Trip to Monaco!!!

Bonjour tout le monde! I am writing after a very long and fun week. Aix is a party town, full of students and bars and I am absolutely getting my fill. There are lots of things to do and people to meet and I love every minute of it. On Sunday, I went to Monaco with a ton of other students from my school and other schools in Aix, mostly foreigners.

We got on the bus at 8:30 am and got to Monaco around 11:30. They dropped us off at the Musée d'Oceanography which I saw last time I was there with the Teece's. It was great to go back and remember seeing lots of the places and sites I had already seen.

The people in my group were 3 other Americans (friends from school), 2 Belgian guys from another school here and a Swedish girl. We stayed together all day. We walked up to the Cathedrale where Grace Kelly got married and then to the Palais where we randomly stumbled in on the changing of the guard. It is beautiful but doesn't have anything on Buckingham or Versailles, it mostly looks like it is made out of legos.... but it is extremely old (13th century I think) and has the most amazing view of Monaco, duh.

View of the harbor from the Palace

Our group for the day

Add caption

Anyone interested? Yes please

In case anyone didn't know, Monaco is a playground for the rich and famous. Not only do they have the world renowned Monte Carlo Casino and the Grand Prix, but their marina is stocked with the most beautiful yachts and sailboats I have ever seen, not to mention the Bentley's, Ferrari's, Porsche's, and Maserati's that accompany them. 

We walked down to the marina and spent at least and hour wandering around enviously figuring out the best way to make rich men fall in love with us. Our plan thus far; move to Georgetown in the Cayman Islands.  It must be all that offshore banking and Caribbean air but at least every other yacht was from there.

We eventually left the marina to walk up to the Monte Carlo along the road that has the racing stripes painted on the streets all year round for the Grand Prix, and the noise! I can only imagine what the little valley of Monaco sounds like during the race, we heard one car accelerating that sounded like a rocketship, it must be ridiculous to hear them all in the race. That will be something I will come back for when I have my sailboat so that I won't have to pay for parking ;) We ate lunch on a rooftop cafe and pondered how our lives would be if we were those people...

Enough of the jealousy drama, lunch was delicious. Only the girls had lunch because the boys wanted to gamble. They ditched us for the Casino and we met them an hour later, they were broke, but happy. I think they just wanted to say they dropped €100 in the Monte Carlo, silly boys.

On the drive back to Aix, we drove up the coast past towns that I would happily drop everything to live in. Ézé is my new dream.... We went through Nice as well and then back up to Aix. It was a quick but exciting day.



That is all for now because I have to go to class, but I am going to the final soccer match between the Marseilles Olympique and the British Arsenal (I think thats what they are called) tomorrow. I will do my research but it is the final and is going to be very very rowdy. Especially because it is France vs. England in the final, and because we are going with 17 people... I will let you know if I survive. Gros bisous!