I visited Monaco not too long ago and I was pleasantly surprised, also, even though it was a very wealthy place, normal humans could actually afford a sandwich at the supermarket. As we have some (really hungry) children we had a picknic near the harbour (well aware that this was not something that went on there on a daily basis) and sure enough - when the sandwiches were made, the police was there. We expected that they would tell us to move on, but they had just seen our gathering in the surveilance videos, they smiled at us and wished us a happy meal and left again.
I was there later with my students who went to the casino to see some flashy cars and met Charles Spencer in the parking lot. They talked to him about his car and he apparently was very nice, just declined to have selfies taken. But he took his time and talked to them. (Sadly my students do not follow royal dish and just knew that he was very famous, but had no real clue who he was). They took one picture and showed it ... dang, I should have gone to the casino with them.
The girl doing a guided tour complained a bit about Caroline, apparently there was a time when Caroline showed up without an appointment to visit her dad's grave in the cathedral which always resulted in having the whole cathedral blocked off for the duration of her visit. It is her late mom and dad but she said that she wished it was somehow predictable when she would show up. Not sure if that is still a problem.
Thank you for these great stories/ anecdotes!
