La Vigie Lounge and Restaurant is reopening for a new season, giving guests a touch of bohemian chic, seaside.
The opening is part of the Monte-Carlo Beach’s multi-faceted launch of the 2021 season. Firstly, on 28th May, the Beach Hotel and the Elsa Michelin-starred restaurant flung open their doors, with new Chef Manon Fleury at the helm. Then came the opening of the Beach Club and the unveiling of the new beach designed to match its 1930s origins. Now, it is time for La Vigie Lounge and Restaurant to reopen its doors for the season, from 25th June to 5th September.
Nestled among pine trees and amidst a classified bird sanctuary, with the sea as its only horizon, this little piece of paradise offers a relaxing atmosphere and cool summer vibes.
With its bohemian chic decor, azure blue reflections and immaculate white tones, the lounge bar is designed to seduce, offering up signature cocktails, refined wines and delicious platters to share. Comfortably seated in large armchairs facing the sea, guests are invited to pass the hours to the rhythm of summer tunes delivered by a resident DJ. Photo of La Vigie Lounge and Restaurant by SBM
Meanwhile, under the creative direction of Chef Pascal Garrigues and his team, the terrace restaurant offers a gourmet menu with South American flavours, including guacamole, empanadas and amberjack ceviche for starters, followed by specialties from the famous Josper Grill such as wagyu beef ribeye, freshly caught fish of the day and scrumptious king crab.
Long summer dinners with friends and loved ones are back on the agenda.
The Yacht Club of Monaco will host June’s annual Festival of the Sea in honour of the patron saint of fishermen, Saint Peter, however the event will be scaled back this year due to health restrictions.
The Yacht Club of Monaco (YCM) will be joined by several local organisations including the Monaco City Hall, Société Nautique de Monaco rowing club, pleasure boaters, the Association des Pontons de Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Oceanographic Museum, Club d’Exploration sous-marine de Monaco, and the Association Monégasque Environment Protection Association for the Festival of the Sea.
The celebrations will begin at Port Hercule, the site of the traditional boat parade, where all sea-going vessels are welcome to participate. The past has seen not only the expected sailing and motorboats taking part, but also the less expected, such as rowing boats, kayaks and even paddleboards.
Those wishing to be a part of the parade are asked to meet at the Oceanographic Museum for a 10:30am start time. Boats will be positioned around the lead boat, the police cruiser Princess Gabriella, followed by the blessing for missing sailors at 10:45am.
After completing the circuit, which involves following the leader around a buoy, the participants meet back in Port Hercule where the end of the parade is signalled by the bleating of a foghorn.
This festival aims to promote the exploration, conservation and appreciation of heritage found in our oceans and along our coastlines, as well as to pay tribute to Saint Peter, the patron saint of net-makers, shipbuilders and fishermen.
Other family-oriented events surrounding the festival that normally take place will not go ahead this year due to the health situation.
Workshop centre inaugurated in Princess Antoinette Park
A new public use facility called A Fabrica has been inaugurated in the heart of Princess Antoinette Park, a space made possible by the generosity of two local donors.
Princess Antoinette Park has long been a go-to destination for the children and young people of the Principality and now there is one more reason to go. A new facility, A Fabrica, was opened on Thursday 17thJune with a delegation including Princess Stéphanie, Mayor Georges Marsan and his Deputies Jean-Marc Deoriti-Castellini, Delegate to the Animation Department of the City, and François Lallemand, Delegate to Municipal Technical Services.
The project has been a work-in-progress for several years and finally came to fruition thanks to the generosity of two local donors, Elena Sivoldaeva and Liliane Spaethe, both of whom attended the launch.
A Fabrica, which will be managed by the Monaco Animation Department, will be used to host creative workshops and other fun events.
In addition to the new space, Princess Antoinette Park features a fantastic playground, a multi-purpose sports field, two badminton and tennis courts, and an 18-hole mini golf course as well as table tennis tables. There is also a mini-farm with a vegetable patch where younger children can learn about local fruits and vegetables, whilst older kids are introduced to olive harvesting and pressing.
Masks will no longer be mandatory in Monaco from Saturday, with the exception of a few tourist hotspots like Casino Square.
The decision was made “despite the increase in incidence and positivity rates observed over the last 10 days, and to avoid a pause in the gradual reduction in the health restrictions”, according to a statement released by the Palace late Thursday.
From Saturday 19th June, masks are no longer required outdoors in the Principality except at the Place du Palais Princier and the alleys of the old town on The Rock, Place du Casino and the neighbouring areas that form the Carré d’Or, the Esplanade du Centre Commercial de Fontvieille, the Condamine and Monte-Carlo markets during operating hours, the access areas to bus stops and the train station, as well as the surroundings and access areas to schools.
