July / Aug 1989
June on the Côte d’Azur is one of my favourite times of the year. A month for basking on uncrowded beaches, messing about in boats, and planning the summer vacation. Except that this year it will be hard to find a vacation spot with more to offer in the way of entertainment than Monaco, as the Principality is in the midst of celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of the reign of Prince Rainier Ill. We are in festive mood.
The old town is ablaze with flags and the streets alive with music, ballet, folk dancing, and the magical concerts in the Place du Palais which are given each summer by the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra. This year, Luciano Pavarotti is scheduled to sing his heart out under the Mediterranean skies. Unfortunately, if you have not already booked your ticket, I doubt you will find a seat; but a voice like that can surely be heard for miles around. People lucky enough to live in the building where he has his apartment sit in rapture on the backstairs when he practises.
If you missed the Monaco Drama Group's "Shakespeare on the Rock" at Fort Antoine (an open-air theatre near the Oceanographique Museum), then you really missed an evening to remember. Even for those unmoved by Shakespeare's poetry, an evening at Fort Antoine, under the stars, is something special. Guitar lovers may want to go and listen to Alexandre Lagoya on 17 July, or there are concerts given by the New American Chamber Orchestra, if a gentler kind of music soothes your savage breast.
Of course, the real summer rendezvous for les anglais is the series of English language films shown outdoors at the Sporting Club cinema on avenue Princesse Grace. A day at the beach, an early dinner and at 9.30 everyone heads for the cinema, to sip a cool drink and catch up with the 1989 movies. A gentle warning, do cover up carefully; the local mosquitos are attracted by the light of the silver screen.
For all those other Leos, with an end of July birthday, there can be no more elegant a place to celebrate than the lovely Hotel Hermitage, whose terrace overlooks the port (which in summer is ablaze with fireworks) and from 26-28 July. "Les Whippenpoofs" - a choir from Yale University, USA - will sing Whippenpoofian types of songs„
It may be your last chance to see the old port. They are in the midst of tearing down the old houses around the port. to replace them with higher and more elegant buildings (but they won't have those lovely old pink-tiled roofs,- so dash up to the rock and take your photographs quickly, before they're gone forever).
After touring the exhibits of the Salon International de l'Immobilier de Prestige - admiring models of the Tour d'Eiffel built with matchsticks and watching videos of 25 million franc country chateaux and dream houses on the beach - I discovered the perversity of man.
I met a Norwegian engineer who is negotiating with the Monaco government to construct an offshore island, stabalized with a very deep ‘keel’, and possibly a breakwater and an anchor or two for protection against the winter seas. On this island would be a yacht marina, possibly a hotel . . . and luxury apartments!
Now, what is the motivation that would make a man want to live on an island in an apartment, even if it's off-shore Monaco when, for the same money, he could buy a chateau with its own vineyard and tennis court and mediaeval architecture, and live in grandeur and elegance? Sheer perversity, perhaps? Or a very clever sales pitch by Monaco. Forty years of convincing the world that this is the ideal place to be . . . Port Grimaud look out. All that . . . and opera too!
Of course, the safety angle may have complications. I suppose there could be a closed gate at the entrance to the breakwater leading to the island. But what about pirates? And then there's the “boat people”. A whole new off-shore police patrol could be introduced . . . surveillance by hang-glider ... it's a fascinating idea. And your yacht at your doorstep.
What a choice! A vast country property with mediaeval chateau and prestige and your name on the wine label . . . or one of the first floating penthouses off-shore Monte-Carlo .... ah! thereby I reveal my mediocre means . . . In Monaco, it need not be “or” but "en plus"!
Quel Reve! Six months tasting wine in one's chateau ... and six months sipping champagne in Monte Carlo .... ah! I could adapt to that lifestyle so very easily. Are there any lonely millionaires out there?
