15 ° C
Profile

Day: 12 March 2022

Revealed: Café de Paris’ spectacular renovation

by: Luke Entwistle
12/03/2022

The face of the ever-transforming Casino Square will be altered once more as the iconic Café de Paris gets a substantial makeover, with work set to finish by June 2023.

The Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) revealed plans for the Café de Paris in an exclusive gathering of local press including Monaco Life on Friday. The renovation plans have been approved and the works, which are thought to total €40 million, will be completed at the end of June next year.

Architects Alexandre Giraldi and Alain-Charles Perrot were charged with modernising the Café de Paris. The aim is to maximise the potential of an iconic building, which occupies what SBM CEO Jean-Luc Biamonti described as “the most beautiful square metreage in the world”. The difficulty comes in doing this whilst keeping the building true to the Belle Epoque era.

The result of the work has yielded an incredible, modern design, which is in fitting with the modernisation of the rest of Casino Square whilst also respecting and conserving its architectural heritage.

Design plans for the new Café de Paris

Most notably, the brasserie of the Café de Paris will be getting two additional floors, including a unique rooftop and a variety of boutiques. The Brasserie will extend onto two floors, whilst a partially glassed roof will create a naturally lit ground floor bar.

The building will also welcome an ‘Amazonico’ restaurant, a concept from Madrid that combines tropical and Latin American cuisines. The restaurant, which also has a presence in London and Dubai, will be placed in the Salle Bellevue, which will be enlarged, and will also open onto a large rooftop. This will also be complemented by a speakeasy-style bar.

Although the details have not yet been finalised, there will be an additional 800㎡ dedicated to boutiques, and this will run down from Casino Square to Jardin des Spelugues.

Despite the enormity of the task, it will only take just over a year to complete and will also be largely undisruptive. As no demolition is needed to take place, there will be minimal noise pollution.

The Brasserie has moved to the Salle Empire for the duration of the work, whilst the lemonade terrace is undisturbed. The Café de Paris casino and the boutiques will also remain in place, although the SBM boutique has been moved to the Avenue de Monte-Carlo.

 

 

 

Reigning champions can’t breach Monaco’s home fortress

by: Luke Entwistle
12/03/2022

Turkish side Anadolu Efes are the latest team to come away from the Principality short-changed, as the Roca Team produced some season’s best basketball to secure a huge win (102-80).

3,400 packed into the Salle Gaston Medecin on Friday to witness what French player Yakuba Outtara described as their “best match of the season”. The result leaves AS Monaco Basketball on the brink of the play-offs in ninth, with just four games remaining in the European season.

If they are to make those play-offs, this is the model performance which they must emulate over the coming weeks. Winning every quarter, Monaco took the reins of this crunch clash and didn’t let go, exorcising those game-management demons that have haunted them for large parts of the season.

The match began with an exhibition of outside-of-the-key scoring as over 46% (12/26) of both side’s three-point attempts found the hoop. The Roca Team advantage was constructed through some aggressive defending, which allowed for a handful of easy counter 2-pointers, as Anadolu failed to reach the 20-point mark in either of the opening two quarters.

This was also a match in which every single Monaco player chipped in with points, leading Alpha Diallo to telling Monaco Life that, “It was a really good game for us collectively. It felt like everything was clicking.”

Diallo’s points-haul was significant in itself and is another sign of a player that is growing in confidence on this run-in. “I feel like I’m improving game-by-game, and the more I’m on the court, the more confident I feel.”

The star performer, however, was undoubtedly point-guard Mike James who was the source of 27 points on the night, including nine in just three minutes during a third-quarter blitz. Should the American maintain this current form, he could be pivotal in deciding the Roca Team’s fate.

Monaco continued to dominate in the second-half and further extended their lead, eventually breaching that 100-point mark whilst leaving the Turkish side trailing in their wake. A 22-point gap by the final buzzer was a fair reflection of the home side’s dominance (102-80).

Post-match, coach Sasa Obradovic was emphatic in his positive appraisal of his side’s performance. “Quite simply, it was our best match. We had good cohesion and I didn’t believe we could get back the goal average before the meeting.”

The side’s thoughts now turn to maintaining this level. Diallo told Monaco Life that the team’s objective remains unchanged. “The top eight has always been the goal, and we’re going to keep fighting for it.” If not for the voiding of the games against Russian opposition, the Roca Team would have already pierced into those play-off spots, but Diallo isn’t focusing on what could have been. “It’s a tough situation, but we’ll take whatever comes. We’ll just play the games we have to play.”

For now, attention returns to the domestic division with three ties in succession before the next Euroleague fixture. The Roca Team hosts Roanne on Sunday and Strasbourg on Wednesday, before a trip to Paris next weekend.

Click on our Instagram post below to see more…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbAaBMEsVR1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Photo by Luke Entwistle, Monaco Life