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Music from the 16th and 17th centuries, with counter-tenor Jean Sebastien Beauvais, Chloe Severe on the positive organ, and Bob Smith on the viol de gamba. For more information phone +377 92 05 36 99.

Christmas concert with the Azur Choir and Symphony Orchestra. Soloists are tenor Massimo La Guardia, soprano Laurence Schohno, and baritone Federico Longhi. For more information phone 06 17 98 41 21.

Buy your Christmas tree in the hotel lobby. All profits go to the association Action Innocence Monaco. For more information, phone +377 97 77 51 11.

No information yet.

After months of hiding in the corner, maBoum is finally available to the world. There is still much to do but it's now ready to help organise your festive activities. Don't forget to let us know what you think - good and bad.

The fabulous, glamourous Dame Shirley Bassey will be helping to turn on the Christmas lights. This year, Monte Carlo SBM have chosen to decorate the Casino Square like a huge box of jewels. Diamonds are forever, not just for Christmas!

This year's Salon Monte Carlo Gastronomie starts tomorrow in the Fontvieille circus tent. For 4 days, residents and visitors to Monaco will be able to tickle their taste buds and feast their eyes on the very best food and wine. The theme of this 13th salon is "delices des fleurs", so we can expect plenty of examples of floral ingredients and flavours. But the crowning glory will once again be the chocolate competition, which has now been running for 3 years.

Here are a few selected artists from the 2008 Monte Carlo Jazz Festival.

• Roy Hargrove Quintet
• DJ Logic
• Marcus MILLER and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic
• Herbie HANCOCK and Manu KATCHE Playground
• Ben SIDRAN & Georgie FAME and Avishai COHEN
• Thomas DUTRONC & Malene MORTENSEN

Tickets: 40€ & 50€

In the Condamine area, there's a change of ownership at Au Royalty, a bar and cafe on rue Princesse Caroline close to the corner of avenue Albert 1er. On the same pedestrian street, but a bit higher up, the snack bar called La Condamine has recently been bought. It's been closed for some time, and when we passed by last Sunday, there was no activity, but we hope to see it re-open in the near future.