After a morning of tennis playing (for Jason) and lounging around while doing more laundry (for Janelle), we grabbed a snack on our very own balcony before starting our adventure for the day. Life in the south of France certainly lends itself to living in the lap of luxury.
Monaco is an eight minute train ride away from Beaulieu sur Mer. 4 Euros for the train ticket. Impossible to ignore. Knowing full well that the day will likely be the most expensive day of our journey, we forge ahead. YOLO, am I right?
We have an F1 Track Walking Tour booked. 2.5 hours with a British bloke, Tom, spewing more F1 information our way than we even knew existed. Honestly? It was fascinating. Personally? I don’t think I understood 80% of what he said, however, I enjoyed every minute of it. He was so passionate, he was enthusiastic, he was knowledgeable, he was interesting and he was funny. Those that were F1 fanatics in our group (and there were a lot!) got as much – well, probably more – enjoyment out of the day as I did. A once in a lifetime experience I didn’t know I needed. I love days like this.
Jason was in his happy place photographing all the fancy cars driving around. All the supercars are here, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Bentley, Aston Marten, Maybach, and of course Rolls Royce! It is quite common for drivers of all kinds to take their cars around the track for a ‘visibility’ lap. Sometimes you even see professional racers out and about. To say there is a ton of money on these streets would be an understatement. While walking the track today it really felt like our late neighbour Mike was with us – he would have loved today.
At the end of the tour, Jason and I were well and truly famished. Sweaty, tired, sore and starving. Time to find a place to eat. We follow the track around again to the Casino Square, because, well, of course you must visit the casino when in Monaco! Apparently we are not allowed into the actual casino because Jason wasn’t wearing long pants and he didn’t have his passport on him. Probably for the best…our already expensive day could have been so much worse!! LOL.
Dinner at the restaurant was amazing. Unfortunately, I failed to recognize that the veal we ordered wasn’t veal chops, but instead, veal liver. Hmmm. Not our favourite. The French Onion Soup totally made up for it though! Our most expensive meal by far – not surprising as our (small) bottle of Coke Zero was $13 – yikes.
If we learned anything from today, it might be that while we enjoy seeing all the fancy cars and boats and shops, it is not our world. Give us McDonald’s, Costco clothing and cars we don’t mind getting scratched any day of the week.
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