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Day: 2 May 2023

What’s on in Monaco this May?

by: Stephanie Horsman
02/05/2023
what's on monaco

Monaco is ramping up for the summer season and May will be jam-packed with fun events. Here’s some of this month’s highlights.

The Monaco e-Prix is getting the Principality’s month of exciting motorsport events going on 6th May. Organised by the Automobile Club of Monaco, this is the sixth year Monaco will be hosting the 100% electric race and the drivers will take to task 51 gruelling laps of the iconic Monaco track. For more information, click here. 

 

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Another not-to-be-missed event is the Monaco International Dog Show, which is returning to the Principality on 6th and 7th May and will feature outstanding pups of all breeds. The show welcomes nine international judges who will have the difficult job of choosing Best in Show. To find out more about Monaco’s top dogs, click here. 

For the Principality’s younger residents, Ninja Box will be hosting a day of ninja warrior activities made just for kids. Two obstacle courses will be set up at the Ninja Box: one made for children aged three to eight, and the other for those nine to 14. The event will also feature an appearance by Maurane Jélic, the winner of the most recent Ninja Warrior: Le Parcours des Héros. For more information, click here. 

Switching gears from sport to style, the Monte-Carlo Fashion Week is happening from 17th to 21st May. This edition will be showcasing talented local designers alongside some international brands who all follow an eco-friendly ethos. Inclusiveness reigns, so expect to see some fantastic pieces from emerging and established stylists as well as side experiences such as conferences, cocktail parties, pop-up events and a fashion hub. To top it all off, an awards show will also take place on 20th May to underscore the week’s style highlights. To find out more, click here. 

The Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra will host a cinema-concert on 21st May at 6pm that presents 1968’s Stanley Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey in collaboration with Warner Bros Classics, the Southbank Centre London and the British Film Institute. To be part of the experience, click here.

The legendary Monaco Grand Prix is celebrating its 80th edition from 25th to 28th May. Since 1929, this unique motorsport event has been known as one of the most difficult – and glamourous – races in the world. The finals will be held on the Sunday, with top drivers racing 78 laps and covering over 260 kilometres at top speeds. 

The 31st May will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Prince Rainier III, Monaco’s “Builder Prince”. Celebrations will be held throughout the year, but his birthday will feature a special day of events up on the Rock from 2.30pm.  

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office

Future designers called upon to take part in new Top Marques Monaco competition

by: Cassandra Tanti
02/05/2023
Close up view of a young hand drawing on a white sheet. Kid hold a black wooden pencil and draw something on a warm orange light at home. Children writing on a paper.

A competition to design the transport of tomorrow was launched Tuesday, inviting children in Monaco to draw the supercars, yachts and jets they think will be in circulation in the year 2050. 

Would-be engineers are being asked to illustrate their vision of the vehicles that will be on the roads, the seas and in the sky when they are adults. There will be no petrol or diesel, so how will people get around?

The art competition is being organised by Top Marques in partnership with the Yacht Club de Monaco, Airbus Corporate Jets and Dassault Aviation ahead of the 18th edition of the supercar show, taking place from 7th to 11th June in the Principality.

“We wanted to implicate children in our show this year, to ask them to share with us their vision for the cars, yachts, and airplanes of tomorrow,” said Salim Zeghdar, CEO of Top Marques Monaco.

“There is so much debate today about how we can create vehicles that will run on new technology so that we can protect our environment. We are asking the children of Monaco to come up with their own designs as we are certain they have some incredible and innovative ideas.”

Entrants between seven and 17 are invited to choose one mode of transport – supercar, yacht, or airplane – and draw by hand or digitally their model which will be in circulation in 2050.

Pictures on display at Top Marques 

All drawings will be displayed at Top Marques throughout the four-day event, with a jury meeting to deliberate the winning entrants on Friday 9th June.

The jury will be presided by Bernard d’Alessandri, Secretary General of the Yacht Club de Monaco, who will be joined by Sylvain Mariat, Head of Designs at Airbus Corporate Jets, Frederic le Basser, Falcon Business Jet International Sales Director at Dassault Aviation and Nunzio La Vecchia, the inventor of the nanoFlowcell system behind the Quantino twentyfive, an electric roadster which is the first in the world to run without a battery.

The winners and runners up from the three age categories will be invited to Top Marques with an adult on Saturday 10th June to meet members of the jury.

They will also be awarded prizes including a box of Lego and a holiday workshop offered by Bricks 4 Kidz, a week’s sailing course and motorboat licence training donated by the Yacht Club de Monaco and ACJ and Dassault Aviation model aircrafts.

Drawings must be deposited at the Reception of the Yacht Club de Monaco or emailed to concours@topmarquesmonaco.com by 1st June. All vehicles must have a name clearly marked along with the name and age of the child and a contact number of a parent.

For more information, please go to www.topmarquesmonaco.com

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The Monegasque Supplementary Pension Fund: what’s it all about?

by: Stephanie Horsman
02/05/2023
monaco pension fund

A decade in the making, the Monegasque Supplementary Pension Fund is set to offer better terms to the Principality’s pensioners from 2024. Here’s how it will work. 

As France very publicly struggles with pension reforms, Monaco has quietly gone about restructuring its own system. 

Christophe Robino, Monaco’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health, was able to make the formal announcement of the new plan – the Monegasque Supplementary Pension Fund (CMRC) – after the National Council’s 13th April unanimous vote turned the bill into law. After a decade of efforts to reach this point, the CMRC will come into effect from 1st January 2024. 

The dual-purpose action has done two major things: notably to improve the supplementary retirement pension currently on offer from France’s Agirc-Arrco scheme, and to lower contributions paid by employees. 

