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MONTE-CARLO |
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Monte-Carlo is the area of Monaco where the real money is flung
about, and its famous casino ( www.casino-monte-carlo.com ; bus #1 or
#2) demands to be seen. Entrance is restricted to over-21s and you may
have to show your passport; dress code is rigid, with shorts and T-shirts
frowned upon, and skirts, jackets and ties more or less obligatory for
the more interesting sections. Bags and large coats are checked at the
door.
Day-trippers and gambling dilettantes usually don't enter the casino
proper, but head for the small room of one-armed bandits and poker
machines (free) by the main entrance. Without further commitment you can
also wander around the impressive entry hall, use the luxurious toilets
and check out the small theatre (containing temporary exhibitions). The
first gambling hall of the inner sanctum is the Salons Européens (open
from noon; 50F/¬7.63), where further slot machines surround the American
roulette, craps and blackjack tables, the managers are Vegas-trained,
the lights low and the air oppressively smoky. Above this slice of
Nevada, however, the decor is fin-de-siècle Rococo extravagance, while
the ceilings in the adjoining Pink Salon Bar are adorned with female
nudes smoking cigarettes. The heart of the place is the Salons Privés (from
3pm), through the Salles Touzet. To get in, you have to look like a
gambler, not a tourist (no cameras), and dispense with 100F/¬15.25 at
the door. Much larger and more richly decorated than the European Rooms,
its early-afternoon or out-of-season atmosphere is that of a cathedral.
No clinking coins, just sliding chips and softly spoken croupiers.
Elderly gamblers pace silently, fingering hefty banknotes (the maximum
unnegotiated stake here is 500,000F/¬76,000), closed-circuit TV cameras
above the chandeliers watch the gamblers watching the tables, and no one
drinks. On midsummer evenings the place is packed out and the vice loses
its sacred and exclusive touch.
Adjoining the casino is the gaudy opera house , and around the palm-tree-lined
place du Casino are more casinos plus the city's palace-hotels and
grands cafés . The American Bar of the Hôtel de Paris is, according to
its publicity, the place where "the world's most elite society" meets.
As long as you dress up and are prepared to be challenged if you haven't
ordered a 200F/¬30.50 drink, you can entertain yourself free of charge
against the background of Belle Époque decadence by watching humans
whose bank accounts are possibly the most interesting thing about them.
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