Carré d’Or

The Carré d’Or is not a ward. It sits inside Monte-Carlo, and it is the name the market uses for the streets around Place du Casino: Avenue de Monte-Carlo, Avenue des Beaux-Arts, Avenue de la Costa. Beyond those three, published definitions diverge — one goes no further, another runs east to Avenue Princesse Grace, a third continues down to the sea. We draw no line, because no official one exists.

What a plan does not show is the slope. Place du Casino sits on the high terrace. The Jardins des Boulingrins fall from the square to Avenue de la Costa. On the other side the ground drops to the port, past the Auditorium Rainier III below the terraces; Avenue d’Ostende climbs back up from Port Hercule to the square. Walking here is either up or down.

Around Place du Casino the frontages are Belle Époque: stone, balustrades, mansard roofs. On Avenue de la Costa and one street back — Boulevard des Moulins, the Saint-Charles streets — period blocks alternate with post-war buildings and 1960s and 1970s towers, many with shops or offices at ground level. Two flats a hundred metres apart can be different products. Older buildings predate resident parking, so a space is usually a separate purchase or a public car-park subscription. On a stepped site, ground floor and street level rarely mean the same thing.

Boulevard des Moulins is the everyday street: a pharmacy, cafés, galleries, the Direction du Tourisme, Monaco’s government tourist office. Métropole Shopping Monte-Carlo, on Avenue des Spélugues, has a small supermarket among the boutiques; the larger ones are outside the zone, down in La Condamine and in Fontvieille. The Jardins des Boulingrins make one continuous public walk from Avenue de la Costa up to the square. École Saint-Charles, on Avenue Saint-Laurent above the boulevard, is the state primary school in this part of Monte-Carlo.

It suits someone who wants the opera, the gardens and dinner within walking distance, and who accepts a public car park instead of a private space. It does not suit anyone who wants a quiet street: day visitors and coaches concentrate on exactly these streets. The Grand Prix is a season here, not a weekend — a buyer viewing in October is not seeing the street they will live on in May.