Cote d'Azur: Glitz and Glamour

During the week we visited both Cannes and Monaco, both unique in their own bizarre kind of way.

Cannes is a cosmopolitan City on the coast most famous for the film festival, but for the rest of the year a place for the wealthy to strut their stuff. It is interesting that 150 years ago it was a sleepy fishing village until a group of Englishman decided to build Italianate villas on the hill just outside the town as a winter holiday escape. Unfortunately as their numbers grew, so the local builders and entrepreneurs saw their opportunity and built everything from gaudy hotels to appalling apartments. Many of the buildings are rather soulless as many were obviously holidays homes for the rich and famous. The coast is hugely over-developed, with apartments burying or destroying any of the original charm that would have made Cannes famous to begin with. Now, with cars choking every corridor, the best we could do was drive through the town and look at the famous Carlton Hotel where the Film Festival is held each year.

On another day we headed of to the legoland town of Monaco which is the world's most densely populated country and only covers an area of 1.96 square kilometres. Monaco is a constitutional monarchy and second-smallest independent nation in the world. It is astonishing that with the French’s historical desire to take over the world such a small place has managed to remain independent (although there was a brief stint from 1793 to 1814, where Monaco was under French control).

However it is not the size or history that Monaco is most famous for – it is one of the most expensive places on Earth and judging by the price Kathy paid for a beer (AU$16) I am not surprised. The principality is a tax haven, and most of its inhabitants are millionaires from other countries. The glamour and prestige associated with Monaco and its style-conscious people can be seen in the number of Ferraris, Rolls and Bentleys crawling along the narrow roads, the designer fashion boutiques that line the street and the mini ocean liners that prance along the coast. It seems to be all about the money and how to flaunt it. We walked around the Casino de Monte-Carlo but decided it was not worth paying 10 euro just to see one-arm-bandits taking peoples money.

One thing that struck me was how the buildings and roads hang to the mountain edge, layered like pancakes over each other in order to maximise every last inch of the 2 km of land available. As a result, the roads are winding and narrow and I have no idea how the Monaco Grand Prix is raced on these tight turns.

Something disapointing about the place was the number of tourists groups (mostly American)congregating on every street corner. Yes - I know we are also tourists but I find it a strange experience being in another country where there is a sense that all the origional inhabitants and life have been removed and replaced with imported goods, people, buildings, food - way of life.

While the glitz and glamour was worth seeing I think this is not what France is all about. Another of our journeys gave a better picture of the south coast.