Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/10/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Delighted to meet you too, Jim! Douglas ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Nichols" <jhnichols at lighttube.net> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 4:16 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] IMGs: Monaco > Interesting views, including your portrait. Nice to meet you! > > Jim Nichols > Tullahoma, TN USA > > On 10/20/2016 9:28 AM, Douglas Barry 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 >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >