Le Musee Massena, and Monaco!
Wednesday, June 15.
Went back to the Musee Msssena today.  No worries, it was open this time.

 
Massena was a general in the french army during the second empire and the third republic. He was very popular and well off. I believe he was given the title of Prince. This is his house in Nice.

                                                                This book is giant!

                                                                  It's a library!

 

 

 
These things were made for me. Just saying.

And here you see where we keep the pigeons. We've made a nice pen for them and everything. They're well trained. They don't fly away or anything.

 
I don't know why they put a dinosaur here, but it's cool. I also have no idea who this guy is, but there was a cardboard cut out of him, so he must be important. We're in Monaco! We thought we'd look around and see a few famous sights while we were close by. Monte Carlo, Monaco is about an hour away by bus from our hotel in Nice. It was raining, quite a lot, but otherwise it was a good day in Monaco.

 
Here we are in front of Monte Carlo! Monte Carlo was designed by Garnier, the french architect who built the opera house in Paris. Its very Baroque as you could guess.

 
Right behind the gambling center of Monte Carlo lies the Opera House.

 
Lots of people in this area are very well off. We saw lots of really nice cars and the yachts in the bay are huge! Even in the rain, its a nice view. Right: a theater dedicated to Princess Grace Kelly.

 

                           Example A of really nice cars that I could never afford in a million life times.

                                  I just thought this bench was swanky and thought I'd share.  :)

This sign says you must be wearing clothes to walk this path. I thought it was funny, though we're in France, so that's a good precaution to take in a town that relies on tourists.

 
I had stopped to take a picture of the sign, but the others had gone on ahead of me, so when I finished I ran up the steps to catch up to them. While I was running some young tourist boys were like, " Oh no, she's gonna beat you, you better catch up." Then they raced each other to the top. For the record, I totally could have beat them, but my intention was to be with the group and not to be better then preteen boys.  ;) It would have been amusing though. Oh to be young.

                                        Making our way up the path to the Prince's Palace.

Some important person for Monaco. :) Shame on me for not remembering who and why.

 
This cloaked figure is Francesco Grimaldi in 1293 pretending to be a monk, so he can get past the guards and win the fortress built on the Rock of Monaco.  He is quite successful and becomes the first Grimaldi king to rule Monaco.

 
                                                             View from the palace.

 
Liking this cannon ball theme. The balls are actually stuck together so they can't be taken. Like someone would do that. ;)

 
We got to see the changing of the guards!!! It was awesome. The guards looked so board though. I'm sure I would be too having to do that all the time. It was also raining and the changing ceremony makes them go out in the rain.

Beautiful.

 
                                                                                           Look mom, they have smurf gummies!!!

 
This is the Cathedral of Monaco, where Grace Kelly, famous american actress, married the Prince of Monaco, Rainer III, in 1953. She had a stroke causing her to crash her car and she died a day later on September 14, 1982.This church is where many of the royal family are buried.

 
I might have been up to my old habits of spying on newly wed couples. They make such a cute couple though. She's wearing what looks like vans. I like her.

 
The inside of the church is quite lovely. The lighting is cool. On the right you see a relic of an old anonymous saint. It's a bone. The shrine is pretty.

 
This is where Grace Kelly and Rainer III are buried.

                                            The view of the old castle wall from the bus stop.

Stopped to watch the game for a sec while waiting for the next bus and found the mustache door. It was made for Carson.  After we got back we worked on our tests and blogs etc. until bed.