Tuesday, July 3

I flew back to Paris last night. Monaco was fun.

They are very serious!!! In fact no, not at all. It was sort of like LA or New Orleans. Living cost is incredibly high. The climate is just wonderful. I have never seen a place where there are only tourists! Most of the people seemed that they were visiting or having their vacations. Even some folks I met in the road and restaurants who were working in Monaco were from France and Italy. In fact, they commute to work there. While I was walking around, I also heard many Americans talking.

The audience at my concert was mostly tourists, too. The concert went well. The trackers of the organ were made of metal instead of wood. Therefore the action of the organ is not as delicate or light as one which is made of wood. It was even irregular. The organ was modeled after French Classic style instrument basically. Nevertheless Mr. Boisseau, the builder of the organ, put some stops for the organist to be able to play Romantic repertoire as well.

One of the fun things was that I saw my old classmate from Lyon, Jean-cyrille Gandillet, who is now a father of three children. Jojo (as we called him at conservatoire) is teaching at a conservatory in the Nice area and is the assistant organist at Monaco Cathedral. I was so glad to see him again after 8 years. We had fun, fun, fun, sharing memories of the old days.

Monaco is a very unique place. It is one of the smallest countries in the world, such as Vatican and Lichtenstein. They are very proud of their principality. You can see the picture of the prince and royal family at any place, even at a small grocery store.

Since the cathedral was in the old town on a hill, I had to climb the hill more than ten times. Due to the preparation of the concert, I only could visit in Monaco a little bit yesterday before boarding. I saw the Aquarium, Royal Palace, Opera (which was designed by Garnier), Hotel de Paris and the Casino. $$$.

I have been staying with a friend of mine in the Parisian suburb. I will move in my apartment at Cite Internationale des Arts tomorrow and will be able to download the pics that I took in Monaco onto my laptop. I promise to send some of them shortly.

How is FUMC Hurst? You will be surprised to hear how many times I am asked about FUMC Hurst in different corners of the world. They are very curious about the place for which I am working. Of course I rave about it!

Cheers, Dong-ill