Tara Smith
IT IS one of the richest countries in the world, where one in three residents is a millionaire. Ruled by a hereditary monarch who is also the de facto president and even has a seat at the UN, it also has a large and powerful police force ensuring all the laws – however strange – must be strictly adhered to.
People walking down the street without shoes or bare-chested can be arrested, while camper vans are prohibited from even driving in the country.
Every corner has CCTV cameras but at the same time income is largely generated from gambling, drinking and partying. While it might sound like a Middle Eastern domain, this is Monaco, a long-established part of Europe, surrounded by France, but a few miles from the Italian border.
Inside Monaco, a riveting new three-part series for the BBC, delves deep into the nooks and crannies of the tiny city state which at 0.78 square miles – the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican – has become the playground for the rich and famous.
The documentary, narrated by Channel 4 First Dates star Fred Sirieix, has had access to everyone from the country’s monarch, Prince Albert II, to housekeepers in its most famous hotels.
The result is the tale of two worlds: the fabulously wealthy who are residents and visitors, and those who serve them.
Swedish supermodel Victoria Silvstedt isn’t the only one to describe the place as a bubble. She adds: “I’ve lived in Monaco since 2011 but when I wake up every morning I think, ‘Oh my God, I’m living in Monaco’. I am living in a dream.”
MONACO was just a tiny principality made up of clementine and lemon farms when Prince Albert’s ancestor, Prince Charles III, took advantage of new laws outlawing gambling in France and Italy. “He had this genius idea to allow gambling,” says Lt Col Phillippe Rebaudengo, one of the current Prince’s equerries.
“Before that the land was full of peasants but within 30 years the principality had become terribly rich and the people of Monaco became used to seeing lots of rich people.”
The Casino de Monte Carlo, built in 1863, became a magnet for the wealthy who wanted entertainment and soon hotels were being built around it. Within six years, the casino was making so much money for Monaco a decision was made to stop charging residents tax.
So then of course the rich wanted to live there, too. The densely packed area became so popular rules were quickly enacted. People can only buy a property in Monaco if they have a spare £500,000 in the bank.And they can’t become citizens – a Monegasque – until they have lived there for 10 years.
Even people who marry a Monegasque – and they are rare, there are around 9,000 of them in a country of 38,000 – have to wait 10 years before they can apply to become a citizen too. Prince Albert still gets to personally decides who can become a citizen.
And yet – even as the high-rise blocks go up and the chance of having a sea view disappears in this tightly-packed space on the Mediterranean – the price of property is shooting up at a rate of 10 per cent every year. A five-storey townhouse with no sea view will set you back a cool £30million.
For the Monegasques, born into this strange world, such staggering house price inflation presents a very particular challenge. In order not to be completely priced out of
‘Prince Albert gets to personally decide who can become a citizen. There are only 9,000 of them’
their own country, they are hugely subsidised with cheaper rents and housing stock and get preferential treatment for jobs.
But they are not allowed to gamble in the casino – and that rule even applies to the royal family.
The series also offers an intriguing glimpse into the life of Prince Albert, whose family, the Grimaldis, have been rulers of Monaco since they purchased the small area from the Crown of Aragon in 1419.
He is the son of Prince Rainier III and Hollywood film star Grace Kelly. Their fairytale marriage helped cement Monaco’s reputation as a place of quintessential glamour. Albert works out of his mother’s former office.