Day: 10 December 2016

A new Stars’n’Bars is opening this weekend in Courchevel at Aquamotion, Europe’s largest mountain water park. The establishment will include a main restaurant and a smaller “SNB Grill”, which overlooks the theme park’s indoor surfing attraction.

The original Stars’n’Bars was opened by Kate Powers and Didier Rubiolo in Monaco in 1993. This latest Courchevel venture will feature the same commitment to healthy, homemade food (traditional favourites like burgers and nachos, as well as organic and vegan choices), family fun and maintain the spirit of sports. In fact, the new restaurant decor features the first competition bobsled of Prince Albert II from the 1984 Calgary Olympics and guests can climb inside for a souvenir photo.

Ongoing entertainment will include children’s birthday parties, musical evenings, games and non-stop TV sports nights. The restaurant in Courchevel is the first Stars’n’Bars to open in France, and there are two other restaurants in Abu Dhabi and Amritsar, India.

The Aquamotion 15,000 square meter water park is packed with features such as indoor and outdoor pools, a diving pool, surfing area with a spectacular wave, three lane water slide, wild water rapids, saunas, steam room, hot tub and climbing wall.

Both Kate and Didier are attending the opening ceremony this weekend in Courchevel, which coincides with the opening of Aquamotion for the new ski season. Kate told Monaco Life, “It’s so exciting to see families from so many parts of the world enjoy the Stars’n’Bars experience. And this time, our new location is close enough for many of our regular Monaco customers to visit during their ski vacations and have a home away from home.”

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Article first published December 9, 2016.

Happy Birthday to Hereditary Prince Jacques and HSH Princess Gabriella as they celebrate their second birthday Saturday, officially at 5:05 pm.

The Princely twins, who surprised Monaco residents last Saturday with a visit to the Merry-Go-Round at the opening weekend of Christmas Village, with a beaming Prince Dad and Princess Mom looked on, are becoming more comfortable with public outings as the get older. Prince Albert told People magazine in October, “We both want them to be as comfortable as they can be and to experience as normal an upbringing as possible.”

On Wednesday, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella had their first “surprise party”, with kids from the Red Cross daycare, where they “go two, three times a week”, and with Palace employees’ children also.

As for plans for the big day,“We’ve decided to have a little something here at home with some of the children in their daycare … an early afternoon party in the palace,” Prince Albert said to People,

He also shared that “Gabriella, like a lot of little girls, and is more talkative than her brother — both in English and French. She encountered the phrase ‘c’est pas possible!’ (‘it’s not possible’) and has picked that up pretty quickly.”

As for the holidays, the Prince admitted that the twins will be “coming to both Christmas parties. And after that I think we’ll take a little needed private New Year’s vacation away.”

Monaco’s official publication, le Journal de Monaco, is publishing a supplement with lots of photos devoted to the twins second birthday, which will be available for €1.90 from December 12, at the Journal’s headquarters, located at the Ministry of State (Place de la Visitation-Monaco Ville, Monday to Friday, 9:30 am to 5 pm).

Article first published December 10, 2016.

People are still talking about My Yacht Group’s “epic” party during the Monaco Yacht Show in September. The luxury hospitality provider returned to balmy South Beach to host its 6th annual superyacht reception in partnership with Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors AG aboard the aptly named “M/Y Ocean Drive” during the 14th iteration of the Art Basel Miami Beach 20th and 21st century art collector fair.

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In what’s become an over-saturated week of events, My Yacht’s floating party, held annually at Miami Beach Marina, is a consistently classy fixture, welcoming a broad palette of both High Net Worth and art minded guests, including Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami Board of Trustee members, headed by VSWA’s own CEO, Deepak Soni.

Colorful Gosling’s Bermuda rum cocktails got the party spirit started, a nod to co-presenting partner Bermuda Business Development Agency and CEO Ross Webber, whose guests included former Bermuda Premier Sir John Swan, plus BDA Board members, Bermuda Tourism Authority and America’s Cup Event Authority. The island’s Great Sound will host the 35th America’s Cup for five weeks next May and June.

A DJ and live saxophonist created the perfect “backing track” to videos showcasing the Silver Arrows Marine Arrow460-Granturismo. The 14.7m luxury motor yacht, created in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz style and showcasing a unique aesthetic, made its official debut at the Monaco Yacht Show 2016.

Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque champagne, plus Enchanted Rock Vodka and Rebecca Creek Whiskey kept the mood buoyant aboard the newly renamed and refitted M/Y Ocean Drive, that’s available for charter through IYC, while the quayside cigar lounge featured Martell Cognac and afforded a relaxed view of the floating fête.

In keeping with other My Yacht events – including Art Basel Hong Kong, Cannes International Film Festival, Monaco F1 Grand Prix, San Francisco Fleet Week, Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix – a portion of proceeds will benefit one of the group’s chosen charity partners, Disabled American Veterans.

Next up for the superyacht event producers, My Yacht St. Bart’s, debuting December 19th, to coincide with the launch of the all-new, not-for-profit Gustavia Yacht Club.

