There are two ways to take in the Tour de France. One is to cram yourself into a spot along some godforsaken stretch of road with all the other riffraff. You can hope to get a look at the action ... as long as they person in front of you isn't tall. Or, you can find your way to Monaco's F1 circuit, where the race departs. Instead of schlepping out to the site, you can stay nearby. Without the hassle of getting to and from, you might actually enjoy the experience!

To help you enjoy the kickoff of the 96th Tour, the Fairmont Monte Carlo has put together a great package. Stay from July 1 to July 5, and you can pick up a room for €529 (around $735) a night, with a buffet breakfast included.

So, if you've ever wanted to witness the greatest cycling spectacle of all time, here's your chance to do it the right way. Once the riders depart, drop some cash on the roulette table, and sip a wine carefully crafted in Provence. Do everything that those dedicated athletes can't. The lucky racers won't be back until next year, but you can take a few more days to play with the wealthy.

A billboard featuring sultry model Jessiqa Pace (above) on the racetrack at the Monaco Grand Prix had to be taken down after it proved too distracting to Formula 1 drivers over the weekend. Pace, 29, appears in the campaign for Martini, the Italian winemaker founded in 1863 and famous for its iconic vermouth.

F1 team representatives asked for the posters to be taken down after drivers complained during trial runs; champ Lewis Hamilton crashed in Saturday's qualifying round close to the gigantic image of Jessiqa. "All the attention is overwhelming," she told the London Daily Star. "I find it really funny. Obviously it's very flattering that I'm distracting the drivers so much, but I'd feel terrible if someone got hurt."

Once derided as knee-dragging crotch-rockets, motorcycles have been gaining more respect in the world of classic motors. We reported earlier that Pebble Beach would be welcoming classic motorbikes to its vaunted concours for the first time this year, and now a famed automotive auction house is gearing up to sell off a corral of historic motorcycles, including this noteworthy example. The Suzuki 500 XR40 you see here is the bike with which Franco Uncini won the 1982 MotoGP World Championship, the two-wheeled equivalent to Formula One. It would be the first and only world title the legendary rider would win, a crash in Holland the following year putting him temporarily into a coma and subsequently ending his career. Long since recovered, Uncini today acts as a safety representative for the series, making good use of their new BMW X6 M safety car. He'll also be on hand at the COYS auction in Monaco on May 18 where his title-winning bike is expected to go for as much as €350,000 ($470k), hitting the auction block together with several other historically important motorcycles.

Spotted in Monaco recently was this pimped-out Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe customized in a Murakami multicolored Louis Vuitton monogram, belonging to the infamous Prince Marcus von Anhalt. Von Anhalt, who's said to have essentially bought his title - Prinz von Anhalt, Herzog zu Sachsen und Westfalen, Graf von Askanien in full - by paying Zsa Zsa Gabor and her ninth husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt millions of dollars to adopt him, is one of Germany's largest and most high-profile brothel and nightclub owners.

He refers to himself as "Prince Germany" and apparently uses the Rolls to promote the Royal Race, a Gumball 3000-style exotic auto rally he launched last year. The Prince, who's been known to pal around with Pamela Anderson, claims to be a millionaire "in the three digit range" and to own 26 cars plus luxury real estate in several countries including Monaco and Dubai, attended by 12 bodyguards and 25 servants. This looks to us like not only a crime against taste but exactly the kind of thing LVMH's lawyers love to sue over.

[via JamesList]

Christian Slater's vintage Aston Martin is among the lots on offer at Bonhams' Collectors' Motor Car Sale at the S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco Motor Museum in Monaco on May 18. The car is a 1984 Aston Martin V8 Volante, finished in gray with a matching gray leather interior, that the Hollywood star bought in Los Angeles in 1997, a few years after he starred in True Romance. The Aston is estimated at €40,000 - €50,000, or about $50,000 - $65,000. Slater's Aston is a steal compared to the auction's top lot, the 1928 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Mille Miglia Speciale, one of only three in existence, which is expected to fetch up to $1 million.

