Archduchess of Austria Eleonore von Habsburg has married Belgian racing driver Jérôme d’Ambrosio in an intimate ceremony in Monaco.
The glamorous young royal, who also has the title of Princess of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia, wore an off-the-shoulder Carolina Herrera wedding gown to wed her handsome beau on Monday 2Oth July. They were joined by their parents and the Mayor of Monaco, Georges Marsan, for the civil ceremony at the registry office, while there are plans for a bigger celebration once the current situation improves.
The couple first met three years ago on a flight from London to Nice and announced their engagement in March 2019. https://www.instagram.com/p/CC6259mFg1k/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
26-year-old Eleonore is the daughter of Archduke Karl von Habsburg and Baroness Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza. Her great-grandparents were the last Emperor and Empress of Austria, Charles I of Austria and Zita of Bourbon-Parma. She has modelled for Dolce & Gabbana and works as a jewellery designer.
Jérôme d’Ambrosio, aged 35, is a Belgian Formula E racing driver for the Indian team Mahindra Racing and has three wins under his belt, with multiple podiums and two pole positions. Jerome also works closely with Hugo Boss and Julius Baer as a brand ambassador.
The Yacht Club of Monaco has announced a partnership with Yachting Partners International as part of its `Monaco: capital of yachting’ project.
The Yacht Club of Monaco (YCM), whose ambition is to make the Principality of Monaco a centre of excellence in this sector, has teamed up with Yachting Partners International (YPI), a company that was founded in 1972 and is located in Monaco, London and Hong Kong. It is responsible for the sale, charter and management of superyachts.
The partnership was forged on the common ambition to promote the Principality of Monaco and international yachting community, while raising awareness among future generations of the need to act to protect the ocean and its ecosystems.
Innovation, tradition and training will be the three pillars of this collaboration, in particular through the involvement of YPI in the Monaco Solar and Energy Boat Challenge (6th to 10th July 2021), the Monaco Classic Week (8th to 12th September 2021) and La Belle Classe Academy which offers tailor-made training courses for yachting professionals throughout the year.
“I am convinced that with the dynamism of this young team, we will be able to explore new horizons by drawing on the expertise of our club and its events,” said Bernard d’Alessandri, General Secretary of the Yacht Club of Monaco. “Innovating, anticipating and preparing for the future in the service of the Principality’s global appeal are the very foundations of our Yacht Club and its public service remit.”
In recognising the honour of becoming the first yachting firm to become a Nautical Partner of the Yacht Club of Monaco, Abdullah Nahar, YPI Director, added: “This partnership is the perfect combination of our history, our heritage, and our common values, and the preservation of the oceans which remains a top priority. We are very enthusiastic about the difference that we’re going to create together”.
Niko Kovac, AS Monaco’s new head coach, spent more than an hour speaking to the press on Tuesday, touching on a variety of topics including his own surprise at being offered the top spot.
It seems Niko Kovac wasn’t expecting the call any more than the rest of us.
The former head coach at clubs such as Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt and the Croatian National Team leads a fairly quiet life. Married to his primary school sweetheart since 1999, the 48-year-old said he wasn’t expecting a job in the Principality to fall right into his lap.
“The contact was a surprise to me, and the fact that everything happened so quickly explains the fact that I am speaking to you today in English,” said Kovac. “I hope to learn French quickly. As for my choice, the reason is simple: AS Monaco is a great club with a great history. It is true that the last few seasons have perhaps not lived up to the team’s objectives, but we will work hard to bring AS Monaco back to the top of Ligue 1.”
Kovac candidly spoke about his impressions of Ligue 1 and Monaco as a team, saying, “You cannot change the past and these last seasons. We can, however, work on the future. We came here so that AS Monaco can get back to challenging the top of the league.”
Part of what rubbed people the wrong way about previous coach Robert Moreno was reportedly his coaching style, very different from Monaco’s traditional “attack style” of play. The new coach politely paid homage to the old ways, though he clearly has ideas of his own about putting Monaco back on top of the standings.
“I remember AS Monaco’s history. I played here in 1997-1998 with Leverkusen against players like David Trézeguet, Thierry Henry and Fabien Barthez. They were a very good team that played a good game. But you also have to think about defending. You have to find the right balance and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
“The important thing is to have a good mix,” he added. “It’s not a problem to work with young players, on the contrary, it’s something that I really appreciate. I started at the Red Bull group and I took care of the youth teams there for a year and a half. AS Monaco is famous for its training centre and its Academy, which has developed many great players.”
Kovac runs a tight ship and has brought a staff of three to help him in his duties. His brother Robert is his top assistant, while Goran Lackovic has been with him since he was with the Croatian National Team, and Walter Gferer will handle the physical preparation side.
Kovac has his work cut out. He is AS Monaco’s fourth head coach in less than two years, but hopes are high that the team has finally found their leader.
In part one of this two-part orca series, animal advocate Kat Pirelli-Zucchetta speaks to Pierre Robert de Latour – aka the Orca Whisperer. Pierre Robert de Latour’s career may have originated in biochemistry, but he has spent the past 20 years working with orcas, garnering more than 6,000 dives under his belt. Today, he is known internationally as an expert on orcas, a TedX speaker, and author of the best seller Frère des orques.
In exploring the European coast throughout his 40-year career, Pierre – aka the Orca Whisperer – has gained a deep understanding of and unique experience with orcas, various fish species, seals and large whales.
He founded the USEA (Undersea Soft Encounter Alliance), a professional network that established safe methodology on responsible encounters with marine mammals while respecting their wild nature, and dived with Strømsholmen in Norway.
He has also been involved in the production of various documentaries and was the focus of one episode of the BBC’s ‘Great Ocean Adventures’. Monaco Life: What prompted you to start working with and learning more about orcas?