The news comes just over 24 hours after France announced that it would drop the requirement for masks outdoors from Sunday and amid repeated calls from the National Council for Monaco to do the same.
The government has, however, maintained the midnight curfew, despite France’s complete scrapping of the measure.
“The Prince has asked his Government to conduct, as soon as possible, a consultation with representatives of catering professionals in order to define the conditions for a geographical expansion of customer reception. HSH the Prince will assess the health situation next week to define the measures likely to be taken with the dual objective of protecting the health of the population, and to meet the expectations of actors in the economy, especially those related to tourism activities,” said the Palace in its statement.
Vaccinating the majority of the population has always been the aim of the Prince’s government and there are, according to the Palace, enough inoculations to protect 65% of Monegasques and residents over the age of 12.
“HSH Prince Albert II calls on all people who have not yet been vaccinated to take this step in order to regain both personal and collective well-being as quickly as possible,” said the Palace.
Currently, 54% of the eligible population has been vaccinated with at least their first shot.
Photo by Cassandra Tanti for Monaco Life
"Smart Mobility has moved much faster than we anticipated"
Like the Principality of Monaco, Tel Aviv in Israel is a Smart City with an insatiable appetite for sustainable technology.
An important aspect of that is Smart Mobility, and for 10 years, EcoMotion Week has been bringing together entrepreneurs, academics, government officials, local and global automotive industry representatives, and investors for an event that is designed to grow the Israeli Smart Mobility sector.
Following the recent EcoMotion Week in May, Monaco Life spoke to the Co-Founder and Chairman of EcoMotion Week Meir Arnon about Smart Mobility, the surprising rapid advancement of driverless vehicles, and the future of flying cars. Monaco Life:When did EcoMotion Week begin and why?
Meir Arnon: EcoMotion is an NGO that started 10 years ago in order to build an industry in Israel that was not there before – Smart Mobility. There are a lot of technologies coming from the defence industry, but not so much in other industries. So, we wanted to organise a yearly event that brings together thought leaders and actual global car makers. The first event attracted around 200 people; at the recent event, there were close to 5,000 – all carmakers and suppliers. It has become an event that the entire industry supports, and it now includes more than 600 start-ups in the Smart Mobility field. We have achieved what we wanted to in creating a new industry with lots of jobs and profits.
Of course, unfortunately during Covid, the 2020 and 2021 events were virtual, but they were nonetheless very successful with thousands of meetings and agreements between companies and start-ups. EcoMotion Week 2019 Which field of Smart Mobility has excited and surprised you most throughout the decade?
When we started, we thought that the most exciting story we would be able to tell would be semi-autonomous driving, where a driver can relax a little and rely on some of the car sensors. We did not anticipate the speed in which this technology would actually be implemented. Regulation is of course very important, not just the technology, as well as customer acceptance. In the US today, over 70% of passengers are happy to drive in a fully-autonomous car, without a driver. If you were to ask the same question five years ago, it would probably be a third of that. So, one thing we saw coming is the semi-autonomous car, but it developed much faster than we thought.
The other is electrification. Arguably today, there is not one car company that has not committed to moving totally, or mostly, to electrification. Volvo was the first to announce that there would be no more internal combustion engines (ICE) in their cars by 2030, and by 2025, more than half will be electric. GM followed, saying that by 2030 more than half of their cars would be electric, then Ford did the same. If you had asked me five years ago, I would not have thought it would be so quick.
The reason for this speed is partly because, for the past five years, China has been dramatically subsidising electric cars because of the terrible pollution they have in their big cities. This accelerated the rest of the global car players. Meanwhile, five years ago, the battery industry in China was much more developed than that in Europe and the US. It is no longer the case, because many car makers – for example Tesla and many other car companies – have invested billions of dollars locally in battery manufacturing.
Another surprisingly speedy change is something that you or I could have only dreamed about – flying cars. And again, five years ago it was kind of like, “ok, good luck with that”. But today it has become centre stage. There are around 200 companies today with what we call EVTOL – electric, vertical take-off and landing. Of course, they have some challenges, but there are flying cars today that fly in the air and drive on the road. So, it parks in your garage, you fly to a short strip or private airport and you take off, you land somewhere and you continue to drive.
This whole world of electric helicopters and flying cars has moved very quickly, much quicker than most people anticipated. It reminds me of another time in history. If you look back 100 years ago in north America, there were 4,000 cars and 25 million horses. When asked what his customers wanted, Henry Ford was quoted as saying that his customers wanted faster horses. Nearly a century later, here we are with close to a billion cars globally. So, looking ahead, do we see flying cars? I think it will take perhaps 50 years, not 100. We will see less roads and infrastructure, and more autonomous flying cars in air corridors. Flying car at EcoMotion Week 2019 But what about the affordability of Smart Mobility?
