MONTE-CARLO

Monaco is a sovereign state of two square kilometres, and Monte-Carlo is one quarter of it. The casino was designed in 1863 by Charles Garnier, who built the Paris opera house, which explains why it looks less like a casino than an opera house that took a wrong turn.

The beach at Larvotto is man-made. So is a good deal of the land it sits on — the principality has been quietly extending itself into the Mediterranean for decades. Nothing here is accidental, and nothing here is apologetic about it.

The towel keeps the register: terraces stacked up a cliff, scalloped parasols in rank, a harbour of masts below. Monaco is not the Côte d'Azur and does not care to be mistaken for it, so the second line reads Principauté de Monaco. On a French-speaking sovereign state, the hyphen in Monte-Carlo is not optional.