The incredible number of CARS parked on the very small number of streets of the principality. All displaying MONACO LICENCE PLATES !

Monaco is a tiny valley surrounded by France and the Mediterranean. One can walk from one end to the other in just a few minutes !

All those ships in the harbour did not surprise me. The largest ones were not even inside the harbour but anchored in front of it.

But why were there so many parked cars ? Of course every apartment was built with an underground parking lot, and most cars on the streets had on their windshield a ticket for faulty parking !

At the occasion of a meal in an (overpriced) restaurant I was given the answer.

Monaco is one of the rare countries that collects no income tax at all. The authorities consider that if a lot of wealthy people choose to live there, their spending should be sufficient to fill the the countries coffers. People who choose to live there and to benefit from the tax advantage should buy their homes and spend at least half of the year in the Principality.

Most tennis players, as well as other sport stars, entertainers, a large number of European industry owners…much of Europe’s wealth is concentrated in that small area. (Except for French citizens, who do not escape the tax office by having a Monaco domicile).

However all those wealthy people love to move around, have multiple domiciles… and they find burdensome the Monaco regulation requiring local presence for over half of the year.

So they want to APPEAR living there…whilst being absent most of the time. They get a Monaco licence plate on their car, and have a driver park it around town, often collecting parking tickets. The man also tends to be in charge of lighting the appartment in the evening, letting some water run…and even eating in a restaurant while keeping the tab for their boss.

There are in Monaco a lot more cars than actually present inhabitants !