By 2025, it will cost the same to produce a mini-cooper electric as a mini-cooper ICE.
Today, electric cars cost about 25% more to produce because they are less in numbers and there are parts that are costly today, but will not be costly tomorrow, such as the electric engine.
Now, let’s look at the reverse. An electric car has less than 1,000 parts. Normal cars today have ten times as many moving parts, and the moving parts are usually the problem. So, the fact is, electrification will eventually reduce the cost of cars.
With regards to autonomous cars, what today would cost you around $100,000 will cost a couple of thousand dollars five years from now.
Flying cars will continue to be expensive, but service in a flying car will be less costly. I don’t think flying cars will be targeted to everyone in the next five to 10 years, but they will come to prices that the average person can use. Not buy, but use for sure, like a taxi. What range are we talking?
Today, flying cars are using normal ICE engines, but they will soon use batteries and become electric. We envision that, if the battery develops, a flying car is looking at short-haul trips of between 160 to 800 kilometres.
Technologies are allowing things that we could not imagine a few years ago. The fact that these flying cars will be autonomous, that’s for sure; and the fact that people are willing to step into an autonomous car or plane is now more accepted than, say, five years ago. It is not just the technology and the cost, but also the acceptance among people that they can rely on a “robot”. What about cybersecurity? How much effort is being directed towards securing Smart Mobility?
There is a huge amount of work in this field. In Israel alone, there are more than 50 start-ups engaged in this field, some of whom were sold to Continental for over $500 million. It has been identified that once this technology becomes real and is no longer in the testing phase, the more security becomes a major issue, just like in normal aviation. How is the aviation industry moving towards electrification?
The limitation today is battery performance. For example, there are currently seven or eight fully electric planes being tested but they have a range of maybe 160 kilometres.
But battery technology has also seen enormous advancement over the past 10 years. Kilowatts per dollar and kilowatts per kilogram have both dropped by a factor of 10 in the last five years, and continue to drop in that trajectory. So, it will get there. The world is working hard on clean energy, especially you guys there in Monaco. What synergies do you see between Monaco and Israel?
I think Smart Mobility is very much linked to Smart City, and here in Israel we are working a lot of with the major principalities. The synergies between Monaco and Israel? Firstly, I would say that we are on the same ocean, so we should both take care of it. Secondly, Israel is full of technologies, Monaco is full of money – the challenge is to put the two together.
One of the world’s top forecasters, Christophe Barraud, has told an audience of Monaco entrepreneurs what he predicts the global economic recovery will look like in 2021.
Voted Forecaster of the Year 2020, Top Forecaster of the Eurozone Economy 2015-2019, Top Forecaster of the US Economy 2012-2020, and Top Forecaster of the Chinese Economy 2017-2020, Christophe Barraud’s presence in Monaco was always destined to be a coup for local businesses and its organiser, the Monaco Economic Board (MEB).
This week’s presentation was the first big “phygital” event of the year for the MEB and Christophe Barraud delivered his macroeconomic scenario for the coming months to a room of 70 local economic players and in front of cameras that broadcast the presentation, translated into English, to nearly 150 participants worldwide. His main forecast: an extremely marked recovery of global activity with growth of more than 6% for the year 2021.
This optimism, which he says can vary depending on the regions of the world, can be explained by four major factors. Firstly, the effectiveness and acceleration of the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 have created a shock of confidence, and the latest wave of the epidemic appears to be under control in the vast majority of developed economies.
Secondly, the arrival of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America has eased trade tensions, especially with Europe, as highlighted by the truce in the Airbus-Boeing dispute. Above all, he says, the new administration has given better visibility to economic players, now freed from the threat of unpredictable tweets. As a result, Christophe Barraud says he foresees an increase of around 10% in world merchandise trade volume in 2021.
Thirdly, the excess in savings that many households have experienced as a result of the pandemic should contribute to the recovery through increased consumption.
Finally, the economist underlined the ultra-accommodating monetary policy in developed countries and the combined balance sheet of the G7 central banks, which has increased by more than 10 trillion dollars in the space of 15 months between February 2020 and May 2021.
The situation is not without risks, however. Among other threats, the forecaster points to the presence of variants that are likely to change the health situation, and the risk of social unrest, as history has shown that the end of a pandemic has always been accompanied by an increase in inequalities.
Christophe Barraud finished the evening with a question-and-answer session before joining the Monegasque entrepreneurs for a friendly Covid-compatible cocktail, ending a conference that successfully marked the return of face-to-face actions of the MEB.
Coming up on the MEB agenda is the general assembly coupled with the emblematic membership meeting.
Photo of Christophe Barraud by the MEB
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