The second leg of the Monte-Carlo Summer Festival has a very eclectic and international line-up. Here are the dates and names you need to know about.
Mika is kicking off the second half of Société des Bains de Mer’s Monte-Carlo Summer Festival on Friday 4th August. Vibrant, joyful and more than a little eccentric, the pop star, musician and songwriter will be playing to a crowd at the Salle des Étoiles from 10.30pm, but the dinner portion of the night starts at 8pm. Tickets are still available and cost €360 per person.
Next up on Tuesday 8th August is magnetic Italian star Eros Ramazzotti, who is stopping off for a special performance in Monaco’s Salle des Étoiles as part of his Battito Infinito World Tour. This is another dinner show, with doors opening at 8pm. Ramazzotti regularly sells out his European shows so book your tickets now – seats cost €400 per person – if you want a chance to see the icon on stage.
Then on Saturday 12th August is Nile Rodgers & CHIC, also at the Salle des Étoiles with the same times as above. The composer, producer and prodigious guitarist has sold 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide, so it’ll be a real treat to experience the talent of this award-winning artist in such an intimate setting. Tickets to see the legendary Nile Rodgers are still available for €360.
And wrapping up this year’s Monte-Carlo Summer Festival is Turkey’s “megastar” of Tarkan on Saturday 19th August. He’ll also be performing at the Salle des Étoiles, the night starting at 8pm, and tickets cost €460.
For more high tempo action at the Salle des Étoiles, be sure to check out our article on the much-awaited debut of Flavio Briatore’s Billionaire.
Most of the time, MoNa Restaurant is an exclusive “family kitchen” for the ultra-wealthy residents of the stunning MoNa tower. But at night, Chef Tristan Romain opens his kitchen to all who are looking to enjoy this delicious mix of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine.
MoNa Restaurant feels like a hot little secret, a hidden oasis in the Saint Roman neighbourhood of Monaco. Even the front door of the restaurant, located on the ground floor of this new high-end residential building, inconspicuously looks the same as every other front door in the towering 22-story building.
Like the architectural marvel designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte in which it is located, the MoNa Restaurant is elegant and welcoming; “relaxed refinement” is how Interior Designer Rashid Rivani describes it. “The MoNa Residence site is rich, the architecture is marked. It therefore sets a common thread to develop the aesthetics of the restaurant,” says Rivani. “There is an artist that I adore, Daniel Buren, who left his mark on MoNa Residence with his stripes, sequences, and rhythms, with a predominantly green colour-code carried by the green marble of the Alps, one of my favourite colours.”
MoNa Residence, image supplied
The restaurant appropriates these details firstly in the welcome space that has been designed in the spirit of an English pub. A green stained-glass window above the main bench seat commands the attention of all who arrive here, filtering natural light and bouncing reflections of infinite variations. It contributes to the creation of an atmosphere that is intimate and inviting.
Green Vert des Alpes marble features on the floors and benchtops, cocooning the restaurant in a luxurious warmth, while large bay windows and expansive glass make the room feel larger than what it is.
A terrace completes this oasis in the residential centre of Monaco.
“It’s a soothing character for visitors, and a familiar continuity for residents,” says Laurent Michaud, restaurant manager. “Carried by this atmosphere, residents come to the restaurant as if they were going to their own dining room. They are still at home without being in their residence. The nature of the dishes we offer retains this spirit, this conviviality, without ostentation, but which does not sacrifice anything in the refinement necessary for quality cuisine.”
MoNa Head Chef Tristan Romain, photo by Monaco Life
It is Chef Tristan Romain’s mission to strike the right balance in his menu between familiarity and innovation; comfort and excitement.
“The challenge we have being a residence restaurant is that people can become bored with the menu. That’s why we have suggestions that change every week,” acknowledges Chef Romain. “We are starting to know our resident customers now and what their preferences are, so we try to satisfy them as best we can. We also do off-the-card dishes and get them the products that they like. We don’t do extravagance, but we try our best to satisfy them every day, because in addition to the restaurant we also have room service.”
