Taking a Bus to Monaco

I’m not a fan of buses. They’re inconsistent, they get stuck in traffic, they are rarely on time. Even the school bus that I was forced to ride for a while my freshman year in high school was never on time. BUT, we braved the Cote d’Azur bus system and it was…OK.

But let’s back up a second. Our morning got off to a lovely start. I walked down to the main street near our apartment and picked up some coffee, croissants, and pains au chocolat for breakfast while my jetlagged friend got up and ready. When I returned, we made coffee in the french press in our apartment and had a fabulous breakfast on the balcony.

After breakfast, our bus adventure began. We had looked up the route to Monaco, which is not far from Nice, and there was a bus stop right outside our apartment that was to take us there. A bus was supposed to leave every 15 minutes. 35 minutes later a bus showed up that was full and not picking up passengers. Finally an emptier bus rolled along and we got on it, eventually making it to Monaco! Whew! Totally worth it, though. Monaco is gorgeous, and we could not have picked a more beautiful day to go. Here I am on Princess Grace Walkway that wraps around behind the Monte Carlo Casino:

We had a fabulous, if overpriced, lunch on the Casino square, ducked into the super fancy casino which, to my great disappointment, had some pretty tacky slot machines that completely clashed with the snazzy surroundings (they make you leave your camera at coat check, so no pictures – you’ll just have to go see for yourself), then made our way back to the bus stop to head back down the coast.