Month: July 2018

The third in the series of four entrants in the Monaco International Fireworks contest will be Portugal, whose representatives will do their very best on Saturday, August 4, on Port Hercule. The Portuguese follow in the footsteps of Italy and Spain, and will be followed in turn by Bulgaria on Saturday, August 11.

The Monaco City Hall designed the 2018 competition to be a full evening’s entertainment, with tribute concerts both before and after the pyrotechnics. On August 4, the artist selected is Celine Dion, and the first show starts at 20:00, lasting until 21:30, the slot for the fireworks, and the second at 21:50. The Jury Prize and the Audience Award will rank the competitors at the end of the competition.

Meanwhile, the owners and captains of yachts should be aware of several complete and partial closures of a number of jetties in Port Hercule, from 07:00 on Fridays and 01:00 on Sundays during the firework weekends.

Orlando Pirates striker Lyle Foster is set to return to Monaco this week for another assessment as he looks to secure his permanent move, kickoff.com reports.

Foster will be in the Principality with Ligue 1 giants AS Monaco for a follow-up assessment ahead of a proposed transfer.

The 17-year-old initially went for a trial with the club’s reserve team in November last year, shortly after making his professional debut for The Buccaneers in the Absa Premiership.

The Roca Boys will be making a pre-season tour of China, where they will face rivals Paris Saint-Germain in a friendly showdown on Saturday, August 4.

Thomas Lemar, the French cap who spent three years with AS Monaco, has said a fond farewell to his former club with a farewell message on his Instagram account.

“Thank you to all the club and its supporters for these three years spent with you, I have only good memories. From my debut as champion of France through our course in the Champions League, the ASM will always stay in my heart, see you soon and Daghe Munegu,” he wrote.

The 22 year-old Thomas Lemar was presented to the press at his new club, Atlético de Madrid, on Monday, July 30. He was transferred to the Spanish club for 72 million euros.

No sooner had HSH Princess Charlene returned from her 10-day visit to South Africa than she was busy again with official duties in the Principality.

Following the high profile Gala of the Monegasque Red Cross, which she attended on the arm of HSH Prince Albert, the Red Cross President, on the following day the mother of two visited retirement home A Qietüdine where she donated small gifts and chatted with residents.

Speaking in French, she gave everyone a photo of her children, hereditary Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, taken a just a few days ago in the gardens of the Family’s country residence, Roc Agel. The Princess also brought two baskets of home-grown vegetables for the home’s kitchen.

The symbolic unveiling of the first caisson of the Portier land extension project on Thursday night marked a major step towards the realisation of the ambitious project that will involve increasing the land area of Monaco by six hectares.

Many guests were invited by SAM Anse du Portier, which is directing the project, to attend an unveiling in the presence of HSH the Sovereign Prince on board a launch. He was accompanied by Andrea Casiraghi, Martin Bouygues, CEO of Bouygues, Guy Thomas Levy-Soussan, Managing Director of SAM L’Anse du Portier, Serge Telle, Minister of State, and Monseigneur Barsi, Archbishop of Monaco, who blessed the structure.

The ceremony marked the first visible step in what represents an emblematic project for the Principality, the Government said. Seventeen other caissons will join the first one over the next 12 months, to form a protective belt designed to counter the effects of sea swells. The maritime infrastructure will be fully completed by 2020.

The land extension will cover 60,000 square metres, and will include a public park of one hectare, 3,000 square metres of shops, a 9,000 square-metre extension to the Grimaldi Forum, a port, housing, offices and more public facilities, including a 160-space car park.

For the tens of thousands of returning holidaymakers heading north from the Riviera on the A8 motorway on one of the busiest weekends of the year, it was always going to be a very challenging time with serious traffic jams expected.

But conditions were made much worse on the evening of Saturday, July 28, when a truck caught fire at about 22:00 near Arcs-sur-Argens. The northbound lanes of one of France’s busiest motorways were closed for several hours, forcing drivers to choose other routes or seek shelter for the night.

Before the closure, it proved very difficult for firefighters to reach the vehicle to douse the flames, due to gridlock, and the fire spread to tinder-dry vegetation at the side of the motorway. Eleven fire trucks and 35 personnel were involved in dealing with the conflagration. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that the incident was brought under full control.

Meanwhile, the Lyon region was put under an orange alert on Sunday, July 29, with temperatures expected to peak at 34 degrees in the city itself. Montelimar was expecting a high of 37. Monaco will experience a peak daytime high of 34 on Tuesday, July 31, and nighttime temperatures will hover around an uncomfortable 25 or 26 for the next two weeks.