Bob eats Smurf

According to Mirinda’s little friend, we had a 30% chance of rain today. There were a few black clouds and we felt about 34 drops of rain but, basically, it was another lovely day in Paradise.

And we thought we’d wander around to the fort today. It’s such a shame that it’s only open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. It’s an amazing structure, built in a dug out area to keep a low profile. The roof was then covered with earth to disguise it as the ground that it once was. From off-shore, you’d be hard pressed seeing it. To be honest, it would be pretty difficult from on-shore as well. Basically, it was built in a big hole and covered over again.

It also only has one entrance – I know because I walked all the way around it. It took 24 years to build, beginning in 1810. While it was used to house the soldiers manning the numerous batteries of the island, it eventually became a prison for high profile people. Now it’s a tourist site…when it’s open.

The Ile d’Aix is in the Bay of Biscay and, therefore, is part of the defence of the French coastline at this point. To this end, it is covered with defences. The town, however, is moated off from the rest of the place, with draw bridges keeping the army out.

The only thing I know for certain about the Ile d’Aix (English guidebooks there were none) is that Napoleon spent his last days on French soil in a house here. I know this because I visited the Napoleon Museum today and saw the bed he slept in.

Napoleon’s bed

The museum is full of Napoleon (as you’d expect). Statues, paintings, engravings, cartoons, all manner of ephemera…he was a real candidate for early celebratory worship culture.

There were also a few Josephines. This was one of them.

It was on the Island of Aix that Napoleon surrendered to the English following his defeat at Waterloo. This was after a half-hearted and botched attempt to escape to America. The English navy blockaded the bay and forced him to land on Aix where he was given the governor’s house for his temporary residence before leaving for his final home on St Helena. Coincidentally, the house was built especially for a visit Napoleon made to the island in 1808.

I hope Napoleon liked oysters because that seems to be the principle industry on the island. It’s possibly a shame that I don’t like them. It was quite a treat to stop off at an oyster bar on the side of an oyster farm today. Mirinda and Bob feasted on a dozen of the slimy things each. The woman who served them felt a bit sorry for me and gave me a white wine…which helped a bit.

Apparently they (the oysters) were delicious. I imagine you could hardly get fresher. I reckon they were happily singing in school this morning, preparing for a lobster quadrille when, suddenly, school finished rather abruptly. It was all a bit much for Mirinda and Bob and they needed a post-oyster decimation rest…which was how I ended up in the Napoleon Museum.

Included in your ticket to the Musee Napoleon is free entry into the Musee Afrique. This is, as you’d imagine, a museum about Africa. It features mostly stuffed animals which you can easily see these days by searching the Internet and seeing them either photographically or on video somewhere. They all looked decidedly moth eaten and passed their best.

The museum is a curiosity, really. It was the collection of a chap who lived on the island and was a descendant of Napoleon’s aide-de-camp, Gourgand. There was nothing in English so I can only assume he left the collection to the island when he died…unless he’s still alive.

While the taxidermy was decidedly unpleasant, there was a lovely collection of Palaeolithic tools including some fine examples of micro-liths. These are tiny slithers of flint, chipped off deliberately to act as fine cutting tools, generally for cutting hides, sinews and early string made from leaf fibre. I remember there was a fine collection when we visited Otzi in Bolzano, many years ago.

There were also some odd looking knives but without labels to indicate what they were (even in French) they remained baffling and uninteresting.

There was a large photograph of a rather well endowed African native which captured the attention of a group of elderly French ladies but otherwise, the museum wasn’t that interesting even to native French speakers.

Before dinner, we all went for a wander around the early ramparts, taking in the very impressive lighthouses (both of them). I have no idea why they have to have two but only one of them has a light at the top, while the other has the name of the island. Still, it seems a bit excessive if you ask me. Mind you, the French really do like their lighthouses.

Two is always better than one

Before finishing this entry, it would be remiss of me not to mention the wonderful maitre d’ at the Restaurant Josephine. Bob reckoned he looked like a younger Morgan Freeman, which is pretty accurate. He was also very jolly and made us feel at home every time he saw us. He has the most amazing smile.

There was also the waitress who dreams of living and working in Australia – Byron Bay to be exact. She’ll probably fit in well but, perhaps, her English will need a bit of work.

And, I almost forgot. Today, Bob had a blue ice cream. While it was bubblegum flavour and called strompf, it is actually Smurf…who happened to taste exactly like bubblegum.