The other day we told you about the awesome $1.5 million armored Rolls-Royce Phantom. If you're looking for something a little more utilitarian (and less expensive) though equally anti-ballistic, feast your eyes on the new Russian-made Dartz Kombat T98 SUV. The Hummer lookalike, a sort of tank-meets-luxury SUV, features heavy steel plated doors and 3-inch windows, and is impervious to everything from AK-47s to rocket-propelled grenades. Powered by an 8.1 liter Vortec V8, capable of 110 mph, it's priced at about $200,000. Prince Albert of Monaco was spotted checking the vehicle out at the recent Top Marques Monaco auto show.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That's what they say, but the inverse might as well be true when it comes to the latest AC Cobra. The iconic roadster that originally went into production in 1961 and immortalized by the legendary Carroll Shelby is still around, its latest version scheduled to be unveiled shortly at the prestigious Top Marques show in Monte Carlo. Only instead of being built in England with a big-block Ford engine, it's now being built in Germany with a Chevy small-block.

The AC Cobra MkVI is available in two versions: the GT with an enormous 437 horsepower, or the GTS with an unfathomable 647. Keeping all that power in check are a set of Porsche brakes (vented discs with four-piston calipers), which is good because the GTS will hit 60 in a heartbeat over three seconds. Since it's being built now by Gullwing GmbH, the latest Cobra comes with a removable hard-top with gull-wing doors to ease access. Click on the thumbnail images below to view in high resolution.

The most expensive place to own prime real estate in the world is now Monaco which beat out London as the most expensive place to buy residential property in a recent survey. In Monaco a piece of prime property costs 50 000 euros per square meter ($68,000) versus 28,000 euros for London and 16,000 euros for Manhattan. The Wealth Report, compiled by Citi Private Bank and Knight Frank shows that property values fell 17 percent in London and 25 percent in Hong Kong. Real estate around the world is generally gloomy with prices either down or in stasis in most of the world's cities.

This special annual watch auction is a collaboration between Patrizzi & Co. (auctioneers) and the Monaco Yacht Show. To be held in Monaco on September 24th, 2009, the intended purpose of the auction is to raise money for the Monegasque Association against Dunchenne Muscular Dystrophy - who is heading efforts to develop new and innovative surgical techniques to fight Muscular Dystrophy. The event that starts with good intentions also has a great concept behind it. Plus, the auction will have no reserve prices.

The name "Only Watch" refers to the fact that each watch auctioned must be unique. This falls into two categories: the watch must be "number 1" in a limited edition set, or it must be a watch that is wholly originally and cannot be bought anywhere else. These special requirements add an distinct attractive quality to the event. Although the auction is not for another six months, the items offered will be on tour in several key locations before the show starting in August, see the link below for complete tour dates.

Watch brand participators include only high-end Swiss makers such as Audemars Piguet, BNB Concept, Cartier, De Bethune, Urwerk, Patek Philippe, and many others. There are going to be a great deal of very interesting watches. Pictured above is a unique watch movement from BNB Concept - a maker of movements for some of the higher-end watch makers of today. They will be participating in the event, and this movement is likely to be housed in one of the available watches for auction. Check back for more information as it becomes available.

Via Only Watch 09 Press Release - Patrizzi & Co.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tourism just about everywhere from Dubai to Las Vegas is hurting and now some places that have never had to deign to ask for your tourist dollars are throwing out the welcome mat. Bloomberg reports that the ultra-pricey small country of Monaco is offering travel packages costing around $500 to attract new visitors. Monaco is traditionally a vacation spot for some of the world's wealthiest people. But hotel bookings dropped eight percent in January and with the worldwide economic crisis affecting many deep-pocketed globetrotters the country wants to let people know it is open to more than just the rich. A new five-year marketing plan from Monaco's tourism board will get the message out that all are welcome in Monaco. The country still hopes that the well-heeled, especially those coming in on luxury cruises and yachts, will visit but right now anyone with cash is welcome. As my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported last year, Monaco has already shelved plans for a multibillion dollar land expansion into the Mediterranean which would have created more space for shops and apartments.

In the rarefied world of mega yachts, the ultimate achievement is to have one designed by a certain Norwegian genius named Espen Oeino. The world's top star in naval architecture, Oeino's megabucks creations "combine the precision of fine machinery with indulgent finishes and the high-end amenities of a palace." When German luxury publisher teNeues opted to focus a volume in its amazing Luxury Toys series to the world's greatest yachts, it was quickly decided to dedicated the entire book to Oeino.

