Although it’s more a pre-breakfast stroll than a country, Monaco packs a lot of living into a little land. Most of the people who dwell here come from somewhere else, drawn by the sun, glamorous lifestyle and-most importantly-tax-free income. This is the playground of Europe’s elite, a country where Lady Luck might clean you out at the casino one day and put you on the Grimaldi guest list the next. lt’s a glittering, preening, swanking opportunity for people-watching that shouldn’t be passed up amateur anthropologists.

April/May and September/October (spring and autumn)

Losing money in the over-the top splendour of the Monte Carlo CasinoVisiting the Musee Oceanographique, probably the best aquarium in Europe, with 90 seawater tanks and a display of living coral Wandering around Monaco’s Palais du Prince, which was built in the 13 th century Checking out the spectacular views from the Jardin Exotique, which has 7000 varieties of cacti and succulents Sailing off Monaco in a glass-bottomed boat

Read PETER Mayle’s Anything Considered, a novel about Monaco featuring monks, crim and truffles; The Bridesmaids: Grace Kelly and six intimate friends, in which Judith Balaban Quine persuades Grace’s best buddies to pill the beans

Listen to the prize-winning Monte Carlo Philharmonic

Watch Grace Kelly in the Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief-she met Prince Rainier while filming; Golden Eye, with Pierce Brosnan as ‘Bond, James Bond’ and localtion shots including the Grand Corniche and Monte Carlo Casino

Eat finger food (if you want to compete with the wannabe starlets on Monte Carlo’s beach)

Drink martinis or mineral water

Tres chi-chi

Princess Grace; the casino; the Formula One Grand Prix; endless gossip about princesses Caroline and Stephanie; a tax-free haven; Ferraris

James Bond really does live in Monaco (well, Moore does); the citizens of Monaco (known as Monegasques) only number about 5000 out of the total population’ Monaco’s territory only covers 1.95sq km

Money is safe in Monaco and so are the people who have it. The police presence in Monaco is striking (don’t even think about running a red light), and their perpetual vigilance is aided by TV cameras posted on nearly every corner. Street crime is virtually unknown, but Monaco’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil banking system has com under criticism from French regulators for tolerating money laundering.