Puzzleology

Days 12-14: Cannes and Monaco

We arrived in Nice late in the afternoon on the 14th. July 14th is Bastille Day in France, so we were met with a military parade, starting at the Promenade des Anglais and moving to Plaza Massena. Unfortunately, we missed the fireworks that night, because we discovered that the rooftop viewing party that our hostel was holding was cancelled moments before the fireworks went off.

Thursday we went to Cannes. When not during the film festival, is simply a beach town. I was disappointed by the fact that so many of the beaches were privately owned, and as a result covered with umbrellas. The view from the Croisette was underwhelming, because the beach was full of white umbrellas. There was a small exhibition dedicated to photographs from the film festivals of past, and a hill in the old town where you could look over the harbor, but other than that, I didn’t find Cannes to be very impressive. Perhaps May is a better time to visit.

We went to Monaco on Friday, quickly understanding where we were upon seeing a titanic cruise liner in the distance. Our first stop was the Aquarium, which if you’ve ever been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is not worth the 13 euros to enter. The actual aquarium consists of a medium size tank in the center and two wings with about 30 display tanks each. I was able to get snapshots of Marlin and Dori (of Finding Nemo fame).

Perhaps the highlight of Monaco was our visit to the Monte Carlo Casino. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed on the inside, but this is what it looked like on the outside:

It’s very classy inside. No fancy lights in the style of Las Vegas, no loud noises, no waitresses coming around with drinks. (Well, perhaps there would be later in the night, but we didn’t stay that long.) Just two rooms, a slot machine area, and a few private salons.

Oh, and we saw a woman turn 30,000 euros into 80,000 euros on roulette. Talk about the rich getting richer.