasn’t that impressive.
With the Casino out of the way we walked to the Marina and Bay Area. This is where the super rich are and the yachts showed it.
We didn’t see anyone famous but there were lots of Ferraris and Porsches driving about.
The roads were unbelievably busy but now we’re back in France they always stop to let you cross at a crossing.
From the Marina we headed into the automobile collection. A collection of cars owned by the prince of Monaco. It cost us €10 each to get in and there were some really fascinating cars dating right back to the early 1900’s from all over the world. The collection pretty much went in year order dating from the oldest cars like the early fords right up to modern day Ferraris, Lamborghinis and formula 1 cars. It seemed quite a lot of money to view the collection but any attraction here starts at €10.
From the automobile collection we headed onto the promenade of shops and brought 2 fresh baguettes and then headed to the park and ate them. Here we did our people watching noticing lots of men wearing suits and walking like they’d just come out of the gym and young girls shopping. Probably with daddy’s credit card.
After our lunch it was time to start the climb back to Wanda and it was relentless. Words can’t describe how many steps we went up but the steps were far easier than the slopes of 25%. It was easily the hardest walk of the trip so far. Ellie had to keep stopping because her legs were done.
At one stop we stopped by some bins and ontop were some clothes. Someone had obviously chucked them out but they were like new and Ellie went skip diving and found a nice top. So she even got clothes from Monaco. And even though it came off the bin it stills smells better than us.
By the time we got back to Wanda at 1pm we were completely done in. Even my legs and bum were hurting. Nobody is made for walking at those angles and we both had a lay down to recover.
We stayed in Wanda all afternoon. Whatever was happening in the sports centre there was a lot of coming and going and music was intermittently playing.
At 5pm we left Wanda again. We were right near a view point and it would complete our climb from ground level earlier all the way to the summit of Col De Mules. It was only a 10 minute walk and except for bumping into 3 police personnel we didn’t see a soul and had the whole viewpoint to ourselves.
Obviously going to any new country is great but we never thought in a million years that we would come to Monaco let alone stand above the famous Marina alone watching the sunset. Considering it wasn’t a bucket list location we’ve had quite an amazing day.
When we got back to Wanda it was 6:30pm. The temperature had dropped by 8°c to just 10°c and whatever music had been playing intermittently earlier was now in full swing. To top it off there were now more cars here than when we left.
I started looking on park4night for other locations but neither of us really fancied moving in the dark and the closest place was over 30 miles away. Then by the time we had made up our mind to move it was too late. The road we were on was now full of cars and they were now double parking. It was crazy outside and we were stuck here. We’d have to ride the noise out now until morning.Read more