Monaco Monaco - Sights
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| Monaco - Sights |
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Monaco has a lot to offer the visitor. Larvotto beach If you’re not staying at a beach hotel and your hotel doesn’t have arrangements for guests to use a private beach you (and day-trippers from France) will end up on Larvotto Beach. Showers cabanas restaurants and shops are available and as the sole public beach it can get quite crowded in high season. Parts of it will be (literally) in the shadow of the Cultural and Exhibition Center when that project is completed. Though it’s very much an in-city beach it’s adjacent to some lovely gardens (and the Japanese Gardens are on the other side of the Cultural Center site). In Larvotto.Wax museum of the princes of monaco This Museum was Evil. I walked into the place and broswed the plexiglass displays of the old guys called"Princes" more like Princessess. Then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around, Prince Ranier was staring me in the eye. His body pasition was ready and catlike. I turned around again and the whole Gimaldi family was staring me in the eye. I paniced i didn't know what to do. They took vases and little shreds of plaxiglass ready to strike. So i took up in my hands vases and little shreds of plexiglass. It was battle time. Prince Rainer jumped up in the air about to stab at his target. I clinched my teeth and prayed to god. But his swing went right past me. And it the Tranchala by my feet. They weren't trying to kill me, but merely trying to extinguish the evil spider in their house. Monaco Cathedral This cathedral feels positively modern by European standards (it was built in 1875) but it’s worth a look because it houses the tombs of the former princes of Monaco and it has a particularly fine mosaic in the dome above the altar (an audience of saints faces the congregation from recesses in an arc of the dome). If your visit coincides with the Feast of Ste. Devote (27 January) or the National Holiday (19 November) you can hear the wonderful four-keyboard organ (installed in 1976). As you exit the cathedral take a moment to admire the Hall of Justice across the street (no visitors allowed inside). Naval Museum This museum has less universal appeal than some of the other themed collections in Monaco. It will be fascinating to those interested in ships and naval history but will be of only limited interest to everyone else. There are more than 180 miniature ship models on display (many from the prince’s private collection) from clippers to submarines as well as ships’ equipment and related paraphernalia. In Fontvieille.National Museum Monaco’s public museums tend to reflect the passions of its royalty but this one showcases a commoner’s collection and it is fascinating idiosyncratic and not just a little creepy. A villa designed by Charles Garnier (who also designed the Paris and Monte Carlo opera houses) is home to thousands of dolls including animated wind-up toys made in 19th-century Paris. It’s imperative that you time your visit with one of the automaton shows (times vary with the season—call in advance). The guard winds up a number of performing toys and dolls: monkeys that smoke magicians who make their own heads disappear circus performers. It is stunning (and scary) to see the absolute natural smoothness of their movements—and the attention to subtle details: Their chests heave with breath. (It’s not a place you’d want to be locked into at night.) Be sure to make it to the second floor to see the creche depicting the scene if Christ had been born in an 18th-century Neapolitan village: There are more than 200 villagers in the diorama each unique. In Monte Carlo. Princess Grace rose garden An extraordinary collection of roses beautifully displayed along a network of intersecting walkways. If you don’t already know the myriad sizes shapes colors and scents in which roses arise you’re in for a treat—there are 150 varieties represented (if you’re already a rose lover you’ll be in heaven). The gardeners keep things blossoming year round—when we visited in November there were only a few barren bushes. An expressionistic statue of Princess Grace is surrounded by particularly delicate blooms. Our only complaint: Though touted by the tourist board as “a quiet spot ” its proximity to the heliport is a serious detriment. (For a nation that takes pains to regulate the serenity of its parks and gardens they’ve got a serious conflict here.) It’s adjacent to Fontvieille Park which also includes a small duck and swan pond and is near the Chemin des Sculptures sculpture garden. Open sunrise to sunset. In Fontvieille. |
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