[Leica] IMGs: Monaco

[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
> 
> 
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