Monaco is not to everyone's taste. The actor Jack Nicholson described it as "Alcatraz for the rich". The tax haven on the French Riviera lost its appeal for me when I could not buy a takeaway sandwich there. Trudging along the main drag in blistering heat, I encountered limo dealers, yacht brokers and private banks. But no snack bars. Delirious with hunger, I blundered out of Monaco, into France and then back again. Eventually I capitulated and ordered a sandwich in the restaurant of a swanky hotel. Half an hour later, a waiter with the mournfully distinguished bearing of a deposed archduke brought the snack to my table. This cost me €40 and made me late for an appointment.

Of course, I was chasing the wrong dream - to wit, affordable egg and cress on granary bread. Had I wanted to shelter a few millions from the prying eyes of Hector the Tax Inspector, I could have done so easily. But even the principality of the Grimaldis is now succumbing to the campaign against banking secrecy catalysed by Barack Obama, the US president. One outcome likely from the Group of 20 summit in London is a communiqué under which a slew of tax havens will agree to help foreign tax snoops investigate suspected evaders. Monaco is expected to be among them.