we will be filming here in my office for the next two episodes.

Alright so today we cover Monaco!

There's an old Monaco joke: All the billionaires are too scared to go out of their houses without bodyguards.

Why?

Because there's too many millionaires on the street.

Ehehehehe...

It's time to learn Geography... NOW!!!

Everybody I'm your host Barbs.

Casino Royale

Formula One Grand Prix

Grace Kelly marrying the prince...

Man a lot of American women get to be princesses.

Many of you may have had a surface level introduction to this minute

yet flourishing principality on the Mediterranean.

Yet what does Monaco really like?

Well let's dissect all two square kilometers of it, shall we?

(Political Geography)

Now let me put it this way:

I love microstates because it's like

"Well everyone is often the vast open fields trying to dig for gold,

you find this one small little shack making tons of money because

they're the ones selling all the shovels."

First of all,

Monaco is a micro city-state located in Western Europe

nuzzled all around by France with a four kilometer coast along the Mediterranean.

You can literally walk across the entire nation in less than an hour

oh and the country is shaped like a praying giraffe.

Monaco is only about 2 square kilometers in area

making it the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican.

You can literally fit the entire country inside Central Park in New York City

and still have some space left over.

The country is divided into ten wards including a new one created from reclaimed land called Fontvielle.

The entire country in itself acts as its own capital.

However the government of 24 council members meets at the National Council building twice a year to discuss budget

whereas the prince and his family live in the Prince's Palace just a few blocks away.

Wait but if it's so small, can you fly there?

Why thank you for asking that question that I wrote on the teleprompter, Ken.

Technically, No.

The country has no airports. Obviously,

I mean some airports have runways that are longer the entire length of Monaco.

However the closest international airport would be France's Nice Côte d'Azur International only about 5 miles away to the west.

Otherwise to get in Monaco, there are 4 general ways:

technically you can fly into Monaco into the International heliport connected with Nice's Airport.

The flight only takes 7 minutes long, it has eight helicopter landing pads

and on peak times you can see passengers arrive every 20 minutes.

You can sail into the country with a boat and dock at either Port Hercules or port Font-Vielle.

These options are pretty pricey though so if you're on a budget,

you can also drive in by car by any of the neighboring French towns that surround like Beausoleil.

Otherwise, you can take the route 100 bus line from Nice, it only cost €1.50

or you can take the €22 shuttle from Nice Airport.

And finally, if trains are your thing, multiple lines end up at the Monaco train station

conveniently located straight up in the middle of the country.

Now Monaco is kind of like that bag from Mary Poppins,

you know it's not that big but once you open it up, like an entire circus comes out.

Oh and Monaco has a circus.

Besides to see our endless and despite the limit in space,

they keep growing like literally,

they've been reclaiming land from the sea for over a hundred years.

The largest projects happening in the 60s and 70s for Monte Carlo Casino and the port Font Vielle

and now they are embarking on a 1.2 billion dollar extension called Le Portier.

This will host new homes and businesses

Netherlands: Nice! High five! Sure that water was boss.

UAE: Cute.

And speaking of high prices.

As of right now,

Monaco has the world's highest real estate value on the market with over forty five thousand dollars per square...

wait for it...

METER!!!

Wait, so wait. You're telling me that a square centimeter would be about

$450?

Technically, yeah... but...

Yeah still can't afford that.

Me neither!

High FIVE!!!

Yeah, Ken's gonna show up a lot in this episode because everybody else kind of bailed on me today.

"Whatever keeps me employed!"

This also means that Monaco has kind of started to build upwards with high-rise buildings popping up more and more in the past few decades.

At 49 stories, the tallest building, the Tour Odeon was completed in 2015 and more are planned.

Otherwise, some of the top notable sites of the country might include places like:

Fort Antoine

The Yacht fishing club

Larvotto beach

The Oceanographic musuem

Tons of gardens like these

Tons of museums like these

The top car collection

The Prince's Palace of course

Saint Nicholas Cathedral

The Monte Carlo Opera

And of course everybody knows that during racing season,

the entire country pretty much transforms into a racing circuit.

It's the second most visited circuit in Formula One Racing

Of course, don't forget the casinos, Monte Carlo.

However keep in mind, the citizens of Monaco may enter but

they are not allowed to gamble at the casinos.

I mean go figure, what better way to ensure your citizens keep their wealth

than by restricting them from losing it all, right?

And speaking of national monetary interests:

(Physical Geography)

Now this is gonna be pretty interesting because you would think

"Monaco is so small, how on earth could they have any natural resources or landscape"?

Well they kind of do

and don't.

First of all

The country is located on the eastern portion of the larger French Riviera Region

or the "Côte d'Azur", a hilly river concentrated area in the South of France next to the Mediterranean

right at the beginning of the larger Alps mountain range.

The temperature is generally enjoyable year round with mild wet winters and pleasant warm summers.

The highest point can be found at the Chemin de Revoires on the French border

which is basically just the side of a hill that extends further up into France

and this building with a nice pool basically sits on top of it.

I guess.

