The French Riveria and Monte Carlo

The other day we had a long drive from Italy into the French Riveria. It was a really interesting road that we drove on!! Just from Italy we drove under 168 tunnels. We drove 200 kilometers that day and 95 of those kilometers were tunnels!! And I'm pretty sure the rest were bridges. We would drive through a tunnel and over a bridge... through a tunnel and over a bridge... over and over again. It was a gorgeous drive though. I took a bunch of pictures I hope you enjoy!! I think that the French Riveria was probably one of the most beautiful places that we've passed so far. I wish we had more time to run out on the beach and relax there for a while... but alas we didn't have that much time. We got there late, and then went straight into Monteco. Monteco is a seperate country that is looked after by France, and about 44,000 people live there. It isn't a kingdom ... it's a principality therefore it's leader is called a prince not a king. I've heard that the current Prince... Prince Albert is out in the town amongst people a lot. It was a great place!!

This is the view of the French Riveria on our way into the city. George Clooney and Bill Gates apparently have summer homes here. Which doesn't shock me at all, because it was gorgeous!

We stopped at a perfume factory and this was just outside of it.

Here we are back on the road again. I couldn't help but take pictures of it. These pictures don't do it justice. I was trying to get a good one, but you just have to see it to understand I think.

Here is the ocean. The water looked like it was sparkling.

This is the view at sunset from our restaraunt.

This is Me, Bobbie, and Nyree

This is when I finally put my flash on my camera! haha. What a difference it made too. We couldn't take any more pictures at that time though, because dinner had just arrived. So I finally was able to take good pictures but had to stop.

This is Prince Albert's castle up on a high rock over looking the whole city. Only royal people are allowed to live on this rock. It doesn't matter how much money you have if you are not a direct descendent you are not allowed to live there. I was really surprised that they let vistors come up whenever they would like to, but it didn't seem to be a huge issue. There were several guards around, but they didn't give us any trouble so it was good.

Here I am with the city behind me. It was sooo pretty there to look down and see everything all light up!

Here is another picture!

This is the main Casino that everyone knows about in Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo is the gambling area of Monteco. It isn't even a seperate city, and it really isn't all that big. It is just about a square long with two casinos on it. One casino is a casual casino, and the other one is the Monte Carlo casino that you have to be dressed up to get into. There is also a 10 Euro admission price to get in. I didn't go into the main casino, because we only had about an hour or so... I actually went into the other casino and lost about 5 Euro playing blazing 7s haha. It was really cool though! I saved a chip to bring home.

This is a little bit away from the main casino. There are a couple fountains all along the way to the casino. It was a really fun night and I'd love to be able to go back there.