Fun day in Cannes and a trip to Monaco

Monday 5-10-15 
Today was a free day in Cannes with a free bus trip offered to Monaco in the late afternoon. We set off around 10am to walk into the centre of Cannes. It took about 45 minutes at a fairly easy pace and a bonus was that it was all downhill. On the way we saw evidence of the terrible flooding with some shop - keepers busy cleaning out the mud and water from their shops. We walked down to the water front and harbour area and saw the most amazing aray of very expensive yachts and cruising boats.

The Cannes film festival was still going on and the centre where they screen all the new movie releases is down near this area right at the harbour. It was packed with people, many dressed very smartly and of course there was the odd celebrity.  We found the "red carpet" which ran along a path next to the beach and then up to the buildings. We also discoved pavers that had the hand prints and signatures of famous actors. We had a quick bite to eat and tried to find an ATM that was working. We didn’t need any money but a couple in our group did. Many ATMs were not working due to the floods and there were long cues near those that were. After successfully completing this task we went on an open carriage tour of all of the Cannes area. This was only €10 and well worth the money as it had a great audio about the history of Cannes including where the celebrities had stayed etc and took us high up a hill to get a great view. We had to return to our hotel in time to take the free tour to Monaco so we headed back and decided to take a bus. We went to pay but the bus driver waved us through as due the state of emergency caused by the floods (and no rail service) all the buses were free. We saw one street that had been blocked off that had obviously been flooded because the had beeen cars all pushed up against each other and were all arranged higgledy-piggledy.
Back at the hotel we freshend up and the boarded the coach for our trip to Monaco. Monaco is

the 2nd to smallest country with the Vatican being the smallest. Our tour leader said Monaco is 2 square miles and 38,000 people live there. Monte-Carlo, the capital seems to take all the space. So much wealth in such a small country. Beautiful high-rise buildings, amazing coastline and hills, fantastic sports cars everywhere. Our coach driver, Stuart is from Scotland and does an amazing job of manouvreing our coach around the narrow steep roads. Stuart took us on the scenic route through Nice and along the coastline. It was a wonderful trip. Once we arrived in Monte-Carlo we headed for the famous casino. Sports cars lined the entrance! We paid €10 to go inside as tourists have to do this. I don't

understand how they thought we were tourists and not high rollers. The inside of the casino is very luxurious with gold everywhere and chandeliers hanging. We spent €10 on the pokies just to say we had! We had to be back on the coach to

head back to Cannes by 8.30pm and seeing we didn't have a big win we didn't venture to the very expensive restaurant near-by but went to McDonald's instead. Saying that, the McDonald's was on the ocean front and as we sat down for our meal, fireworks were being let off over the ocean. It was stunning and our meal satisfied us.