Corsica and Cannes, France and a day in Monaco

July 4-7, 2024

Corsica is technically part of France, although it spent over 500 years as part of the Kingdom of Genoa. As such, even though their most famous son, Napoleon, was Emperor of France, they do not consider themselves French.

The Maison du Bonaparte, the home where Napoleon was born, is one of the main tourist attractions in Ajaccio (the capital of Corsica). First thing in the morning the lines are long, so you’re better waiting until mid to late afternoon if you can.

We purchased a city pass for €27pp which includes up to 6 activities (including the Maison as above). The timing for the hop-on-hop-off bus didn’t work well for us, so we did the “little train” tour around the city, which took us up to Napoleon’s Grotto – a statue with a list of his victories engraved by the steps, and caverns below (timed entry on the caverns, so did not visit the actual grotto).

Then off to the museum, which focused on Medieval and Renaissance art. The contest of paintings containing dogs v paintings with baby Jesus was a blowout in the Baby Jesus camp, but I did find one for the dogs…

And of course – lots of portraits – this one looked like someone had painted on the mustache as a joke.

Our last stop on a very warm day was to wander the Citadelle – which had some interesting decorations

We were in Corsica on July 4th, so the ship gave us a little celebration even though we couldn’t have fireworks.

The next day took us into Cannes, the home of the famous film festival. In 1938, Venice had become the rage for an international film festival. But that year, the judges decision was overruled in favor of a Nazi propaganda film. No one was happy so the search for a new venue began, and the lovely French Riviera town of Cannes proved the best choice, with the initial competition scheduled for Sept. 1-20, 1939. WWII delayed the first festival, but once war was over the town quickly rallied and launched the festival in 1946.

For the next day we sailed a little to the East – and anchored off of Villefranche – a lovely town a mere 15 minute train ride from either Monte Carlo, Monaco or Nice. We chose to go to Monte Carlo – on the most crowded train I’ve ever been on (and this includes DC and New York Subways). The Monte Carlo train station is about a mile from the famed casino. Before 2PM, it is only a museum and costs €19 for entry – you get an audio guide and can take photos. After 2PM, it still costs €19pp, but you get €10 in play (but cannot take photos). If you come in the morning – you get to re-enter later (but no free play). We arrived at 10:30 AM, so went in as a museum, got our photos, then returned after 2 to play. After touring around the casino, we wandered down to the waterfront to catch what we could of a horse show where the horses ride in air-conditioned luxury trailers. We saw the winners of the morning class, and saw the afternoon group warming up – but no jumping. For the way back up we found an elevator near the Princess gardens, and a place for a lovely lunch near the casino in air conditioning (the heat was getting to me). And the casino “gave back” – I ended up €15 and John a few hundred! We retuned to Villefranche via equally crowded train and returned to the ship.

The next day we docked outside of Toulon, France, but with so many consecutive port days, I was exhausted and took the day off – remaining on ship to do laundry, relax and just “be” for a day before we continued on t sunny Spain.