April / May 2004

As you travel eastwards along the coast from Saint Tropez, the view over the Mediterranean is magnificent all the way to Italy, but gradually both the vegetation and the colour of the rock change. The red sandstone becomes a hard, whitish-grey granite, solid enough to support huge tunnels driven through it, which is fortunate, as a regular pastime in Monaco is drilling vast tunnels under the rock which surrounds the Principality and shelters it from any inclement weather, whether for an underground railway station to gain more building land above or for tunnels to keep traffic flowing below the city. Indeed …