Sunday trip to Monaco - the 'Monaco Shopping Experience'

Monaco and Monte Carlo, July 2008



View from the Palace Hill over the Port and out towards Monte Carlo. You can see the storms in the hills. The large outdoor lido or swimming pool is just visible in the centre left of the picture.


One of the leaflets I picked up in Nice Tourist office was promoting Sunday shopping in Monaco for the summer. "7 Sundays with a difference, from 20th July to 31st August 2008" Myself and the dear daughter are rather fond of shopping. The main shops in Nice are always closed on Sundays apart from the tourist shops and market in the Old Town and a few supermarkets.

For more information try visitmonaco.com and here plus this archived link.


We caught the 10;30am 100 TAM bus from the Gare Routiere so that we would be in time to catch the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace. That way, we could pretend it wasn't all about the shops. This is a 5-minute routine every day at 11:55am. Bus arrived at the foot of the rock at Place des Armes bus stop about an hour later so had plenty of time to stroll up the hill and eat our sandwiches before trying to see the guards. Large number of tourists already milling about in prime position so we just stood at the back and saw relatively little. I don't think we missed much, it's all a bit lame but the drums and the bell tower accompaniament was ok.

Changing of the guards at the Royal Palace. They have guns but they're skinny, I reckon I could take a couple.

Now for the shopping. Apparently you can take the buses all day Sunday for 1,50 euros, there's about 5 of them but the day was overcast, even a few drops of rain, so walking suited us fine. We headed towards Monte Carlo to look around the Center Commercial there. As part of the Sunday promotions, free eco-bags were being handed out at the malls. We couldn't find one anywhere but maddeningly, we saw plenty being toted all over Monaco. They are also given out in hotels on a Sunday morning and as passengers disembark the cruise ships.

On the way to Monte Carlo, we passed by the Olympic sized outdoor swimming pool or lido. Looking at the prices, it's quite good value, only 4,70 euros for the day.

Open air lido, open most days to the general public for about 5 euros

Walking up towards the Casino, it became apparent that Sunday shopping did not apply to the big names. All the real shops were closed; Hermes, Dior etc. The commercial centres were open though - most of the units within the Centre Commercial le Métropole were open, including a branch of Longchamps. This shopping centre is behind and to the north of Café de Paris by the side of the Casino. I suppoes if you had been stuck on the cruise ship with no shops for a day or two, it might have been an Aladin's cave but it wasn't much of a shoppigng experience in my humble opinion. Far better to while away a few hours in the Café de Paris.

Paused for an expensive boule of icecream (4 euros) from the Hagen Daz café in the Casino Park before catching the 100 back to Nice. It stayed fairly overcast and thundery later on, not really beach weather so the trip to Monte Carlo was not a bad choice. We popped into the Monaco Tourist Office before coming home to gather some info and the promotion crew were just returning from handing out all the free eco-bags so we managed to get one at the 11th hour. I wish I could say it was worth it, suffice to say Anya Hindmarsh will continue to sleep sound at night.

The Casino bus stop for the 100 back to Nice or the 100xpress Monday-Friday is at the top (north) of the casino gardens, not far from the Tourist Office. There is an arcaded area in front of the shops - les Allées Lumière for some welcome shade.

The Belgian double chocolate is highly recommended by my daughter.

Pocket-sized city spots guide to Monte Carlo, £4.79 from Amazon:

trip to Monaco from Nice December 2007

19th December 2007

This is the large Christmas tree in the centre of Monaco's Christmas Village. You can see the three of us reflected in the silver bauble, the orange blob is an Hermès bag, Happy Christmas to me.

We had spent the morning in Cimiez at the Matisse museum and in the afternoon we decided suddenly to nip to Monaco on the new 100 xpress bus.

The 100 xpress is a new service this autumn and the fare is still only 1,30 euros. On the information leaflet, it says this will be reduced to 1 euro in the new year (2008) Not sure if that will be universal for all TAM routes or just for the xpress service. A leaflet can be downloaded here

There are a limited number of bus stops for the new 100 xpress bus route from Nice to Monaco

The regular 100 from Nice to Menton via Monaco is still in operation. The time difference is about 20 minutes - it's about a 35 minute trip via the 100 xpress and at least an hour via the 100.

The new 100 xpress from Nice to Mnoaco via the autoroute

It feels quicker on the xpress as there are only about 6 stops in total and it goes via the motorway for part of the journey so you feel you are on your way. It's every hour at 10 minutes to the hour from the Gare Routière or bus station, quai 19, pay the driver. It returns from Monaco at half past the hour up to 6:30pm.

100 xpress timetable, click on the image to enlarge

We took the express to its last stop in Monaco by Place des Moulins, right outside Ladurée where we bought a couple of boxes of their famous macaroons. From there, a 5 minute stroll takes you to the Casino.

Macaroons from Laduree
Photo: Courtesy www.laduree.fr

outside Ladurée, bag of goodies in hand


If you wanted to start at the other end of Monaco, the bus first stops at Place d'Armes where you can take the lift or walk up to the Palace. We had great views of the Port and Christmas village and big wheel as the bus descended into Monaco.

Our plan was to walk from Ladurée all the way back to Place d'Armes at the foot of the Place hill to catch the last xpress bus back to Nice at 6:30pm. We had about 3 hours but if we missed the last xpress, we could always take the regular 100 and jump off at the Port. It's an easy walk from this far east end of Monte Carlo as the direction is always down hill. If you walk from the Palace end, it's up hill although there are regular local buses to get you you about. Our walk took us past the Casino and past Hermès, my favourite shop where I bought myself a new enamel bangle for Christmas.

Outside Hermès, avenue de Monte Carlo

In general, the shops, streets and gardens were much more Christmassy than Nice - far more effort with lots of tasteful lights, displays and decorations. In Nice you have to hunt a bit to see any decorations part from somewhat dismal looking municipal Christmas trees in concrete planters each with a couple of strands of tinsel and about five large baubles.

Onwards and downwards towards the Port where the Christmas Village was set up. A similar format to Nice (and every other city in Europe) Wooden chalets, an ice rink and a big wheel. Generally, it was bigger and glitzier than Nice with better decorations, more stalls and a bigger ice rink - they had covered over the open-air swimming pool. There were also more fun things for children to do - snowshoe walking on real snow and motorised ski quads over mini courses of real snow.


There were also lots of stalls providing food and snacks plus picnic bench seating. Hot dogs, socca, waffles, pancakes, baked potatoes, sandwiches etc. We had hotdogs, pancakes and socca, watched the iceskating for a bit and continued on towards the big wheel. At this point time had gone by so we headed across the road and up the pedestrianised Princess Caroline Street, turn left at the top, cross over the your are at the Place d'Armes bus stop, on the north side of the road, headed for Nice. There's a convenient bar here for a coffee, beer and loo. One thing I've noticed about the bus stops in Monaco, they are reluctant to display the TAM 100 bus signs, you have to just trust that they will stop at the main stops and stick your thumb out just to make sure. It's all local bus information. There was a small poster for the xpress bus though, which was reassuring. A 100 bus turned up first and we were about to jump on, when the xpress appeared behind it.

It's the first time we had been to Monaco in December and I would go again, it was lovely and an interesting contrast to Nice.