Stage 21 Tour de France 2024

Food and Drink to Accompany Stage 21 Tour de France 2024

It will be late July when Stage 21 is raced, and hot - probably too hot for cycling, really.

The food and drink to accompany the stage will have to be suited to the Summer heat.

Luckily, salade niçoise is perfectly adapted to hot weather. It includes lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, tuna fish and soft-boiled eggs. Mmm, very nice.

A chilled glass of Côtes de Provence rosé will go perfectly with your salad.

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Monaco

Monaco is a sunny place for shady people - boom!

It's a Principality east of Nice on the Mediterranean coast with a population of around 36,000 people.

It's only 2km square, about the size of Hyde Park.

That's why some of the buildings are tall, to make best use of the available land area. Because of the skyscrapers it's sometimes known as the Hong Kong of Europe.

More surface area has been created by reclaiming land from the sea, and underground space is used for parking, roads and the bus station.

Some of the vehicles in the underground car parks are sports cars: Monaco has the highest number of sports cars per head of population in Europe.

Relationship with France

Monaco is an independent state, but since a treaty of 1641 it has had the protection and friendship of France. It is also represented by France in international affairs. Most French laws are applied in Monaco, but they have to be approved by Prince Albert of Monaco first.

The most important French laws which do not apply are those which relate to taxation. Monegasque nationals (about 10,000 people) pay no tax, and non-French residents of Monaco pay no tax. Monaco does not act as a tax haven for French nationals, who must pay taxes to the French government.

History

The Greeks founded Monaco, calling it Monoikos. Later the Romans took over.

The Genoese Grimaldi family ruled from 1297, when they came here after being forced into exile from Genoa.

The story goes that Monaco was a Genoese possession, but Francesco Grimaldi dressed up as a monk to gain entry to the fortress on the Rock, and once inside he let his soldiers in.

There was an interruption to Grimaldi rule during the French Revolution and subsequent First Empire. French troops seized Monaco in 1793, but it was returned to the Grimaldis in 1814 after the defeat of Napoléon.

Prince Rainier III came to the throne in 1949 and married Grace Kelly in 1956. She was a Philadelphia-born Hollywood actress who made movies including To Catch a Thief.

The Prince and Kelly had three children (Albert, Caroline and Stephanie), but Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982.

Stephanie had a hit with Ouragan in 1979.

Sights

The sights in Monaco town are the Oceanographic Museum, the Cathedral (which contains Grace Kelly's tomb) and the Palace - originally a 13th century Genoese fortress. You can see the changing of the guard at the Palace at 11.55.

In the capital Monte Carlo there's the Casino, built by Charles Garnier in 1863.

Monaco was the poorest state in Europe in the 1850s, but the Casino - owned by the Société des Bains de Mer - transformed its fortunes. The state is a major shareholder in SBM.

It was Charles Deville Wells who broke the bank at Monte Carlo in 1891. Afterwards, they draped the gaming tables in black for 3 days.

There are European Rooms and American Rooms, with different dress codes and where different gambling games are played.

A Formula 1 Grand Prix is held at Monaco each year.

Despite all of the above, unless you're loaded and spending all your time in over-priced restaurants, there's hardly anywhere in Monaco to sit down.

The park (Saint Martin Gardens) near the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco has some benches, but if you dare to step on the grass a pompous policeman will blow his whistle at you even if he is only 3m away.

La Turbie

La Turbie belonged to Genoa in the Middle Ages. It then alternated between rule by Savoy and by Monaco.

It is best known for the Trophée des Alpes (or Tropaeum Alpium, or Trophy of Augustus), which is a Roman monument celebrating Emporer Augustus' victory over the 45 Alpine tribes.

The Trophée des Alpes was built around 6BC, after military campaigns of 16 to 7BC.

The monument is partially restored. Originally, it was 49m high and had a statue of Augustus as its centrepiece.

Eze

Eze has been inhabited since 500BC.

The name may come from the Phoenician goddess Isis, or from the Celtic goddess Aesus.

