When the Cheshire emerges...

A year ago today I was at Monaco-Ville, Monaco on a daytrip.

It was the day after the Cannes closing party which was full of amusing pretentiousness and epic dancing - a great end to a crazy week at the festival; having arrived back at my Nice hostel about 7:30am (or around then) I thought a couple of hours sleep would suffice and I'd still have most of the day in Monaco as I'd planned.

I woke up five hours later.

I questioned whether it was worth it but felt shit with the idea I'd waste the afternoon. I got there and wandered for a few hours, which ended up being plenty of time as I only wanted to go through Monaco-Ville and see the castle.

I'd been to Monte Carlo in 2010 but I still found myself at the Grand Casino at one point. I somehow figured out the buses perfectly the whole time, saw the room where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier were married in a civil affair, perused the prince's car collection and appreciated some more amazing French Riviera views.

That night back in Nice I had an amazing spaghetti pizza (yes, blending the best of Italy/southern France in one) and more gelati to boost my energy. To be fair, I didn't drink at the Cannes party (it wasn't an open bar and way out of my price range) but I'd been tired to the point of feeling a bit drunk. Even so, I was with two new-found friends from across the week and was sad for my time there to be just about over.

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I wanted to also show you what I saw of Nice and also St Marguerite, an island off Cannes that has an interesting chapter of history to it.