Alright, triple shot of espresso break.

Usually is the part where Noah comes in and explains things but he literally texted me and said:

"He had a car accident, he won't be able to make it"

so I guess I kind of have to do this...

Wait, can I do it?

No

Um but you told me I could be the Islands Guy

Monaco is not an island, Ken.

Yeah but Micronesia was an island and I didn't do any of that...

The country doesn't have any rivers and although there are a ton of pools, there are no natural lakes.

However, the country's main water source comes from six natural underground springs.

The nation has virtually no natural resources other than fish off the sea

and there's almost no commercial agriculture.

Almost

because this lady is the only fruit and vegetable gardener in the entire nation

as she cultivates 1400 square meters in the country at the foot of Bodhi on tower.

Speaking of which,

Food!

Most people in Monaco will tell you Barbajuan, a sort of fried ravioli dish

and Soccca, a fried chickpea crepe are definitely national favorites.

There's also Fougasse, the largest one in the world served at Prince Albert's wedding back in 2011.

Otherwise it's funny because

Monaco's economy is entirely based off of the business and service sector.

Foreign businesses account for about three-quarters of the entire nations registry.

Why so many?

Because they're a tax haven like so many other microstates?

Because they're a tax haven like so many other microstates.

Monaco has no income tax, property tax, or capital gain tax

which allows people to keep all of their earnings

and business taxes are generally very low which entices a lot of tycoons.

They do however have to pay 19.6% value-added tax on goods and services though.

And obviously everything has to be imported.

If you're a French Monegasque citizens, it's a little different.

It kind of goes like this:

France, Hey, your French citizens are making quite a bit of money

Monaco: Yeah. I know right, great people.

France: Yeah, but you know what to avoid tax evasion, if they make a quarter of their revenue outside of your country,

then I get to keep some of their taxes.

Monaco: Isn't that gonna complicate things more?

France: Need I remind you whose army protects you?

Hmm

Monaco: Only if they haven't resided in Monaco for over five years

France: Deal.

Pfff.

Just work in the UK for less than 90 days as a non-resident and then come back.

And that's how the investigations led by the Council of Europe started back in the early 2000s

plus some money laundering suspicions... yadi yada yada... go figure.

Anyway!

In addition, the tourism industry accounts for about 15% of the country's annual revenue

Financial services, banking and tech account for the majority of the rest of their GDP

as well as "Unclassified transactions".

In a nutshell, it means that with such limitations yet high monetary yields

Monaco has an interesting way of handling things to keep themselves afloat.

Let's discuss that innnnnn:

(Demographics)

Thank you Ken.

That actually was okay.

It didn't suck.

Alright. Get back to the camera.

Alright, just for the record, people from Monaco are called "Monegasque".

Technically a non-native resident is called a "Monacan" but almost nobody uses that term.

ANYWAY!

The country has about 38,000 people

and is the most densely populated sovereign state in the world at over 19,000 people per square kilometre.

The country is quite diverse with the largest demographic actually being French at about 28%,

then the native Monegasques make up about 22%.

Next up are the Italians about 18%,

and the rest are made up of mostly other European groups like Brits, Germans, Belgians,

and even a small American community as well.

They use the Euro as their currency,

they use the type C plug outlet

and they drive on the right side of the road, especially during those Formula One races.

Ahehehe...

Now although most of the country speaks French, English or Italian, or all three,

technically the native language is Monegasque

which sounds kind of like a mix between French and the Genoese dialect of Italian.

With fewer than 10,000 speakers, it almost went extinct

however it was reintroduced in schools for ages eight to twelve

and today you can see signs posted in both French and Monegasque.

It has a few extra letters you don't find in French or Italian and it sounds kind of interesting.

For example:

"Bonjour" becomes "buongiorno".

"Bonsoir" - "bona sera"

"Au revoir" is "a se revede"

"Monsieur" is "munsü"

"Madame" - "madama"

Stuff like that.

In terms of government, Monaco is a principality ruled by Prince Albert II as head of state.

Heir to the Grimaldi family, one of the oldest in Europe that go back to the 13th century.

The interesting thing though is that by law, if there are no heirs to the Monegasque throne the rule would pass to France.

In addition, France also appoints their Minister of State with consultation to the prince.

And yeah that's just kind of how they run their country.

Now let's address the obvious:

Yes, as a premier luxury destination, Monaco is known for being quite wealthy,

disputedly the first or second richest nation in the world depending on how you look at the numbers

with over $163,000 GDP per capita in 2018.

About one in three residents of Monaco is a millionaire.

How did it become this way? Well there are many theories but generally,

many might attribute it to Prince Rainier III who kind of developed an image of luxury

through a single company taking care of all the hotels it was called the "Société des bains de mer".

This drew in tons of people and since then,

the country has always kind of been on an upward financial slope.

It's interesting though because a lot of people especially the wealthy want to live in Monaco.

However there's kind of like a process.

It kind of goes like this:

I want to become a citizen, what do I do?

Simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:

Buy property, remember $45,000 per square meter.