Around 900AD, Saracens or Moors - pirates from North Africa - arrived by sea and entered the village by what is now known as the Moorish gate. They took over Eze and established a look-out post there.

They were chased out of the area in 972 by Guillaume le Libérateur, Count of Provence.

Eze belonged to Savoy from 1388, and became part of France in 1860.

Théodore de Banville said, 'And here is that strange nest of vultures, the little village of Eze, built on the summit of the rock with more rocks for its outskirts. The houses form part of the mountain and are made of the same granite as it'.

The steep Nietzche path leads up to Eze from the seaside.

Nietzche walked up it in the 1880s, and while climbing he wrote the third part of one of his philosophy books, Thus Spake Zarathrustra. He wrote: 'Of Old and New Tables was composed whilst climbing most painfully up from the station to the marvellous Moorish village of Eza, built amidst the rocks. My muscles have always been at their most agile when my creative force is at its strongest'.

I did once try to read Nietsche's book, and I hope he won't mind me saying that it is less of a page-turner than Harry Potter.

Eze is very popular with visitors. There's an Exotic Garden with cactii around the ruins of the castle.

A Medieval Festival is held in Eze each year on the last weekend in July - a chance to test out your trebuchet technique.

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Nice

Nice is a major city of around 340,000 people on the Mediterranean coast of France.

This is what one guidebook said about it a few years ago: 'It's a pickpocket's paradise, the traffic is a nightmare, miniature poodles appear to be mandatory, phones are always vandalised, and the beach isn't sand. And yet Nice still manages to be delightful'.

That was in the days when we used paperback guidebooks, and payphones were important, but it's still relevant today. Nice is known as 'Nice la Belle'.

It gets its name from the Greeks, who were the first people to found a colony here, around 600BC. They called it Nikaia, after Nike the goddess of victory.

The Romans took over from the Greeks in 154BC.

Nice was ruled by the House of Savoy from 1388 to 1860. Tobias Smollet visited in 1763.

Tobias Smollet

Tobias Smollet recounted his time in Nice in Travels Through France and Italy.

'When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce help thinking myself enchanted. The small extent of country which I see is all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain presents nothing but gardens, full of green trees, loaded with oranges, lemons, citrons and bergamots, which make a delightful appearance. If you examine them more nearly, you will find plantations of green pease ready to gather; all sorts of sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses, carnations, ranunculas, anemonies and daffodils, blowing in full glory with such beauty, vigour and perfume as no flower in England ever exhibited.'

Nice as part of France

When Nice became part of France in 1860, it really began to develop.

It was the first European city to have a completely tourist-based economy, and between 1860 and 1911 it was the fastest-growing city in Europe.

Queen Victoria went to Nice for the mild Winters, and other English aristocrats followed. Soon it became popular with other European royal families including the Russians.

A railway was built at the end of the 1850s, and the coastal road was extended from Nice to Monaco in 1864. Around the same time, Nice's Opera House was built.

Main sights

Place Masséna and Avenue Jean Médécin are at the heart of the new town and shopping district.

Masséna was one of Napoléon's generals, and Jean Médécin was a long-serving Mayor of Nice. (Médécin's son Jacques was also Mayor of Nice, but fled to Uruguay in 1990 when he came under suspicion of corrupion; he was extradited, convicted and jailed).

Place Masséna is the largest public square in Nice; the department store Galeries Lafayette is there.

The Promenade des Anglais was built in the 1820s with funds from English residents, and is the place to stroll and admire the Baie des Anges.

The Old Town is an area in the shape of an isoceles triangle under the Château, with narrow streets, small squares, and a Baroque chapel and Cathedral. It hosts a flower market and a fish market.

The Château is a park on a hill overlooking the sea. It is named after a castle built in the 1100s, but destroyed by Louis XIV in 1706. Just the Tour Bellanda remains.

At noon every day a cannon is fired from the Château. Sir Thomas Coventry introduced the practice because he was frustrated by irregular mealtimes.

Nice Carnival features floats with flowers and fruits, and has taken place since 1294.