Christmas is around the corner. In Monaco, from the Tourist Office to Casino Square to Port Hercules, the streets sparkle with the beauty and festive joy of Christmas lights  And in a charming area of London’s Mayfair district, Shepherd Market, the small square and piazza with a variety of boutique shops, restaurants and impressive Victorian pubs tucked away between Piccadilly and Curzon Street, the annual event of switching on of the Christmas lights has become a popular, local celebration, thanks to the Pastor Real Estate, Mayfair’s leading luxury estate agents, as their sponsor.

The founding company, J.B. Pastor & Fils began more than four generations ago, at the beginning of the 1920’s in construction, in the principality of Monaco and was established by Jean-Baptiste Pastor. The Pastor group now has a diverse portfolio of business interests including construction, estate agency, property, rental management and specialist insurance services.

With the support of over 60 retailers, residents and traders in this corner of Mayfair, the Shepherd Market Association organises the annual event. Pastor Real Estate is the main sponsor of the beautiful Shepherd Market lights. This festive affair has an appealing and appetising array of traditional Christmas features. Mulled wine, mince pies, Christmas carols and even a brass band are present in this beautiful Victorian alcove of Mayfair.

This year, thanks to Oliver Milburn, Actor and Co-Owner of Kitty Fisher’s, Elizabeth Hurley was in charge of the switch. Oliver and Elizabeth starred in the American TV series, “The Royals” together. Elizabeth is happy to lend her regal presence to the event and says, “Shepherd Market is such a unique part of London, it has a real neighbourhood feel. I love the mix of shops, galleries and restaurants, particularly Kitty Fisher’s – one of my all time favourites and of course the wonderful 5 Hertford Street. I’m thrilled to be switching on their Christmas lights and to be supporting this unique pocket of Mayfair.”

In previous years, the Shepherd Market Christmas Lights event has been well attended by celebrity residents of Mayfair and London, including Sir Stirling Moss, Boris Johnson, Zac Goldsmith and Michael Palin.

The Shepherd Market Association and Pastor Real Estate have also decided to support the historic homeless charity, St Mungo’s Broadway, at the Shepherd Market Christmas Lights. This charity, formed in 1969, and named after the patron saint of travelling Celts, has been hugely successful in helping homeless people to be housed and effect positive change in their lives.

Saturday at 4 pm the Côte d’Azur’s most acclaimed landscape architect, Jean Mus, will be signing copies of his new book “Jardins méditerranéens contemporains” at FNAC Monaco.

The Grasse native has an impressive portfolio, which includes locally the Grimaldi Forum gardens, the hotels Monte Carlo Beach and Monte-Carlo Bay, as well as the Tour Odeon. He’s also designed the 2,000 sqm “Versailles-style cream- and green-hued oasis” at the refurbished Ritz Paris.

Recognised and admired for his Mediterranean style, Mr Mus presents in his book 20 spectacular gardens of his most recent creations, as illustrated by photographer Philippe Perdereau with anecdotes and practical tips written by Dane McDowell.

Mr Mus studied at the Garden and Landscape School of Versailles and is Jury President of the new Côte d’Azur Garden Festival, which runs April 1-May 1, 2017 with competitors’ garden designs on display in Cannes, Antibes, Grasse, Nice and Menton.

For the fourth time in five years, Errol Girdlestone will be directing Handel’s masterpiece at St Paul’s Church, Monte-Carlo, 22 ave de Grande Bretagne. Tickets €30 at the door of from FNAC.

The performance, which takes place this Saturday, December 10 at 8pm, features soprano Elenor Bowers-Jolley, counter tenor Clint van der Linde, tenor Alex Tsilongiannis and bass Thomas Dear.

Organised in part with the Association Musique de Chambre Monaco, the benefactor of this concert has made a commitment to underwrite the costs of future performances and is making an effort to recruit other music lovers capable of joining him in covering the costs in the hope of establishing “Messiah” as a Riviera pre-Christmas tradition.

The Ristretto Choir and Orchestra formed in 2009, has a pool of some 30 top amateur and professional British and French singers and for Messiah has recruited musicians from the Monaco Philharmonic to form the orchestra.

The choir’s Oxford-born director, Errol Girdlestone, read music at Keble, where he was very involved with the musical life of the university but “I don’t think the actual degree course did much for me – it was about musicology rather than music – though it did gave me ability to read a score intelligently and analyse it which are absolute necessities for a conductor,” he said in an interview in 2013.

He was a session singer all over London, mainly classical but also with a bit of pop – “I once sang with Pink Floyd” – before getting a British Council scholarship for a conducting course in Warsaw. He was then taken on by the English National Opera and invited to South Africa where he worked with the Pretoria and Cape Town

Operas and then became municipal director of music for Pietermaritzburg.

Mr Girdlestone returned briefly to the UK in the mid-Eighties and then went off to work with the Oslo opera for a few years. “I got invited to join the Nice Opera,” he said. “I was there for four years and then 24 years ago something really interesting turned up. I got an offer to take over a choir, which eventually became part of a wider musical organisation mainly involving some very enthusiastic and dedicated Germans

working at IBM.” That was the beginning of what’s now the Ensemble Vocal Syrinx, currently led by Francesca Tosi.

Freelance engagements have taken Mr Girdlestone elsewhere to fulfil contracts as opera conductor or chorus master in theatres at Aix-en-Provence, Cologne, Chicago, Montevideo, Monte Carlo and he’s appeared as symphony conductor in Leipzig, Vienna, Bregenz, and at the Yehudi Menuhin festival in Gstaad.