Luxury Toys: Mega Yachts showcases 20 of the Monaco-based Oeino's stellar creations accompanied by text from top yachting author Nick Jeffery, the most respected authority on luxury watercraft. Among the megayachts featured is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's 413-ft. Octopus, the 8th largest yacht in the world and the second largest superyacht that is not owned by a head of state. The nine deck ship cost $200 million to build and has an annual operating budget estimated at $20 million.

Designed for self-sufficient long range cruising, the Octopus contains a wet dock for a 59-ft. tender and an equally large remotely-operated submarine that can descend to 2500 meters, a twin helicopter hangar and two helipads, countless giant antennae and a telescopic sonar, a cinema and music studio. Another Oeino creation featured in the book is the military-looking 233-ft. SKAT, pictured above, built by Lürssen of Bremen, Germany for Charles Simonyi, a former Microsoft software engineer and pioneering space tourist. The yacht features an elevator serving all four decks, a gymnasium, matching helicopter, and motorcycles with a special lift.

The four-door convertible is one of those old-world luxuries that has long since been lost to the annals of history. Several automakers have contemplated reviving the body-style, known as the phaeton or parade car: Chrysler unveiled a Phaeton show car in 1997 before the company was acquired by Daimler-Benz, which in turn toyed with the idea in the Mercedes Ocean Drive concept in 2007 and the million-dollar, limited-production Maybach 62 Landaulet. But while these rare automobiles attempted to revive the classic body-style in splendid retro fashion, a team of Dutch engineers has given the idea a decidedly modern twist.

Called, in longwinded fashion, the Bewerp Savage Rivale Roadyacht GTS, the vehicle takes the four-door convertible concept and blends it with that of the most exotic supercars while throwing in some nautical cues, just to mix it up. Based on a custom space-frame chassis with carbon fiber body and powered by a Corvette-sourced 600-horsepower V8, the Rivale promises to deliver an entirely unique motoring experience to any buyer with the $340,000 to spare after it makes its debut this April during the exclusive Monaco Top Marques luxury automobile show at Prince Albert's Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo.

Stockholm-based Jameslist.com has just launched the "world's first truly transparent luxury marketplace", allowing buyers to find and compare high-end cars, watches, boats, yachts and aircraft from dealers around the world. The site features some 20,000 listings, including rare watches such as the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona, hard-to-find cars like the Maserati MC12 and Ferrari Superamerica, and magnificent 120+ ft. yachts from Palmer Johnson. The 350-plus global dealers on JamesList range from high-end custom builders such such as Project Kahn Design (their Bentley GTS Mulliner, above) to "traditional dealers with exceptional inventory" such as ExecuJet and Lamborghini Stuttgart.

"Given the recent roller-coaster of currency and market fluctuations, we saw an opportunity to give serious buyers the tools they need to find premium goods at the best possible price, regardless of where they are in the world," says JamesList CEO Noam Perski. "We have brought together the world's best dealers, from Alain Class Motors in Dubai to International Yacht Collection in Monaco, to offer international buyers a complete marketplace." Important functions for international deal making such as currency and unit conversion are built in to the heart of the platform, as well as language translation.

The tiny Principality of Monaco, which trumped London in September for the title of the world's most expensive luxury property market, has shelved multi-billion dollar plans for an ambitious land expansion into the Mediterranean. The plan hatched by Monaco's Prince Albert called for a 3 million sq. ft. artificial peninsula to be built, housing luxury apartments, boutiques and tourist traps. Expected to cost $5 billion - $10 billion, the peninsula would have added 5% to Monaco's territory.

Two world-famous architects, Lord Norman Foster and Daniel Liebeskind, were competing for the project, which had been slated to begin construction in 2011. Now however, Prince Albert has called the whole thing off. "In the current climate, it would be irresponsible to launch a project of this scale," the Prince explained to the AFP, citing concerns both financial and environmental.

This beautiful Faberge creation from Princess Grace of Monaco's collection, which has not left Monaco in over 30 years, was unveiled today at the Consulate General of Monaco in New York City.

Thanks to Prince Albert II, who inherited the piece in 2005, the Imperial Blue Serpent Clock Egg will be traveling to Cleveland, Ohio, where it will be on display with six other Faberge wonders in the Artistic Luxury exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art through January 2009.

The Imperial Blue Serpent Clock Egg was crafted in St. Petersburg in 1887, and presented by Alexander III to Maria Fyodorovna.