Many dishes to share in the restaurant are served on wooden trays placed in the centre of the table. It encourages people to talk and interact as they take from the platter, and to try new things. Middle-eastern driven plates of pita, mezze, falafel, and bread baked on site daily harmoniously meet Mediterranean favourites like vitello tonnato, burrata with tomatoes, trofie al pesto, and penne arrabbiata, each dish intoxicatingly rich in flavour as the last.
Middle Eastern is clearly a specialty of this vegan-conscious chef, photo supplied
Vegetables, fruits, spices and herbs are the chef’s preferred produce, his “signature” if he were to have one, which he prefers not to. But his philosophy, and love of vegan food, goes down well with the health-conscious clientele.
“Our signature here is not necessarily the dish, but the atmosphere that you find. Although the food is very good and vegetable-focussed, our signature is more that we try to create a moment, an atmosphere. We are a young, dynamic team and it is this overall experience that is the signature of MoNa.”
The bar marries excellent cocktails, like the signature gin, mint and elderflower, with freshly blended fruit juices, for a rounded dining experience.
The main dining room is sophisticated and welcoming, photo supplied
New sustainable residence with quality services
MoNa Restaurant completes the high-end services on offer at the MoNa Residence, which also include indoor and outdoor pools, spa, cinema room, and a concierge partnership where anything is available upon request.
“Our objective is to give our residents who travel around the world and who have very high evaluation criteria the assurance of finding what they need, at any time, at home,” explains Aileen Fabre, commercial director of Immobilier Pastor. “With MoNa Restaurant, we are deepening our relationship with our guests, because there is nothing more convivial than offering and sharing a meal.”
The cosy terrace of MoNa Restaurant, photo supplied
MoNa Restaurant welcomes residents of MoNa Residence from 7am to 10:30pm. From midday, the restaurant also serves residents of the entire Michel Pastor Group real estate portfolio.
Then, from 7pm, the restaurant is open to everyone, by reservation. There’s even a delivery service with Delovery for people to enjoy MoNa Restaurant anywhere in Monaco.
See more in our Instagram video below. Click here if you don’t see the post.
The Scientific Centre of Monaco has received a €50,000 boost from the Savchuk Foundation, which will help further its research into treatments to stop brain cancers in children before they take hold.
Brain cancer’s most aggressive forms prey on young children, sometimes infants, and many types remain uncurable, leading to heartache and heartbreak over the tragic loss of young life.
CSM’S SPECIALISED DEPARTMENT
The Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM) has a special Stem Cell and Brain Tumours team within its medical biology department, and one of its principal focuses is looking at ways to reproduce the early events, such as a blockage in an embryonic state, that lead to brain cancer in children in a controlled laboratory setting.
Headed up by Doctor Vincent Picco, the research could lead to increased understanding on how these cancers start, as well as provide real treatment and prevention solutions.
““We use human neural stem cells whose properties are very similar to those of embryonic cells which will form the brain. In particular, they have the ability to proliferate and specialise in the different cell types found in the brain,” Dr Picco explains. “However, when we experimentally deprive them of their ability to specialise, the cells thus stuck in a proliferative embryonic stem state become capable of forming tumours.”
The new techniques developed at the CSM are helping its scientists to understand the early phases and specificities of paediatric brain cancers, assist in the creation of revolutionary therapeutic approaches and allow the centre to conduct the necessary studies to find ways to fight these very specific cancers.
Though the developments are promising, investment is needed to take these studies to the next level.
FUNDING INJECTION
Enter the Savchuk Foundation, an organisation that backs projects of this kind, and which recently held a fundraiser at the CSM. The event brought in an incredible €50,000, making it possible to continue and even accelerate the current stages of the overall project.
The Savchuk Foundation promotes “educational, sporting and scientific projects where everyone’s energies are combined in order to go ever further in the mobilisation against disease”. It was created in tribute to Aleksandr Savchuk, who died in 2014.
Make sure you’re never left out of the conversation.
