Grace of Monaco by Robinson Jeffrey

Author:Robinson, Jeffrey [Robinson, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2013-09-29T14:00:00+00:00

Midday

Every parking meter in Monte Carlo is taken.

In the summer, the public beach along the Avenue Princess Grace is packed with people lying on inflatable mattresses, or on huge monogrammed towels, or on fancy chaise-lounges that they rent by the hour for exorbitant fees, baking in the sun.

Young men with flat stomachs and gold chains around their necks drink Pastis and play backgammon.

Young women, the tops of their bikinis casually tossed aside, drink Vichy and rub oil on themselves as small beads of sweat trickle down between their toasted breasts.

Children sit at the water’s edge where the gentle ebb and flow of the sea covers the pile of smooth pebbles they’ve used to build a castle, because there is no sand.

A helicopter flies in from Nice airport.

At the eastern end of the principality, the very private Monte Carlo Beach Club is like something out of Hollywood in the 1930s, with rows of pinkish-colored cabanas covered by green and white striped awnings and an old-fashioned wind sock stuck on the top of a tall pole so the driver of the boat that takes people parasailing knows which way the breeze is blowing.

There’s a small wooden pier that juts out from the rock beach to the lake-like sea. And much further out there are two small docks floating on pontoons so that, if you can swim that far, you’ll have a place to rest or sunbathe or simply collapse.

A waiter sets tables outside at the Café de Paris.

Facing the port, on the sundeck below the Hotel de Paris, where the indoor pool is heated all year to a constant 82.5 degrees Fahrenheit, old men with paunches, gold Rolex Oysters on their wrists, and spotless white terry cloth robes hanging loosely around their shoulders, walk barefoot to the bar where they order another glass of champagne for themselves plus a Kir Royal with a Nicoise salad for the no-longer-so-young woman in the stylish one-piece bathing suit with the matching gold Rolex Oyster on the next chaise-lounge.

Around the corner from the railway station, a man who runs a small grocery starts taking in his wooden baskets of peaches and green peppers and onions and lettuce so that he can close for a three-hour siesta.

In the winter, the public beach gets only truly hearty types, who take their daily dip no matter what. The Monte Carlo Beach Club is closed. But the Health Club is open all year round and, if you know someone who rents one of the private sauna rooms, you can meet your lover there for what is called here—as it is in much of the world—an early matinee.

Depending on the restaurant, a $4 cantaloupe melon with a small piece of Parma ham on top and served on crested porcelain can cost upwards of $35.

Chinese waiters on one of the larger yachts in the harbor set out a buffet for the owner and his 20 guests, who will board the ship soon for a two-hour cruise to nowhere, consuming $15,000 in fuel,

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