Month: August 2018

A drunken motorist whose failure to stop resulted in Monaco police officers firing shots at the tyres of his car late on Saturday night has been released on bail in Nice.

The 46 year-old French national had been involved in a dispute with a staff member in front of a Monaco hotel before the police intervened shortly after 23:00. Two shots were fired at the wheels of his Mercedes, but despite having a flat tyre, the driver succeeded in making his way to Nice via the Moyenne Corniche. One Monaco policeman was reported injured.

Alerted by their Monaco colleagues, police officers based in Menton and Cap d’Ail gave chase and arrested the fugitive in front of Riquier train station. He has been charged with a hit and run offence and refusal to obey the orders of a police officer.

AS Monaco are licking their wounds after a 2-1 loss away to Bordeaux on Sunday. Monaco’s only goal was scored by 17 year-old Pietro Pellegri, his first for the club since joining from Genoa in January at the age of 16. He is the first player born in 2001 to score in Italy’s Serie A and much is expected of him at Monaco.

Bordeaux’s win was sealed by two goals from Guinea forward Francois Kamano, who scored his second in injury time after Bordeaux had failed to score from a penalty in the 89th minute following a lunging tackle by Monaco goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.

After just three games in the new season, AS Monaco now lie in second place behind Paris Saint Germain. The next game in France’s Ligue 1 is at home on Sunday, September 2, to Olympique Marseille. The game starts under floodlights at 21:00.

The One Monte Carlo Conference Centre will open in early 2019 on the site of the former Winter Sporting as part of the new Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer complex, citmagazine notes.

The centre will feature nine meeting rooms, equipped with electronic temperature and light control systems, an identical reproduction of the legendary Salle des Arts, with capacity for up to 300 for a drinks reception, and an auditorium with 80 seats.

A total of 1,445 square metres of floor space will cater for meetings, conventions, product launches, banquets and all manner of events, the convention and incentives publication says.

A combination of seven buildings will make up the wider complex of which the convention centre is part. Other amenities will include hotels, bars, partially pedestrian areas surrounded by gardens, high-end apartments, 4,500 square metres of luxury shops and 2,500 square metres of office space.

An official at the Prince’s Palace has poured scorn on the claim that the family of a descendant of Prince Honoré III should have acceded to the throne of the Principality.

Count Louis de Causans has submitted a legal claim for more than 350 million euros against the French state for giving preference to a different line of the family. dismissing his family from the throne of Monaco.

Thomas Fouilleron, director of the archives of the Prince’s Palace said that the claim “makes no sense.” He points out that Prince Albert I used his authority by means of a decree, on November 15, 1911, to recognise the illegitimate daughter of Prince Louis, Charlotte, conferring on her a right of succession in the absence of a legitimate direct male heir of his son. Princess Charlotte renounced her position in 1944 in favour of her own son, Prince Rainier III.

Had Prince Albert I not made this move, it would have been possible for the Urach-Württemberg branch to become the rulers of Monaco at a time when Europe was in great turmoil. Certainly, the French authorities would not countenance German aristocrats at the head of the House of Grimaldi in the years just before the First World War.

Mr Fullerton claims: “It is the sovereign Princes of Monaco who have sovereignly organised their succession.The claim of Louis Causans… is without historical foundation.”

Despite dire warnings during the very dry summer that the French wine harvest would be one of the worst on record, news from the vineyards is rather positive. Indeed,  a report by phys.org says that the 2018 harvest promises to be a vintage year for French wine.

The earliest harvest in 15 years is already in full swing in the Champagne region – which has benefited most from the hot weather – with the first grapes picked in equally northerly Alsace two weeks ahead of schedule. With the quality of the grapes said to be high, a truly vintage year to match 2009 could be in the offing.

Only Corsica, Languedoc-Roussillon and the Riviera coast have reported poor grapes compared to the last five years.

Mildew could have been a problem during the wet spring, but the long, dry and hot summer has helped battle it, growers say.

The French government agency FranceAgriMer said that mildew and violent spring storms had also hit the harvest along “the Atlantic coast and particularly along the Mediterranean”.

“Vines love the sun,” said Bernard Farges, head of the union of winemakers in the prestigious Bordeaux region, where mildew took a toll on the Merlot grapes used in its famous clarets. However, production is still likely to be much higher than the disastrously small crop of 2017.

Two Nice residents have appeared in front of Monaco’s Criminal Court charged with theft involving top-end Gucci clothing.

Originally from the Ivory Coast, the two culprits were able to obtain a refund of 5,795 euros for clothes bought in Milan by a third party, a Russian. The garments had been stolen from a car in front of the upmarket Hotel Negresco in Nice on the day before the incident in Monaco.

When the man returned on the following day to cash in a credit note, the Monte-Carlo outlet had been told about the theft in Nice and the police were called.

In court, the two claimed to have bought the clothing for the sum of 900 euros on the street in Nice from a person of North Africa appearance.

Their alibi was not believed by the court and the male defendant was sentenced to eight months in jail, while his partner in crime escaped with one month suspended, as called for by the prosecuting counsel.