Excessive or strong turbulence has increased in frequency by as much as 55% in the last 40 years, according to UK-based researchers, and climate change could be at the root of the phenomenon.
Air travel has made a spectacular comeback after the pandemic years, with millions making the most of opportunities to get away to see friends and family or to escape to destinations known and unknown.
Whilst this is great for the travel industry, it may be more of a mixed bag for travellers, whose experiences are being coloured by excessive turbulence in the skies.
WORRIES
Researchers from Britain’s University of Reading have been looking into the phenomenon. According to the data collected, they say that incidents of strong turbulent events over the Northern hemisphere have gone up by 55% over the past 40 years. They cite climate change as the cause, and they say it is only going to get worse.
In March of this year, seven people were sent to hospital after a Lufthansa flight from Texas to Germany hit a rough patch. In another similar incident, dozens were injured on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix to Honolulu in December 2022.
JET STREAMING
Pilots have traditionally used the Earth’s air flow patterns, called jet streams, to allow faster and easier west to east travel. The jet streams, though, are becoming more and more prone to clear-air turbulence, undetectable by radar, and pose challenges to pilots who get caught out by unexpected events.
“The jet stream, which is this fast-flowing band, is getting more chaotic and stronger with global tropospheric warming,” University of Reading’s Isabel Smith told AccuWeather. “As you’re flying, [clear-air turbulence] can come out of nowhere, hit the aircraft quite suddenly, and you don’t have time to put the seatbelt sign on.”
SOLUTIONS?
Flying outside jet streams is a potential solution, but not a good one, say the experts, as flights would use more fuel to power the engines, thus contributing to the climate changes that are causing turbulence in the first place.
“We’ll probably end up with more convoluted, longer flight routes, longer waiting times, and flights will become more expensive,” said Smith.
Future planes may be built with technology to better detect turbulence, but for now, the best advice to keep from getting injured is to keep seatbelts on at all times.
Make sure you’re never left out of the conversation.
Jazmin Grimaldi, the oldest child of Prince Albert, has joined the historic Hollywood double strike in Los Angeles, sharing the action on the ground with her fans on social media.
The younger Grimaldi has taken part in the strike since the start on 13th July, when SAG-AFTA, the union that comprises the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, officially initiated the action to push for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Following in the footsteps of her grandmother Princess Grace of Monaco, Jazmin is an actress and singer who has appear in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,Cicada, The Scarlet M and Millie’s Big Day.
She was raised in the United States by her mother Tamara Rotolo.
The 31-year-old actor has kept her social media followers up to do date with videos of all the action from the strike, often with her dog “little bear pomsky”. In one, she writes: “We can ACT, We can WRITE But NOW We have to STRIKE!!!”
Some 65,000 Hollywood actors have taken up the picket signs, bringing productions to a halt as they fight for higher pay amid inflation and a rapidly evolving entertainment industry.
Performers say the annual pay they’ve come to rely on, which is based on residuals from movie and television appearances, has plummeted in the age of streaming, making it impossible for the vast majority of actors to earn a living.
The 92nd edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally will go in search of snow, the Automobile Club of Monaco has announced.
14 stages, 17 specials, and hopefully more snow. That’s the idea behind next year’s Monte-Carlo Rally route, which will see the cars travel through five French departments.
The curtain-raiser of the 2024 World Rally Car (WRC) season will, as always, begin in Casino Square. Starting in the Principality on Thursday 25th January 2024, the cars will soon be at altitude. The grid will go to the west, and east of Gap, a partner city that hosted the Rally between 2014 and 2021.
Photo credit: Ivan Blanco Vilar
It is hoped that the return to Gap will bring with it more snow, with the ACM wanting the elements to play a greater role in the iconic rally series. The Rally will go through Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Drôme and Isère, before heading back to the Principality on Sunday 28th January.
Three stages, between Gap and Monaco, will conclude the event before the trophy ceremony in Casino Square on the Sunday afternoon as Sébastien Ogier looks to defend his crown.
