With the recent opening of the Maison du Numérique, a space dedicated to educating the public on the “new technological era”, Monaco is seeking to close the digital divide and ensure its residents are up to speed on the latest developments.
On Friday 7th July, Prince Albert II of Monaco officially cut the ribbon on the Maison du Numérique – or Digital Technology House – that has found a home in the Jardins d’Apolline.
The concept came about through close collaboration between the Prince’s Government, Monaco Telecom and Monaco City Hall, and forms part of the Principality’s wider “digital transformation programme”.
Minister of State Pierre Dartout, who was present at the opening along with numerous officials representing the three backers of the project, said, “The launch of the Maison du Numérique is an important event in making digital technology accessible to everyone in Monaco. We want to ensure that everyone acquires the skills needed to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change. This is vital to the attractiveness of Monaco.”
Minister of State Pierre Dartout at the opening ceremony. Photo credit: Manuel Vitali
It is entirely open to the public, with the aim of ensuring that all Monegasques, residents and employees are “equipped with the understanding and knowledge needed to use the digital products and services available in the Principality”, as explained by the government via an official communiqué.
A place for workshops and conferences
The establishment has been supplied with top-of-the-range equipment, from computers and tablets to smartphones and interactive terminals, in order to facilitate training sessions and workshops that will help bring the population up to speed on the latest tech available. A series of conferences are also set to be announced in the coming months, but residents can already meet with specialists for assistance with any digital tasks they are struggling with.
The new centre is to be a place of learning and assistance. Photo credit: Manuel Vitali
“The risk of a digital divide, across the population and especially for seniors, is a reality,” said Marjorie Crovetto, Second Deputy Mayor for Monaco. “Helping people improve how they use information and communication technology day-to-day is a top priority for us.”
Her enthusiasm for the project was echoed by Martin Peronnet, Chief Executive Officer of Monaco Telecom: “As a telecommunications company, our role is about more than just connectivity. With the opening of the Maison du Numérique, our mission is to support people in this transition, providing them with the tools, knowledge and confidence needed to thrive in this new technological era.
Baby, the elephant rescued from euthanasia by Princess Stephanie a decade ago, has died suddenly, it was announced on Thursday.
Baby and Nepal were two elephants that were welcomed by Princess Stéphanie at the Fonbonne estate in Peille, Alpes Maritimes, 10 years ago on 12th June 2013.
The Baby et Népal association announced on its social networks on Thursday that Baby had passed away “suddenly” at Mont Agel.
It follows the passing of Nepal, who died on 29th April 2018 following chronic kidney failure aged 53.
The elephants were rescued from Cirque Pinder in September 2010 when blood tests wrongly concluded that they had tuberculosis. Zoo officials removed them from the public and – aged 42 and 43 – they were set to be euthanised.
But animal lover and circus advocate Princess Stephanie of Monaco took them in on the Grimaldi’s property of Fonbonne, at the top of Mont Agel.
Over the years, Princess Stephanie developed an extraordinary affection for the elephants.
It is no doubt that the princess, together with the association that she founded, are mourning the lost of Baby, who died at the age of 56.
“The whole team of the Baby and Nepal association is extremely sad to announce the sudden death of Baby,” said the association in its social media post. “After having spent a beautiful retirement at the Fontbonne area, Baby and Nepal rest in peace.”
For three months only, Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum has been transformed into a Claude Monet wonderland, with pieces painted by the Master of Impressionism that have rarely been seen in public before and others that are renowned the world over.
There’s a good reason why the Grimaldi Forum’s summer exhibitions are among the most highly regarded in the world. The giant exhibition space of 2,500sqm is given over to the work of a different artist each year, taking visitors on a unique journey into their creative universe.
This year, it is French painter Claude Monet who takes the spotlight, and through this exhibition, visitors will be able to delve deeper into the mind of the man who invented impressionist painting.
The master of impressionism Claude Monet. Photo by Monaco Life
Claude Monet was a visionary for his time. He founded and led impressionist painting and, throughout his long career, was a prolific practitioner of impressionism’s philosophy of painting nature as one perceived it, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting.
This exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is being held with the support of the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, and has been curated by Monet-specialist Marianne Mathieu. Over the space of 2,500m2, Marianne Mathieu guides visitors through the mind of Monet, so they can better understand the painter’s quest to capture light.
The exhibition has been made for Monaco and the French Riviera specifically, so it retraces the work of Monet and explores the artist’s stays on the Riviera at a pivotal moment in his life. The route, featuring nearly 100 paintings from all over the world, including many masterpieces rarely presented together – and one unpublished – it offers a new look at the work of the master of impressionism.
