Study, Work or Volunteer in Monaco

The country of Monaco is a very small independent principality of Europe with 32,000 inhabitants and 1.5 square kilometer with so much to offer. The streets are impeccably clean and the crime is minimal. The country is located on the Mediterranean coast near the French Italian border, but the Principality is circled by France Riviera, yet it is its own country.

Most of the people who live in Monaco arrive by car from France or Italy or by plane at Nice Airport (30 minutes away in the French city of Nice). From the airport you can transfer to Monaco either by car, bus, or helicopter (10 minutes flight for the price of a taxi ride and the helicopter company has a van which can drop you off in town). Another option is to arrive by train directly at the underground Monaco train station.

Monte Carlo, the capital of Monaco, has for a century been a symbol of glamour. Its legend was further enhanced by the 1956 marriage of the man who was at that time the world’s most eligible bachelor, Prince Rainier III, to the American actress Grace Kelly. Miss Kelly met the prince when she was in Cannes for the film festival to promote “To Catch a Thief”, the Hitchcock movie she made with Cary Grant.

Grimaldi clan, a Genoese family, owned the country of Monaco as early as 1297. With shifting loyalties, it has maintained something resembling independence ever since. In a fit of impatience the French annexed it in 1793, but the ruling family recovered it in 1814; however, the prince at that time couldn’t bear to tear himself away from the pleasures of Paris for “dreary old Monaco”.