Monaco et Eze

            On Sunday, we went to the lovely principality of Monaco, and visited the Prince’s Palace (of Prince Albert) as well as the Musée Oceanographique in Monaco; afterwards, we traveled to the small town of Eze, which is perched upon a mountaintop, to visit the perfumery Fragonard.

            Monaco was charming, like all the other cities along the Côte d’Azur, with its tall buildings on high mountain tops. Unfortunately, it’s not very big; around the size of New York’s Central Park. Still, there’s always something enticing about princes and princesses…I mean, I can’t help but draw connections to Prince Rainier and Prince Charles, marrying Princess Grace Kelly and Princess Diana, respectively—both loved, and both who died tragically early in car crashes and leaving children beyond…

We visited the palace which was awe-inspiring, but not as magnificent as Buckingham Palace.  In Buckingham Palace, there’s more bling, more rooms, more history and, most of all, more people.  Perhaps the Grimaldis cannot really compare to the grand Windsors of Great Britain, but they’re still royalty nonetheless.

After that visit, we walked around the small towns before immersing ourselves in the aquarium filled with seahorses, jellyfish, stingrays, and interesting fish…trust me, Damiana got a lot of crazy pictures of the fish and us posing with the fish.  It was fun, but I wish we had taken the time to go to Monte Carlo and seen the casino. Of course, I have seen the casino in Las Vegas, but I wanted to see the real Monte Carlo…ah well.

Afterwards, we also visited the small town of Eze, home to a parfumerie-factory called Fragonard. If you didn't know already, Provence is very well known for flowers. And what do they use these flowers for (besides decoration)? They make perfume with them of course! And that's what happens at Fragonard, a top perfumeries in France. At the factory, we learned about how they get the essential oils from flowers (through steam distillation), their very own "Nose" ("le nez" who can detect over 2,000 different smells--we regular humans can only detect 60 distinct smells if we're lucky, according to the tour guide. And there are only 50 Noses in the world, and they are the only ones who can create new scents. They can't smoke or drink or eat spicy food or else their sense of smell goes away. It's pretty amazing! I wider how much they get paid, what their training is, and how they were discovered or how they discovered their own sense of smell. 

        Anyway, we saw where they made soaps and perfumes, and at the end of course, smelled the perfumes they had to offer. By the end my nose was overwhelmed but I'm sure my body smelled good.