A Claude Monet painted series, in which he captured light at different moments on the same subject. Photo by Monaco Life
Through the spectrum of light
In 1883, halfway through his long life yet still in search of inspiration, Claude Monet made his first trip to Monaco and the Riviera, where he met his friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
He returned in 1884 and again in 1888, staying in Monaco, Roquebrune, Bordighera and Antibes, where he would feed his quest, his obsession, to capture light. The painter discovered a new palette of colours, and had difficulty painting them. It was during his last stay in Antibes in 1888 that he conceived his famous series of paintings from the Plage de la Salis – the fort of Antibes in all weathers.
“Monet’s work was very coherent, from his youth in Le Havre to the last paintings at Giverny, the painter did not seek to paint a concept but rather a moment,” explained curator Marianne Mathieu during a private press tour ahead of the official opening on 8th July. “Monet did not paint a landscape but an atmosphere. On the Riviera, between 1883 and 1888, there was a maturity, Monet found himself painting series. In Giverny, which he hardly left at the turn of the century, the painter evolved again, changed his point of view, and only painted the mirror of water. Monet abandoned panoramic views in favour of a tight frame, offering an almost abstract vision of water and its reflections. He no longer painted his garden but only the elements of water and light. He painted the picture of a floating world.”
In this exhibition, the curator invites visitors to approach Claude Monet’s work through the spectrum of light: “Let’s not ask ourselves what Monet painted but rather when he painted it.”
There are three main sections to the exhibition, each designed to shed light on Monet’s quest. Photo by Monaco Life
Works rarely exhibited together
In the section dedicated to Claude Monet’s paintings that he made during his stays on the Riviera, more than 20 exceptional works are being exhibited for the first time.
This exhibition is therefore one of the largest monographs devoted to Claude Monet seen in the past decade, and undoubtedly also the most daring, with paintings rarely shown together.
There are spaces for visitors to sit throughout the exhibition and contemplate what they are looking at. Photo by Monaco Life
Practical information
The exhibition ‘Monet: en pleine lumière’ runs from 8th July to 3rd September 2023. It is open every day from 10am to 8pm, with evening visits possible on Thursdays until 10pm.
Admission price is €14, entry is free for those under 18 years.
A reduced price of €11 is available for groups of 10 people or less, students and seniors.
TER customers can present their train ticket for that day and receive a reduced rate of €11.
Guided tours
Public guided tours are available for an additional €10 per person, Thursdays and Sundays at 10.30am, 2.30pm and 5pm, subject to availability.
Private guided tours in English or French are possible for a single price of €370 for a group of up to 25 people, in addition to the entrance price per person.
Audioguides in English or French are also available for an additional €6 and features a 45-minute narration by the curator.
Watch a short film showing the story behind the famous water lilies paintings, gifted to France during the war. Photo by Monaco Life
MONET MORNINGS
For an extra-special treat, guided tours can be taken before the exhibition opens to the general public. The package includes breakfast and a guided tour. It is available from 8.45am to 10.45am for €180 per person on 14th July, 28th July and 11th August, subject to availability.
All the latest news, developments and information from the Principality of Monaco.
Delegation in Tunisia for cooperation talks
Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Monaco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, led a delegation on a working visit to Tunisia between 3rd and 6th July.
The trip included a meeting with the Board of Directors behind MedFund, a trust fund for protected marine zones in the Mediterranean that was established by France, Monaco and Tunisia.
Berro-Amadeï also spoke on the “commitment of the Prince’s Government to entrepreneurship for women and young people in the Mediterranean region” in the context of the support given to two programmes – J-Med for youths in the Mediterranean basin and the Mediterranean New Chance Network for recruitment of young people – by the Principality.
An agreement on a project to back refugees and asylum seekers in their search for employment in Tunisia was also signed during the trip.
Excellent Baccalaureate results a testament to Monaco’s schooling system
After a round of initial results were released last week, the success rate of Monaco’s students in their Baccalaureate exams has been officially revealed. Across all streams of the Bac, there was a 98.9% pass rate and almost eight in 10 pupils received honours.
Minister of State Pierre Dartout attended a ceremony this week to commend the students who received special honours in their Baccalaureate. Photo credit: Manuel Vitali / Monaco Communications Department
Via a press statement, the Monegasque government said, “At the end of this school year, the Prince’s Government once again sends its warmest congratulations to all pupils and students whose efforts and conscientiousness have now been rewarded by results which once again are a credit to the Principality… They illustrate the quality of education in the Principality and the unwavering commitment of the teaching community and staff at schools and at the Department of Education, Youth and Sport.”
Committee for Graduate Employment reflects on a strong 2022
The 13th meeting of the Committee for Graduate Employment (CID), which was founded in 2010 as a way of facilitating “the integration into Monaco’s economy of Monegasque graduates or graduates who have links to the Principality”, took place earlier this month, with members gathering to discuss the developments and progress made in 2022.
