Senior Year Box Set

When the menu came, I was happy to see they hadn’t given me one in French. I almost choked when I saw the appetizers ranged in price from €84 to €170. They also handed me an actual book for their available wines. I looked at Erika for help.

“Why don’t we take the easy way out and get the tasting menu? It will give you a chance to try different items and is just a little more expensive than ordering off the menu. Also, select the Quartz Sauvignon Cantina Terlano 2013.”

I found the wine in the book, priced at only €190. They had whole pages of €400 bottles. Even though I joked about sunglasses money, this dinner would cost me a fortune. But I was on vacation and rarely spent money on extravagances like this.

A couple of highlights for me included the waitstaff being out of this world. They made a presentation of serving each dish. Be it adding a finishing sauce at the table or hand-cutting your bread at this giant bread station, it was always a well-choreographed production. When it came time for dessert, I wanted tea. They brought over this huge cart full of fresh herbs that you pointed to, and they hand-cut your selection to add to your tea as it steeped.

While the French food looked and tasted amazing, I would call it more a work of art than food. It was almost a crime to eat it. The portions weren’t what you would find in American restaurants. Back home, I would order a sixteen-ounce steak with a giant baked potato and another side dish. My main course at Le Louis XV consisted of a two-ounce quail breast and two tiny roasted carrots. I think Coby got more when I bought him a Happy Meal at McDonald’s.

“I probably wouldn’t have thought to come here for dinner if you hadn’t suggested it. It was amazing,” I said.

“I try to come each time I’m here. It’s sort of like dark chocolate. I love it, but save it for special occasions.”

I paid our bill, and we walked out of the hotel.

“The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is across the park,” Erika said as she grabbed my hand.

As we exited the hotel, the paparazzi were waiting.

“May we take your picture?” one of them politely asked.

How could we say no to that? I still couldn’t get over the difference between what I experienced in the US and here. We posed for a few pictures and walked to the opera hand-in-hand.

Erika gave me some of the history of the opera house. It had been modeled after a much larger one in Paris. The structure wasn’t initially designed for opera. They’d renovated the stage in the 1890s, though, so it would be easier to put on productions. Like the hotel, the opera house was over-the-top ornate in its design.

I kicked myself for not bringing my camera because I wanted to remember this evening. It was as if I’d been transported to the 1800s and was catching a glimpse of what ridiculously excessive wealth could do back in those days.

The opera house reminded me of the famous French revolution misquote: ‘Let them eat cake.’ That was supposedly Queen Marie-Antoinette’s response when she was told the peasants were starving in the streets because they had no bread. The people who created this couldn’t have had any concept of what regular folk were all about.

I was glad Chubby had thought of me when he couldn’t come this weekend. I at first expected I would be bored to tears. Instead, I’d discovered a special place for the rich and sophisticated. It was why Monaco had the highest concentration of wealthy people per square mile in the world.

I now understood why they kept filming James Bond movies here. I felt like the real-life Ian Bond with a princess on my arm.

That’s when the absurdity of it all hit me, and I barked out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Erika asked.

“This,” I said, waving my hand around to encompass my surroundings. “This is so far from where I’m from that I feel like an imposter, like I’m a caricature of one of my movie roles.”

“I thought you were an Academy Award-winning actor,” Erika said, looking confused.

“Yes, but I didn’t always have money. I got into modeling, which led to movies, because my family ran into financial problems when my mom got sick. I expect you would have to grow up with money for this not to be a little overwhelming,” I said.

She got a pinched expression as she tried to figure out if I were putting her down in some way for growing up with money.

“I’m not trying to judge anyone,” I quickly added. “I’m just amazed that I’m here.”

She took a moment and then relaxed at my explanation.

“This is a special place, and it’s why my family always traveled here for vacation when I was younger.”

We couldn’t have planned our arrival any better. We had barely sat down when the lights dimmed to start the performance.

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