MONACO’S OWN PENSION FUND

The big news is that Monaco has left the French Agirc-Arrco retirement plan set-up to create its own sovereign fund, one that will be under the control of the Monegasque government and therefore offering more flexibility and lessening the disparity between the French fund’s rules and Monaco’s retirement system. 

“We wanted to ensure our sovereignty and improve our attractiveness,” Robino told Monaco Matin recently. “By managing this fund ourselves, we will ultimately provide better pensions to retirees while having less weight for employers and employees. This therefore means, in the long term, better incomes for the latter.” 

Given the changes over the border in France, the Monegasque government recognised that sooner or later, there would be problems arising from the differences in the two systems. By repatriating the system, it heads off any issues at the pass.  

200,000 PEOPLE WILL BENEFIT 

The scheme will affect 200,000 current and past employees who work, or have worked, in Monaco for a minimum of 10 years. Those already retired will continue to receive their pensions as before from Agirc-Arrco, but will also get a bonus benefit from the CMRC in the interest of fairness.  

The supplementary scheme for civil servants is on the state budget and will represent a long term, substantial saving for the state, perhaps to the tune of several tens of millions of euros, according to Robino. Financial impact studies will have to be undertaken, though, before firm decisions are made.  

The terms of the takeover from Agirc-Arrco establish that Monaco will reimburse pensions already liquidated to the tune of €2.8 billion. The state will have 13 years to reimburse France on a hybrid plan that allows for the Monaco fund to build up reserves as well as pay back what is owed. Then it will be free and clear to operate as the government sees fit.  

“At the end of 40 years, this Monegasque Supplementary Pension Fund will be in balance, if not profitable,” said Robino, adding that this is rare for a pension plan. He also said that the gains are expected to be significant, citing “an increase of 5 to 6% in the long term”.   

 

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Monaco showcased in Times Square, New York, for ‘Like nowhere else’ campaign

by: Cassandra Tanti
02/05/2023

The best of Monaco is now on display in the heart of New York, with a new tourism campaign featuring the slogan ‘Like nowhere else!’ making its debut in Times Square.

Monaco’s Tourism Department revealed its 2023 strategy to win back tourists and return Monaco to its pre-Covid figures on 21st March, when Director Guy Antognlli unveiled the new marketing campaign to 200 guests at the Fairmont Monte-Carlo.

The ‘Like nowhere else’ slogan “symbolises the promise of an exclusive experience in the Principality of the kind that simply cannot be found anywhere else. It can be summed up in three words: Unique – Legendary – Diverse”, states the Tourism Department.

The 15-second visual campaign in Times Square is being broadcast on five giant screens. Set against a Riviera blue-backdrop, the visuals show some of Monaco’s best features – its coastline, Palace Square, Hôtel de Paris and the three Michelin-starred Le Louis XV by Alain Ducasse, the F1 Grand Prix and Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the Casino and speed boats… showing that there simply is nowhere else like Monaco.

The Tourism Department says that particular attention is being paid in this campaign to new tourist habits and modes of communication important to travellers, namely instagrammability and sustainability.

Times Square is one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. The campaign will run here for a year.

 

 

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Photo of Times Square by James Ting on Unsplash

Can I fill up my swimming pool during the drought?

by: Elsa Carpenter
02/05/2023
swimming pool drought

The south of France is experiencing a drought and as one of the regions with the most swimming pools in the whole country, many owners are concerned about their rights when it comes to filling and topping them up.  

Months of low rainfall over the autumn and winter led authorities in the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes to issue drought alerts in February and March respectively. The situation continued to worsen into spring, with a rainfall deficit of 76% in March compared to annual averages recorded by the Alpes-Maritimes and a drop in snowfall of roughly 60% across the region.  

Both departments have upped restrictions on water usage and a number of communes have passed into the highest levels of regulation as precipitation and groundwater reserves remain worryingly low.  

The vast majority of communes, however, remain in the “alerte” and “alerte renforcée” stages; those preceding the “crise” level of warnings that imposes the strictest restrictions. Still, this means that homeowners and renters with a private pool in their gardens are subject to legally enforceable restrictions when it comes to filling and topping up their pools.  

The difference between filling up and topping up

As it stands, the total re-filling of a swimming pool is banned unless a pool has been recently finished and this is the first time it has been filled. In this case, the works must have begun prior to the implementation of the first water restrictions earlier in the year.  

Topping up a pool – “mise à niveau” in French – is allowed for the time being.  

Should the commune pass into the crisis stage of water restrictions, this will also be banned for private pools unless they are for “collective use”.  

Fines of €1,500 could be issued by authorities if households are found to be breaking the rules.  

For the current alert status list of communes in the Alpes-Maritimes, please click here. For those in the Var, please click here.  

 

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Photo source: Dim Hou for Unsplash

Rally: A vintage race with a twist heading to Monaco

by: Luke Entwistle
02/05/2023

The Serma Devinci Rally comes to the Riviera this Sunday, with eco-friendly vintage cars making the trip from Saint Tropez to Monaco.

Devinci specialises in making aesthetically vintage cars with a twist. The cars are powered by electricity and, on Sunday 7th May, will travel the length of the French Riviera, beginning in Saint Tropez and ending in front of the Palais de Monaco.

An electric weekend of racing in Monaco

Around 15 cars, driven by influencers such as Girogio Giangiulio, Fulvio Piscitelli and Sophianna Bergonzi, will head along the coastal roads between the two jewels of the region.

Whilst Sunday’s rally cars may not reach the speeds of their single-seater electric counterparts at the Monaco ePrix, which will circulate the iconic Grand Prix circuit just 24 hours before, this vintage electrical rally will give a nostalgic nod to the past whilst simultaneously looking towards the future.

 

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Photo by Devinci