Day: 28 August 2016

Just after 5 pm on Saturday, many Nice residents were seeking shelter from a sweltering afternoon sun. Suddenly, there was a startling sound of an airplane followed by a nearby vibration coming from the sky.

A Turkish Airline flight was flying over the city of Nice at an altitude so low it caused immediate panic amongst the population.

“I thought at first it was part of a military flyby for the Liberation ceremonies on Sunday,” one Magnan resident told Monaco Life. “But my apartment started to shake and I was horrified to look out my window and see the belly of an airplane fly over our building. I ran to the balcony with my heart pumping expecting that it would intentionally crash into the Lenval children’s hospital.”

If panic was felt on the ground, onboard the Turkish Airline flight from Istanbul it was chaos. Shirel, a 21-year-old student at a Nice business school told Nice-Matin, “I fly a lot and have never been afraid. This was a flight like any other, until the approach into in Nice. I was in the window seat and everything seemed as usual. But on arrival, the plane took a very different route. Usually we fly over the sea before landing. But I had the impression we were flying over the city centre. At first, I didn’t panic but there were impressive bump and a thud.”

Shirel described looking out to see they were flying just above buildings. “We were really close,” she said. “Nobody understood what was happening and passengers got really scared. With everything that is happening nowadays, you think the worst. I thought our plane had been hijacked.”

The pilot did deliver a message to passengers but it was in Turkish and many people didn’t understand what he was saying. “Once on the runway, I was very relieved like everyone else,” Shirel explained. “I had only one thought: to get off the plane.”

On Sunday evening, the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture confirmed that it is opening an investigation into a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737, reported Nice-Matin.

“The Safety of Civil Aviation Directorate received a report Saturday from the control tower for an abnormal route on this Turkish Airlines flight,” Philippe Castanet told the local daily. “An investigation has therefore been opened to understand the reasons for this flight path.” The prefecture also indicated an internal investigation at Turkish Airlines may be opened against the pilots.

The approach to Nice airport is often voted the one of the most beautiful in the world yet it’s also considered one of the most dangerous in Europe.

Annette Anderson of Stars’n’Bars with a photo of an American GI standing outside the iconic Van Cleef & Arpels taken during the liberation of Monaco from the German army in 1944. The Liberation followed the Allied landing near Nice on August 15, as well as the allied aerial bombardments, which badly damaged the port area of Monaco. On September 3, the American 517th Parachute Combat Team arrived in Monaco.

According to popular legend, a jeep with two American GI’s drove into Monte Carlo and pulled up to the Tip Top Bar, where one of the GIs, the future-author Irwin Shaw, jumped out, ordered some drinks and announced that Monaco had been liberated. In no time at all, crowds of Monegasques were crowding around the Americans to express their thanks.

On Saturday, September 3, the MonacoUSA Association will celebrate the 72st anniversary of the Liberation of Monaco during WWII with a special dinner show with music of the 1940s. Local artists performing include the Lib Day Darlings (Alicia Sedgwick, Colette Marx-Nielsen and Louise Harrison), London West End performers Paul Spicer and Matt Firth and local crooners Carl Henry and Mike Lorimer, who will recreate the atmosphere of the 1940s with wartime jazz hits by the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

The event will start at 6 pm in the StarDeck at Stars’n’Bars and will include a variety of animations, including a free tombola, swing dance contest and prizes for the “best 1940s look”.

An entrance fee of €15 will include the two-hour show as well as a glass of wine, beer or soft. Tickets on sale here. There is a limited number of seats available and guests can reserve tables for dinner by contacting monacousa.mc@gmail.com

MonacoUSA will be present at the memorial ceremony at the cemetery in the late afternoon and lay a wreath to pay its homage to French Resistance fighters executed by the Gestapo in 1944 prior to the Liberation of the Principality by the American Army.

In Monaco, a country that traditionally places great importance on sport, everything is ready for one of the great events of the padel season, the Monte-Carlo Padel Master, a stage of the World Padel Tour (WPT) championships, which will take place from September 6 to 11. This tournament, first held in September last year, will therefore consolidate its presence on the sporting scene and confirm Monaco as an unmissable venue on the WPT’s annual calendar for the thousands of amateurs and professionals who follow all of the stages of the circuit every year.

A major innovation for the 2016 event is the Fabrice Pastor Trophy, which will be awarded to the winners of the Monaco Master. The trophy was exclusively created by the jewellery company Cartier for Mr Fabrice Pastor, founder of the Monte-Carlo International Sports Company, the organisers and promoters of the Monte-Carlo Padel Master.

The world’s best male and female players will gather at the Fontvieille Big Top, the multipurpose venue that will be specially adapted for the occasion. Two courts will be set up – an indoor court for the tournament matches and a PRO-AM, and an outdoor court to be used for warm-ups for the players and various other activities.

The 2016 event will also include a women’s tournament, like the other Masters on the circuit, with the first women’s matches to take place in the Soleil Padel Club in Beausoleil.

Fabrice Pastor, Managing Director and Promoter of Monte-Carlo International Sports, initiated this major project. As an entrepreneur who has been a padel player for several years, he is committed to help develop this sport in the Principality and worldwide. Monte-Carlo International Sports also sponsors professional players, opening a padel club on the Côte d’Azur and supporting women’s padel.

Tickets are on sale on the event’s website.

Big changes are in store for the harbour of Fontvielle, with the arrival of two new floating platforms that will form part of the outer harbour. The first of these will arrive on Monday August 29, by sea from Marseille, where it was built. The second will follow a week later. The installation of these floating sea walls continues the reconstruction work on the port that started in February.

The two new platforms replace installations that were deemed to be no longer fit for purpose, having degraded over time, and were initially intended for use at Port Hercule. (Source: Communication Department)