All 300 of Carrefour Monaco’s employees will be made aware of the pact and will be instructed to assist in making the energy transition.
PHOTO: Rémi Feipeler for Carrefour Monaco, next to Annabelle Jaeger-Seydoux / © Michael Alesi/ Communication Dept
Princess Charlene and recently-retired fighter Conor McGregor have been training together off the coast of Corsica for an upcoming charity race sponsored by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.
Princess Charlene gave former Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor a run for his money in the sea off Corsica on Monday where the two were photographed training for the Calvi-Monaco Water Bike Challenge benefitting the Princess’s Foundation.
“A great day racing the water bikes with Princess Charlene of Monaco,” McGregor posted on his Facebook page. “A phenomenal athlete and former Olympian, we are teaming up for a 180km voyage in September to raise awareness in water safety. I cannot wait!”
He went on to say that, “We will be utilising my training under the McGregor F.A.S.T program to excel on these mounted water bike devices, which are incredibly good! It is like freedom out there! Thank you for the great day for my family, Your Highness.”
Other photos include snaps of the Princely couple joined by McGregor and his girlfriend, Dee Devlin.
This is not McGregor’s first brush with the Wittstock family. There are photos dating back to 2016 of the boxer and Princess Charlene’s brother, Gareth Wittstock, from a vacation he spent in the South of France that summer.
The Calvi-Monaco Water Bike Challenge will take place on the 12th and 13th of September. The 24-hour challenge consists of two competing teams who will cross the 180 kilometers of sea between the Corsican port of Calvi, ending at the Yacht Club of Monaco on water bikes.
All precautions are being taken to ensure the safety of the teams. Princess Charlene recently met with Calvi’s mayor Ange Santini and port captain Philippe Gabrielli in order to organise the race under the best possible conditions.
Money raised through the event will go toward various water safety and learn-to-swim programmes sponsored by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.
PHOTO: © Direction de la Communication / Stéphane Danna
French authorities have reported 400 to 500 active coronavirus outbreak clusters but there are no signs of an imminent “second wave”, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Monday.
Many of the current virus clusters involve abattoirs or other contained professional settings such as old age homes, he said.
Others had resulted from family reunions during the summer holidays.
“At this point we are very far from a second wave,” Veran told Franceinfo radio, as face masks were made mandatory in all enclosed public spaces including shops, covered markets and administrative buildings.
“The goal is not to worry people excessively, but to keep them on their guard,” he said.
Nationwide the “R” number indicating the viral transmission rate now stands at 1.2, meaning 10 infected people will infect an additional 12 on average, according to the Sante Publique France health agency.
But in some areas, the rate is much higher, including Marseille and Nice which now have a rate of 1.55, putting the region at the “red” alert level. A region turns red when the figure exceeds the threshold of 1.5.
Two other regions are also in the same situation: Brittany, which has an R of 2.62, and Reunion with 2.26.
Dr. Parola from the IHU (Méditerranée Infection), told La Provence that he was “attentive but not worried”, revealing that “the positive patients, to date, are mainly travellers, people who have returned from countries where the epidemic is not yet under control, people who are linked to travel or transport, or cases of close family contact with these travellers returning from abroad which is, essentially, for us, from Africa.”
The Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region remains “green” in three other categories, in particular for the rate of positive serological tests. Currently, less than 5% of the tests carried out in the region are positive. The other two criteria are the occupancy rate of intensive care beds and the incidence rate of positive RT-PCR tests per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days combined.
However, if the “worrying trends” continue the government will again consider regional lockdowns or even new nationwide confinement orders, Veran said, adding: “All people without face masks in public spaces risk fines of €135.”
Asked if France had enough masks to go around, having been caught woefully short when the outbreak gained speed in March, Veran said he was focusing on ensuring there were stocks in vacation hotspots as well as the Paris region.
The government aims to have a stockpile of 60 million face masks by October, compared with just 3.5 million when the outbreak began.
(AFP)
Photo of Monaco by Marijke Timmermans, all rights reserved Monaco Life
To celebrate Palace Day this year, the Prince’s Palace of Monaco has shared some interesting insights on the history of music and the important role it has played to many Princes throughout the centuries.
Palace Day takes place every year on 19th July and was developed by the Association of European Royal Residences, of which the Prince’s Palace has been a member since 2015.
On Sunday, the Monegasque institution took to Facebook to share its long history with music, the theme of Palace Day 2020.
Since the reign of Prince Honoré II (1597-1662), the Palace of Monaco has attracted musicians and, like other great European palaces, has served as a backdrop for court ballets, such as the Analects of Diane and Apollo in 1654 and Le Vittorie di Minerva in 1655.
At the beginning of the 18th century, Prince Antoine I (1661-1731) kept a permanent ensemble of musicians and himself lived a life full of music, exclaiming in 1730: “We music from morning to evening, and the days seem short to us. Oh! dolce vita!”
The previous year, he had written to the composer Destouches, saying: “I dare to say moreover with truth that with the exception of Paris, there is nowhere where we perform better than here, and that you would be a little edified to see me, sometimes, beating in time and giving movements with the famous baton of Lully: it is a relic that I guard carefully, and that I adopted the moment after his death.”
In 1718, the Italian Baroque composer and violinist Francesco Manfredini, who was in service of Prince Antoine I from 1711 to 1728, dedicated a concert to his patron.
Meanwhile, Prince Honoré III (1720-1795) also recruited the service of renowned concert performers including Valentin Rœser in 1762, who went on to dedicate six sonatas to him.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when the Monte-Carlo Opera was the scene of many important musical creations, Prince Albert I (1848-1922) became friends with the composers Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet.
In 1959, Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace decided to host an annual season of symphonic concerts in the palace’s main courtyard, where the best international artists performed.
The brass band of the Company of the Carabiniers du Prince was formed in 1979, primarily to take care of the music at military ceremonies. Having expanded its repertoire, the band became an orchestra in 2014 and, on 13th June 2019, gave a concert as part of the annual general assembly of the network of European Royal Residences.
In 2016, reviving the tradition of court music from the great princely, royal and imperial dynasties across 17th and 18th century Europe, singer Cecilia Bartoli formed a baroque orchestra called ‘The Musicians of the Prince – Monaco’.
The Palace released various posts throughout the day on Sunday, detailing the history of music at the Palace, including this television interview with Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace celebrating the centenary of the Monte-Carlo Opera.
Given the health situation this year, only two concerts will be held within the Court of Honour, by invitation of the Palace only, on Sunday 2nd August and Thursday 6th August 2020.
Top picture: Prince Honoré III playing the hurdy-gurdy (Vielle à roue), by Marie-Anne Loir, 1739, oil on canvas. Part of Prince’s Palace of Monaco collection. Cl. G. Moufflet – A.P.M.
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