(Hint: Somewhere around the Middle Corniche.) As tiny as it is, it contains five sectors, of which Monte Carlo is the best-known. If you are looking at Monaco from your ship in the harbor, you can't tell where the principality ends and France begins. Monaco, which comprises a miniscule 485 acres in total, and is Europe's smallest state after the Vatican, is barely west of the Italian border and surrounded by France on all sides except for the 2.5 miles of coastline.
If Albert II, the current prince, fails to produce a male heir, the throne will be passed to his sister Caroline. It has been ruled by the Grimaldi family for the past 700 years (with a slight diversion during the French Revolution), and its 1918 treaty with France decreed that if the prince - any Grimaldi prince - failed to produce a son, the territory would be ceded back to France upon his death. Monaco is a self-governed sovereign nation under the protection of France.
If you arrive during daylight hours, you are faced with the sight of one magnificent yacht after another vying for space in the little harbor. If your docking time is before dawn, you'll see the lights of the principality twinkling throughout the mountains that surround the harbor and the beautifully lit Grand Casino at center stage. Arriving by ship into the Monte Carlo harbor is amazing to experience on a cruise to France.
