[Leica] IMGs: Monaco

[Douglas Barry]

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