Season Guide - Monaco - Hilton Racing

If you have the budget, order yourself a classic gin martini and prepare to be parted from your cash in the casino and Jimmyz nightclub. But even if you don't, there are plenty of ways to enjoy this sunny place for shady people.

Breakfast on the sprawling Terrasse Parisienne, Place du Casino, is just a few Euros. The cafe au lait is smooth and the pain au chocolat is more chocolat than pain. Best of all, is the free entertainment. As I soak up the sun, I watch Bentleys and Lamborghinis being valet-parked while their owners go on a luxury 'walk out' around the local boutiques.

After breakfast I opt for a walk of my own. I make for the Place du Palace, home of Prince Albert II, before strolling through the passageways until I get to Place de la Visitation, where I cool off in the 17th-century Museum of the Chapel of the Visitation. From here, I head for the Ecoles to the Oceanographic Museum, whose grandiose facade rises from an 85m sheer cliff. It's a small diversion into Jardins St Martin, before heading back along the Avenue Saint-Martin and ending up at Monaco Cathedral.

The number 2 bus winds its way to La Chaumiere bar. After a pastis aperitif, I descend to Stars `n' Bars, which is decked out in F1 memorabilia. It's the best place to spot resident F1 drivers relaxing between race seasons.

There is only one way to spend the afternoon Monaco. I head down to the harbour and walk among the floating pleasure domes at their multi-million pound moorings and try not to look transfixed by so much ostentation. Sprinklers spritz clouds of mist on to the decks to protect the beautiful people from the heat.

Models prance and preen with sexy nonchalance, while golden tanned men wonder whether to take the jet ski or the helicopter for a spin. The scene is so beguiling, so infectious I find myself writing 'this summer carefree extravagance so French, so truly, madly chi-chi'.

Time to cool off. When Prince Charles III - the 'Carlo' in Monte-Carlo - arrived on the Riviera a century ago he set about establishing a spa town, along the same lines as Bath in England.

Walking - and gawping - is hungry work. Alain Ducasse's three-Michelin-starred Louis XV restaurant at the Hotel de Paris is one of the great restaurants of the world but it comes with prices to match and a strict dress code - cravate obligatoire. I give it a miss and head, instead, to the place where the locals eat - La Moule d'Or. My huge dish of steaming fresh mussels washed down with a local 'Presion' tastes every bit as good as the finest haute cuisine.

Whether your holiday is a performance where you are the star in the Riviera's daily pageant de luxe, or whether you are merely a voyeur, there's something for you in Monaco. You pays your money and vous faites vos jeux.