Pierre Robert de Latour: My first encounter with orcas in Norway was during an international spearfishing competition. This short encounter changed the course of my life. Two days later, I won the championship and I was able to pay for my first dive with orcas. I was not the first diver to swim with the orcas, but I was the first to do it in a wet suit. I have been a safety diver for many years. My knowledge mainly comes from my own observations of orcas in the field. Can you describe the feeling you have when diving with orcas?
It is an incredible experience and I still find it difficult to believe what is happening to me when I am diving. Watching orcas from the deck of a boat is wonderful, we can admire their grace and ease in the water. But when we have the chance to meet them underwater, when they approach so closely that we can clearly see their eye, we feel analysed, studied, scrutinised … as if they have the power to access our deepest emotions. We become someone else; they change us. This feeling becomes addictive, but it is always the orcas who choose. We can only rely on their goodwill. I have never missed a season, a single week or even a single day in these past 22 years of expedition. An adventure with orcas is beautiful. But the human adventure with the crew is also important. We are a united group, a family. Photo by Pierre Robert de Latour Orcas are also referred to as “killer whales”, but have you ever known an orca to become aggressive or to have killed anyone in the wild?
Over two decades, I have accumulated more than 6,000 underwater encounters with orcas and guided more than 1,000 passengers. I never once observed behaviour that could be a warning or a threat. Today, diving with orcas has become an activity that is spreading all over the world. Despite this, orcas have never attacked a human being. There are two or three rumours circulating about a possible attack, but they could not be verified. So, none have been officially reported. I never use the name “killer whales” for orcas. This is incorrect and contributes to the false image – a bad image – of orcas. Believe me, when you dive with them, you tend to call them sea pandas. In one of your videos, you talk about the human brain’s limbic system which is responsible for emotions and the orca’s brain which has an addition to this area called the paralimbic system. What kind of impact do you think this has on the orca’s emotions based on your many observations?
Orcas live in family groups led by the oldest female, called the “Matriarch”. Her group is made up of all her descendants: sons, daughters, grandchildren, granddaughters… until the last generation of the group. We know that the bonds between the members of the group are very strong. When we see a female and her young, we feel all the love of a mother for her child. Sometimes the baby dies within the first few weeks. The mothers are then observed pushing the corpse of the newborn for days, even weeks, like a mourning ritual. She is grieving the loss and the pain seems to be immense. We have sometimes seen orcas caught in Norwegian fishing nets. The whole family stays around, visibly very agitated. We perceive through this nervousness the emotional attachment between the members of the group. We also perceive it during moments of socialisation. Orcas are highly emotional creatures. And the constitution of their brain and the presence of their paralimbic lobe is certainly for something. Photo by Pierre Robert de Latour How intelligent do you think orcas really are?
How does one describe intelligence? Are we humans intelligent creatures? Should we compare orcas’ intelligence to our intelligence? There are many things we don’t know about orcas. We know that they communicate, that they speak to each other inside the group and from group to group, but so far, we are not able to understand what they say. My feeling is that our brain is not capable of understanding this extraordinarily complex communication that they use. I believe that with the power of Artificial Intelligence, we will be able to understand them one day. Then, we will understand how truly intelligent they are. But so far, we can say that they have a high social intelligence, a high environmental intelligence, and after all these years, my feeling is that it goes much further. How are orcas threatened by humans and what would be the number one thing we can do to help them?
The first measure to be implemented as quickly as possible is the fight against global warming. The consequences of warming will be terrible for all ecosystems. It is urgent. If we allow warming to deplete the first links of the food chain, this will have dramatic consequences on the populations of the apex predator: the orca.
But it is not the only threat – overfishing, pesticides pollution, micro and macro plastics, noise pollution due to maritime traffic and petroleum research are also major threats. They all originate from human activity. Plastics and especially pesticides are deadly poisons for all forms of life. There is an urgent need to ban their use. We absolutely must change our agricultural models as quickly as possible to achieve production that respects nature. Photo by Pierre Robert de Latour Do you think it is possible to successfully reintroduce orcas into the oceans?
Yes, I am convinced that certain captive orcas can be returned to their natural environment after a rehabilitation program. Not all, but for the most part, even those who were born in captivity, it is possible to rehabilitate them. In the wild, orcas hunt first and then they play. In captivity, the trainers have reversed this natural process. A rehabilitation program must make it possible to return to the natural state. Of course, marine parks say the opposite, but there are many examples of successful rehabilitation programs, including Springer, Ric O’Barry and the Dolphin Project, and the rehabilitation of the hundred orcas and belugas from the “whale jail” in Russia. Do you have any final words for our readers?
Captain Paul Watson says: “If the oceans die, we will die”. He is right. By protecting the oceans, we protect ourselves and we protect the future of our children. It is our choices that make us respect the oceans and the creatures that live there. We can all do something. We will need everyone’s help.
Compagnie Monégasque de Banque (CMB) has been given the top spot for Best Private Bank in Monaco for the third year running by World Finance.
CMB has been recognised as the Best Private Bank in the Principality in a year where steep challenges are being faced in all business sectors, including finance, making the honour doubly special.
The bank has been a part of the Monaco landscape since 1976 when it was founded by a conglomerate headed by Banca Commerciale Italiana. Since 1996, the bank has increasingly focused on private banking and wealth management rather than retail banking.
The bank also provides services for private individuals and Monaco institutions, and companies such as tax planning and consultancy. The bank has about 7.5 billion in deposits and savings and collaborates heavily with the Prince’s government as a trusted entity.
World Finance, who awarded CMB, is a well-respected print and online publication that focuses on the global economy, international business and the financial and insurance industries.
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