Monaco and Amaco

View of Monte Carlo from Prince's Palace

Palace guards on the job

Princess Grace's grave in the national Cathedral

Nice day trip number two: Monaco.
First of all, people who live in Monaco aren't called Monacans. They're Monegasques. So much for me being Monica, Queen of the Monacans. Must be some kind of cosmic safegaurd to keep me free from the grips of megalomania.

Anyway, some interesting facts about Monaco:
There's no income tax
It's 0.75 square miles total in size
30,000 residents
There are more people in the orchestra than in the army
Highest per capita income in the world
Monaco's royal family is Europe's longest-lasting dynasty.

Of course, most people come to Monaco to go to the Monte Carlo casino, but the old town area around the Prince's Palace is neat, too. It's tiny, but it's also really clean and bright and...orderly I guess is the best way to describe it. We were especially impressed with the Cousteau Aquarium.

Amy and the fishes

We had a brief, dignified encounter with the Monte Carlo slot machines. Amy won back 800% of her money! (Thanks to my expert coaching, of course)

Evening in front of Monte Carlo

St. Honorat: Monks live there. They make violet candy and wine.

Back from Corsica, we took a couple of day trips from Nice. The first was a little jaunt to Cannes, where we saw the convention center where (presumably) the Cannes film festival takes place. We also saw a load of celebrity hand prints in the Cannes sidewalk of fame. Very cool.
Then we took a 20 minute boat ride from Cannes to St. Honorat. St Honorat is a little island that has been home to Cistercian monks since the 5th Century. They make wine, violet candy, and other goodies. And do the usual monk things. The French also used St. Honorat as a defense against attacks from the sea. There is still a furnace near one of the shores where they used to heat cannon balls until they were literally red-hot, and then fire them on enemy ships. Sneaky, sneaky.

It takes maybe 40 minutes to stroll around the whole island, but if you're a Morey, and interested in exploring the ruins, buying monk creations, and taking pictures of pheasants, you can spend several hours there.


Amy hearts boats. One of my favorite pictures so far.


New monastery (with gift shop!)


Old monastery.


And he walks with me: a monk and a regular Joe on the path to the monastery.


Sunset on the boat back to Cannes. Two sisters.

A-jac

We decided that we liked Ajaccio a little bit better than Bastia. There wasn't one particular reason; I think we got to know the town center a little bit better, and thought the ambiance was nice (for the most part) in Ajaccio. Plus, Ajaccio has an interesting art museum and several collectible Napoleon sites. Some of us felt it necessary to nickname him "Nappy." I think Napoleon is buried in/near Paris, so I couldn't tell if that nickname incited any grave-rolling...

One of the many Coriscan wonders that we really enjoyed was the traditional, polyphonic singing. It's kind of a cross between an African sound and a Gregorian chant sound. A lot of it is sung a capella, but sometimes they add guitar or percussion. We tried in vain to find live performances while we were in Ajaccio, so we got CDs instead :)

Napoleon Monument (Who's shorter now, fools?)

Nap's family home in Ajaccio

View from the bus between Ajaccio and Bastia

Ferry to Corsica

On New Year's Day, Amy and I took an overnight ferry from France to Corsica. Fortunately, we got out on the deck and had a look before they closed it off (bad weather). Ahoy!




Amy (what Dramamine?) on the ferry; Out on the deck: sometimes it's too much hassle for me to take mortal form.









The ferry dropped us off in Bastia (large city in the NE of Corsica). We stayed there for a couple days and checked things out, and then went down to Ajaccio(the capital). Both cities have old citadels. In Bastia, the citadel houses the "old town" part of the city, Ajaccio's citadel is used as a military base (this means no admittance for Moreys).
While in Bastia, we mostly just wandered around, looked at things, and ate. In Ajaccio we did more of the museum/monument scene.





Bastia marina and St. John the Baptist church; wall of the Bastia citadel; a seaside moment-think of me the next time you order something "on the rocks"

Bonne Annee

For New Year's Eve, Amy and I went to Avignon (in Provence) for a little French fun. Avignon isn't exactly the party capitol of France, but we had a good time. The big sight to see in Avignon is the Papal Palace, left over from 1309, when the Pope left Rome and set up shop in Avignon for about 100 years. It's a really interesting place to see.

Papal Palace; Amy over the Rhone River; ; Champagne in the square at midnight; 2007 comes to the square in front of the Papal Palace.

Corsica

Hi folks, Amy and I are in Corsica. We took an overnight ferry here on New Year's day, and have been enjoying first the Northern capital (Bastia), and now the Southern captial (Ajaccio). In between, we took a really nice train/bus ride down through the countryside and mountains in the middle of the island. Last night we went into a music store in Ajaccio and got hooked on the local style of a capella, polyphonic singing so we are hoping to see some of that live tonight. there are many pictures to accompany this adventure, but first we have to wage a war for free wireless internet for Monica's laptop. We hope to be done by dinner because, if not, we will feel very sorry for ourselves.
Oh yes, we are also on the hunt for various Napoleon sites. Because he was born here.