Monaco, the Palace of the Princes

 When the white and red flag flies over the palace, it means the prince is present and the public is not allowed to visit. A spectacle that always attracts many curious onlookers is the changing of the guard at exactly 11:55, when the prince’s French carabiniers parade in perfect synchrony in front of the entrance. The palace was built on the site of a Genoese fortress from 1215, and its current form is the result of a renovation that took place in the nineteenth century. Visitors can explore the galleries decorated with sixteenth-century mythological frescoes, which lead to the sumptuously decorated representative apartments, the throne room, the Mazarin salon, and the Louis XV salon, the honor courtyard, quadrangular and in Italian style, with a double flight of Carrara marble stairs, which in the beautiful season serves as a backdrop for concerts; the seventeenth-century palatine chapel and the Ste-Marie tower. A wing houses the Musée Napoléonien and the Monaco Archives. The Palace is open to the public from June to September from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. From the outside, there is a lovely view of Port de Fontvieille, one of the Principality’s industrial zones. Also visible beneath the Palace are the new stadium and the Princess Grace rose garden, which boasts 3,500 plants of 150 different varieties. A pleasant walk through the old district leads to the Cathedral and the exotic gardens. The former, in Romanesque-Byzantine style, was built in 1884 with white stone from La Turbie. The most precious pieces are found in the Chapelle des Princes, where the Grimaldis are buried. Princess Grace’s tomb is nearby and is always adorned with fresh roses. In the nearby Town Hall square is also the chapel of the Miséricorde from 1638.