Day 27: Monaco

MONACO!
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We lazily woke up this morning and decided that we would try to make it to not only Monaco, but another coastal French city as well.  We decided on Villefrance-Sur-Mer, a beautiful little town in between Monaco and Nice.  We hopped a train and headed to Monaco first.  It's only about a twenty minute train ride to the principality of Monaco.  Even though you still felt like you were in France, there were definite subtleties that let you know that you were in Monaco.  Monaco has the nicest and cleanest train station we have ever seen.  The streets are immaculate without a speck of trash.  Every building is fabulous and gorgeous and all the cars on the street pretty much consist of Ferraris, Mercedes, Bentleys, etc.  Situated right above all these cliffs, the tiny tiny tiny country is all stairs and hills.  No problem, considering we were in one of the richest countries, they've installed elevators and escalators for public use EVERYWHERE!  We walked down to the one public beach they have (they're so rich they actually replenish their sand on their beach!) walking past the famous Monte Carlo Casino and fabulous hotels like the Hotel Hermitage and Hotel de Paris.  Rooms in these hotels start at around $500 for the most basic rooms.  We wanted to go into the casino, but the dress code prevented us from doing so - no shorts, no sandals, no jeans, etc.  In the private salons (where you can gamble at various games), the dress code is even more strict with a coat and tie policy.  Even walking down the street we felt completely underdressed.  Monaco pretty much has no sightseeing.  Oh sure, you could stop and see the palace, or the royal collection of cars, but that is pretty much it.  That is why we headed straight for the beach!  Even their beach is pretty immaculately clean!  With a huge modern lifeguard station right in the middle, the beach was packed with sunbathers.  Today was definitely hotter than yesterday and we got some good tanning in!  We went in the water and discovered many fish swimming very close to shore, which TJ liked looking at.  We got back to sunbathing and then heard from a loudspeaker from the lifeguard station "Attention, il y a les Meduses..."  Those darned jellyfish.  Apparently they're not like crazy insane jellyfish as no one got out of the water and all the lifeguards did was announce their presence, although we're sure they still hurt since they announce a warning.  We even saw some... tiny little things, the size of tennis balls.   After a couple of lazy hours in the sun, we decided to head on back.  Unfortunately, by the time we headed on back, we realized it may have been just a bit too late to visit the city of Villefrance-Sur-Mer.  We were saddened.  Oh well, next time on our fabulous Riviera coastal vacation we will have some day!  Back to Nice we went.  We went back to the hotel to get into some clothing that didn't have ocean water on it and decided to stroll the streets of Nice.  We walked a good deal, too!  We strolled all over streets and along the beach for almost two hours and realized that our tummies were grumbling.  We stopped at a busy restaurant to get some mussels with french fries and a pizza.  Food was good!!  Can't wait for our next, and last, day in Nice...