Casino Square

It has been known as 'A sunny place for shady people' and 'The jewel of the Mediterranean'. It is home to the world's most famous Grand Prix, and its best-known casino. All around us are slim, beautiful, impossibly wealthy people. But we are keeping our feet on the ground. We flew here today via Nice, on Easyjet, from Luton airport.

Monte Carlo is always sumptuously glamorous, even when - as now - parts of it are a building site. We are here with Vauxhall, staying one night before the start of a road trip to Geneva on a wonderfully scenic route.

Over the next two days I will be driving two new diesel versions of the Insignia and Mokka, and some of the early Cavaliers from the 1970s and '80s. The Vauxhall Cavalier is 40 years old. Oh dear, I remember attending its original launch, back in the mid 1970s!