In 1950, Farouk's fortune was estimated to be about £50 million pounds sterling or about US$140 million, making him into one of the world's richest men, and a billionaire many times over in today's money. Farouk's wealth and his lifestyle made the center of media attention all over the world. In August 1950, Farouk visited France to stay at the casino at Deauville for his bachelor party, leaving Alexandria on his yacht "Fakr el Bihar" with an Egyptian destroyer as an escort and landed at Marseilles. Farouk together his entourage consisting of his "kitchen cabinet", 30 Albanian bodyguards, assorted Egyptian secretaries and doctors, Sudanese food tasters and various other followers traveled across the French countryside in a column of 7 Cadillacs surrounded by motorcycle-riding bodyguards and an airplane flying overhead with orders to land in case Farouk wanted to fly instead. Upon the king arriving in Deauville, a media circus began as hundreds of journalists from Europe and North America descended on Deuville to report on Farouk's every doing as he stayed at the Hotel du Golf with his entourage occupying 25 rooms. Journalists watched on as the corpulent king gorged himself on food, eating in one single meal dishes of "sole à crème", "côte de veau à la crème", "framboises à la crème", and "champignons à la crème", each dish tasted in advance by Farouk's Sudanese food tasters. At his first night at the casino in Deuville, Farouk won 20 million francs (about $57,000 U.S dollars) gambling at baccarat, and on his second night won 15 million francs. As Farouk spent extravagant sums of money during his visit to Deuville, staying at the casino every night until 5 am, he earned himself a reputation for flamboyant high living that never went away.