Last year saw a significant increase in the number of internships, work-study programmes and “first job” hirings in Monaco, according to the CID.
Also discussed at the meeting was how the so-called “Generation Z” is “changing the world of work” with a unique set of workplace attributes and attitudes that is markedly different from previous age groups, such as a strong sense of self and the confidence to make requests of a potential employer that “their elders would probably not dare to formulate”.
To date, the Committee has helped over 400 young people find first-time employment.
The Committee has so far helped more than 400 young people with connections to the Principality to secure first-time employment. Photo credit: Frédéric Nebinger
€7,500 donation finances new instrument at the Académie Rainier III
The Rotary Club de Monaco has made a generous donation of €7,500 to the Académie Rainier III, enabling the prestigious music and arts school to purchase a spinet, a form of instrument from the harpsichord family.
The Club’s president, Alain Dewé, handed over the cheque in person, alongside the Rotary Club’s soon-to-be new treasurer, Marco Calégari.
Members of the Rotary Club de Monaco with Mayor Georges Marsan. Photo credit: Mairie de Monaco
Police investigators have revealed the circumstances behind the deadly car crash in the Louis II tunnel at the start of April that resulted in the deaths of the driver and his two passengers.
Since then, investigators have been piecing together the puzzle of what exactly happened in the early hours of Saturday 1st April.
Monaco’s Attorney General Morgan Raymond this week released the findings of that investigative report.
According to Monaco Matin, the three victims – all aged in their 30s – had been out partying in the Larvotto district on the evening of Friday 31st March before getting in to an Audi Q3 in the early hours of Saturday 1st April.
Investigators determined that the car was driving at 156km/h inside the Louis II tunnel, and at around 4.16am it hit the wall near the Auditorium Rainier III at 148km/h before bursting into flames.
The report also reveals that the driver’s blood alcohol level was 1.76 grams per litre. The legal limit in Monaco is 0.5 grams.
Drugs were also found in the driver’s system.
“While the accident is the consequence of a lack of control involving particularly excessive speed, this road behaviour is due to the recent and combined intake of cocaine and alcohol,” said Raymond, according to Monaco Matin.
“This [elevated] consumption is likely to remove inhibitions, increase risk-taking and reduce the feeling of danger, in short, to reinforce a feeling of omnipresence and invulnerability, a phenomenon which undeniably increases the risk of accidents.”
The fire that began almost immediately after the crash is believed to be due to petrol igniting in the engine and moving onto a damaged fuel tank.
The three men that died in the accident were a French national and two Swiss men. One was a Monaco resident, one lived in France, and one was living in Switzerland. Two worked in Monaco’s finance and banking sector.
The report ruled out suggestions that there had been a fourth person in the car in the moments before the crash.
If you missed out on tickets to Wimbledon, but find yourself hankering for some on-court action, here’s everything you need to know about the Hopman Cup, which is taking place next week in Nice.
The Hopman Cup, an exciting tennis competition where mixed gender teams play for their national country, is coming to the Nice Lawn Tennis Club from 19th to 23rd July.
HOW IT WORKS
Mixed doubles teams compete for their nations in this thrilling tournament alongside a series of men’s and women’s singles matches. Each win garners a point for the team or country.
The matches are played to the best of three sets, with a tie-break as the third set. The top teams from each group then move onto the finals until a single winning team is declared.
The tournament is attracting some big names this year, the likes of Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and his compatriot Rebeka Masarova as well as France’s Richard Gasquet and Alizé Cornet. Denmark’s Holger Rune is also expected to play.
The competition has been on hiatus for three years, so the return, which was announced in December 2022 by the International Tennis Federation, will be warmly welcomed by fans in the region and beyond.
Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi is particularly happy to have the Hopman Cup back, saying, “This event confirms once again that Nice is a privileged destination for the biggest international sporting events. After the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2020, the Top 14 semi-finals in 2022, the Hopman Cup will precede the Rugby World Cup by a few weeks, and then the arrival of the Tour de France in July 2024. Tennis is a major sport in Nice, a discipline that has a strong history, with a club that is more than a hundred years old, and great players who have marked French tennis.”
HOSPITALITY
For match-goers, there will not only be fantastic tennis viewing on offer, but top-drawer catering and live music. It’s a much more informal and relaxed occasion than some of the more highbrow tennis tournaments.
The bar will be open from 3pm for cocktails and snacks, one hour before the first match of the day, and a dinner service starts at 8pm.
DJs will keep the party going at night in a dedicated, on-site lounge area.
For tickets and more information, please click here.
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