Cocks letter diary, 1916-1919 / Verner Cocks - Page 573
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[Page 573]
palace and his marine museum said to be the finest in the world. The prince must have been a great scientist and sailor for his collection is remarkable. He has a fine little steam Yacht in the harbour. Monte Carlo is built right opposite on the other side of the harbour and the Casino is the most imposing building right on the water's edge. We arrived in time to see through the Casino and all the gaming tables and rooms etc. Play commences each day at 10 a.m. but only civilians can gain admission to the tables - the Monegascons themselves are not allowed to play. I believe the idea of a gaming house was started by a man named Schmidt (after whom the main room in the Casino is named) who made it such a success that the Prince bought him out for 2,000,000 francs and built the fine casino of to-day. It is run now by a syndicate who pay the prince 7,000,000 francs per year. This pays all the expenses of the kingdom and keeps the prince - the people pay no taxes whatever. The photos will show you what the Casino is like. We lunched at Menton - further along the coast and reached the Italian Frontier. We got off here & walked about a mile into Italy to a little town of Grimaldi where we posted a couple of p.c's and sampled the Italian sweet wine so much spoken of. Our return journey was along the top of the mountains skirting the sea shore by what is known as the Grand Cornische road a famous way built by the Romans. Afternoon tea at an old roman village called La Turbie contg some old ruins & got back to Nice.
Another trip we did was from Nice along the Coast to Cannes. Ten of us from the hotel went this time including a couple of American nurses. Cannes is the same kind of place as Nice - not as popular but I believe more select. From Cannes inland into the Mountains to a town of Grasse where we went through some perfumeries. Then a long trip through gorges & over mountains in sight of the Italian Alps home. This was a fine scenic trip but not to compare with our mountains. The roads in these countries are wonderful. They are as smooth as glass and the people go to no end of expense building viaducts and tunnels to carry them into impossible places. The mountains abound in old Roman villages which are built on high rocks and places hard to get at to protect them originally from hostile raiding parties.
At the hotel we met a Greek lady and her son who have made themselves friends of all the soldiers who go there. She delights in calling herself the digger's mother and her room is a regular Y.M.C.A. She has photos galore and after meals we all retired to her room for Turkish coffee. She was a real fine woman and looked after us well. We have been very lucky in meeting these kind ladies, both foreigners too. It is a wonderful education to meet people of all countries. We always seemed to look down on "foreigners" but one finds out that every nation has people as good as any other. This Greek lady loved the Aussies - she was a good woman. Kind and used to treat us just like sons. Before the war she was a fashionable lady in Constantinople.
Well we spent about 8 days in Nice (having in the meantime got our passes extended three days) and at last tore ourselves away but not wishing to do the tedious 24 hours trip back to Paris as we came interviewed Cook's and found out from them another route - shorter but taking three days - via the Alps - the Maritime and Basses Alps.
Left Nice and went straight into the Mountains to a place called Digne by a narrow guage railway. Wandering round the town we bumped a French Protestant Parson. He was just coming home from Sunday School with his friends and having stopped us asked our religion and invited us to his home for afternoon tea. We went & enjoyed it very well. He told us that he & his wife are practically protestant missionaries in the South of France where there is a fairly strong protestant inclination but he said he was getting a pretty rough spin from the other sects. Left Digne next morning en route for Grenoble a well known winter sports place. During this trip we reached the highest point during the whole voyage. We got right up to the snow line & the scenery amongst the snowy alps was magnificent. We took several snaps from the train. I hope they come out well. At Grenoble we had tea and a wander round the town. The place where the Chartreuse monk lived is not far from here. They were the chaps who invented the favous chartreuse liquer but they have now been kicked out of France.
We left Grenoble at night & reached Aix-les-bains. This is a great European winter sports resort besides having Roman thermal baths for which invalids from all over the world come. It happens that we stayed at the hotel where Queen Victoria and certain other European royalties have stayed.
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