Month: May 2017

An accidental spill from a crane’s hydraulic hose on the Portier sea extension site was swiftly dealt with as soon as it was discovered, the Monaco Government said.

The leak of biodegradable oil took place on the afternoon of Thursday, May 18. A dam was set up to contain any pollution, together with the installation of a skimmer inside the dam to pump the spilled oil.

The Directorate of Maritime Affairs was informed immediately and officials visited the site. They asked the operator to supplement pollution control by installing absorbent rods to mop up the traces of oil that had drifted away from the vessel before the dam was installed.

Armelle Roudaut-Lafon, Director of Maritime Affairs, said: “The reaction of the company is to be welcomed. It immediately informed us of the incident, took urgent measures to limit pollution and responded without delay to our request for increased measures.”

On Friday morning, a team from the Maritime Affairs Directorate visited the site and was able to verify that there was no trace of pollution in the water.

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AS Monaco ended the season with a gem of a win away 3-2 to Stade Rennais on Saturday, underlining their most impressive performance in coming top of France’s Ligue 1, pushing arch-rivals Paris Saint Germain into a distant second place in the process.

It was the team’s 30th win of the season. Monaco’s scorers on Saturday were Fabinho (42), Jemerson (47), and Jorge (78). Diakhaby scored twice for the hosts, in the 69th and 90th minutes.

The win put players and staff in the best of moods for the private concert starring 50 Cent, which took place on Sunday at 6 pm under the big top at Fontvieille, a change of venue from the square in front of the Palais Princier.

The victorious players were received earlier in the evening by Prince Albert – an avid team supporter – at the Prince’s Palace. They arrived at 4:30 pm and stayed several hours.

HSH Princess Charlene told Monaco Life, “It was a lovely evening in the gardens of the palace and a wonderful way to celebrate the team’s victory.”

The Princess, who is hosting the Riviera Water Bike Challenge on June 4, added, “It was great to be able to introduce Jacques to the team – he was certainly fascinated by the trophy.”

50 Cent has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide following the massive success of his 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and the celebration concert was free to AS Monaco season ticket holders and Monaco residents.

As players, staff and supporters celebrate a brilliant season, the next big challenge for the club will be to hold on to the outstanding young talent – especially 18-year-old Kilian Mbappe ­– for next season in the face of a fierce bidding war that’s building, especially from UK clubs.

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There’s no doubt that Monaco’s favourite dog is the Chihuahua, so an attack on one of its breed is treated very seriously. This was certainly the case when the owner of a larger and more aggressive dog appeared at Monaco Criminal Court charged with failing to keep her dog under control.

The offending dog had previously bitten the owner of the Chihuahua, the court was told. The victim told the court that after the first offence she still suffers from trembling hands. On the second occasion she had to lift the small pet into her arms to protect it from being bitten.

Court President Florestan Bellinzona asked the 50-year-old defendant why she had failed to control her dog, eliciting the response that the leash had slipped through her hands, to which the magistrate said: “It is therefore the fault of the Chihuahua?”

Prosecutor Alexia Brianti said that every animal is unpredictable and the dog could have bitten a child. She asked for a fine of €1,000.

Despite a spirited defence by Thomas Brezzo, who said the affair was not the biggest issue of the century, the dog owner was ordered to pay a fine of €500 and to pay the same amount to the owner of the Chihuahua.

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After leaving Isabell Kristensen’s fashion show in Cannes, I boarded the 7:54 pm train to Nice.

It was due to arrive around 8:20 pm. It’s now 10:42 pm and we are stuck outside of Nice, just west of the airport, due to a “signalisation” problem.

All train service on the Menton-Monaco-Nice-Cannes axis has been suspended, due to an electrical problem, which turned out to be a “technical bug”.

Emergency services are on the scene but for the moment, according to the National Police on board, no evacuation plan is in place.

The same officer said we are lucky that this did not happen around 4 pm, with the midday heat as the aircon was not functioninig. In his opinion, passengers will receive compensation from SNCF when they arrive at Nice station, as some people have missed flights at Nice-Côte d’Azur airport.

Around 9:10 pm, the SNCF controller announced they had asked for water for passengers. Half an hour later, we have nothing, except the smell of cigarette smoke gradually making its way across the cars.

Several heated arguments by passengers have erupted.

In January, the head of France’s SNCF, Guillaume Pepy, told his colleagues that the national train service operator can “do better” in 2017.

According to SNCF, 90.8 percent of TER trains were punctual during 2016, compared to 91.6 percent in 2015. A TER train is considered to be late-running if it is five or more minutes behind schedule.

The total delay was 2 hours 35 minutes. At 11:06 service was restored, although with exceptional backups.

When we left the train, there were no SNCF representatives to meet us, and certainly not that bottle of water that was mentioned. I asked one SNCF person about getting my ticket reimbursed and he very disinterestedly said, “I don’t know”.

Of course not.

Article first published May 20, 2017.