Monaco is a sovereign country/microstate located along the Mediterranean’s French Riviera and surrounded by France and Italy. It is the second smallest sovereign microstate in the world after The Vatican. Monaco is famous for its rich and famous residents like Shirley Bassey, Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker, Björn Borg, Sir Roger Moore, and Bono. No individual income tax has ever been levied on residents.
The official language of Monaco is French and the currency is the Euro, but Monaco is not a member of the European Union. Monaco has the world’s lowest poverty rate and the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita in the world.
Citizens of Monaco, whether born in the country or naturalized, are called Monégasque. Monaco has the world’s highest life expectancy at nearly 90 years.
I’ve visited Monaco twice by car, driving from Nice, France on the coastal road. The first time, I tried to park near the Casino de Monte-Carlo to get photos and maybe get inside. Those thoughts were immediately dashed when a security guard quickly arrived and asked us to leave the area and find a car park. I read where Monaco has one of the largest police forces (515 police officers for about 38,000 people) and police presences in the world.
After being chased from the Casino area, I drove up to the underground car park below the Old City and Palace on “The Rock”. Took a stroll around the narrow streets of the Old City, watched a changing of the Palace Guards, took photos of the harbor areas from a few viewpoints and walked the beautiful Jardins Saint-Martin.
If you are going to arrive by plane, the nearest airport is Nice France, and you can take a train directly to Monaco.
The famous Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco was scheduled for May 28th of this year.
