[Leica] IMGs: Monaco

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

I would have loved to slash the tyres on that Saudi royal car ;-)

Nice selfie at the end.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws 
<http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ 
<http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator 
<http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
YNWA













> On 20 Oct 2016, at 16:28, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
> 
> Visited Monaco briefly on Monday the 3rd Oct in the hope that it wouldn't 
> be as crowded as it can be. Sadly, it was, with crowds of tourists doing 
> awkward poses and selfies in what I now consider to be one of the most 
> over-hyped places on earth. Overbuilding and the rush of money have ruined 
> what was a pleasant spot. Many Belle Epoque villas have disappeared to be 
> replaced by mini, and indeed maxi, skyscrapers to house the thousands of 
> rich, and even vulgarly rich, tax exiles who want to escape to, as 
> Somerset Maugham put it "A sunny place for shady people".
> 
> I know Monaco very well, but hadn't visited it for fifteen years. I used 
> to go to meetings every year at the IAAF headquarters at Villa Miraflores 
> on the higher side of Casino Square. It was a wonderful building with a 
> great view looking down across the Casino Square gardens to the Casino and 
> the Hotel de Paris, and had been taken over by Hermann Goering - a man 
> who, shall we say, knew what he liked - for his personal use during the 
> Nazi era.
> 
> The Villa Miraflores is still there, but the view is gone. Most of the 
> Casino Square gardens are now covered in the lamentable Pavilions Monte 
> Carlo while work is progressing on ripping out (modernising) the pleasant 
> Avenue des Beaux Arts which is now hidden behind huge building hoardings 
> as monsterous cranes dominate the skies. The cacophony of drills, hammers, 
> dust etc., must be a nightmare for guests at the seriously expensive Hotel 
> de Paris.  If I had won the Euromillions lottery and treated the family to 
> a week in the Hotel de Paris, I'd be very disappointed. I presume the 
> oligarchs are staying in their yachts.
> 
> Anyway, here are six pictures that in their own way reflect the place. I 
> include one of myself sitting in front of the statue of William Grover aka 
> Williams in his Bugatti at the first corner of the GP circuit - an 
> interesting man and his Wikipedia entry is worth a look. We also met a lot 
> of Chinese tourists and saw some expensive machinery. Give the place a 
> miss until the works are finished.
> 
> Start here and click to the right.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/France/Cote+dAzur+2016/Monaco+1+Lalique.jpg.html
> 
> All pictures can be enlarged for detail.
> 
> Douglas
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information