Wednesday, June 04, 2025

European Holiday 2025 - Monte-Carlo, Monaco

While staying in Nice we decided to take the short train ride to Monte-Carlo, Monaco.   The purpose wasn't to hunt for James Bond books, but rather to knock another country off our bucket list of places to visit.   Little did I know we'd find a movie location from a Bond film !


Our first stop was the Monte-Carlo Casino, a short walk from the train station.  As we entered the casino we were immediately struck by the glorious marble lobby with an F1 car parked at its centre.  The Monaco F1 Grand Prix took place on May 25, just a week earlier.  Many people, including myself, snapped photos of the amazing machine.  It was then I noticed a pattern in the marble floor which I recognised immediately...


The lobby was used for the dance sequence in "Never Say Never Again".  We were standing in the same room where Sean Connery, Kim Basinger and Klaus Maria Brandeur had once stood !


A little while later while walking toward the Royal Palace we noticed this magazine outside a shop. The magazine cover in the centre features an image of Daniel Craig as Bond in "No Time To Die".


I may have even found Moneypenny's Landrover from "Skyfall" 😀.


We visited several other locations in Monaco and did a fair bit of walking.  We even had lunch while sitting on the blue plastic seats in a temporary racetrack grandstand already partly disassembled.

If you're fortunate enough to be in Nice sometime in the future I highly recommend taking the 40 minute journey by train to Monaco, and spending the day there; just to witness how the other half live.  

Here's a few more photos from the day:

The rear of the Monte-Carlo Casino



Stairs inside the same casino.  I'd like to think these were the stairs Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) dances down in "Never Say Never Again" after being given permission to kill Bond, however I've done a Google search and sadly they're not.



A section of the Grand Prix track



A guard on duty at the Royal Palace



port full of private vessels

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