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Month: January 2024

Green Globe recognitions take Monte-Carlo SBM one step closer to eco goals

by: Niki Borisova
04/01/2024

Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, Monaco’s biggest hotel and restaurant portfolio, is celebrating a significant milestone in its journey towards becoming the world’s first completely Green Globe-certified resort with a raft of new and renewed certifications from the sustainability-focused brand. 

The Green Globe certification standard, which assesses environmental impact and energy usage in hospitality establishments and groups around the world, is widely recognised as a reputable global benchmark for excellent sustainability practices in tourism.  

Its latest round of certifications have just been announced, and the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) resort has performed very well.  

Among the biggest winners are the Hôtel Hermitage, which received gold level certification for its five consecutive years of environmental commitments, while Monte-Carlo Beach has been awarded platinum status after a decade of sustainable practices. Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort is also poised to attain platinum status within the month.  

Other SBM properties, including the Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo and the Café de Paris Monte-Carlo, have also been awarded Green Globe certifications. This recognition extends to the One Monte-Carlo conference centre and the Aigue Marine headquarters, indicating a widespread commitment to sustainable practices across SBM’s diverse portfolio. The Casino de Monte-Carlo is currently in the process of obtaining its first certification. 

“The final objective is to become the world’s first completely Green Globe-certified resort,” said a spokesperson for SBM of the recent recognitions.  

 

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Photo credit: Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer

Football: Gelson Martins leaves AS Monaco for Olympiacos

by: Niki Borisova
04/01/2024

Portuguese midfielder Gelson Martins is to move to Greek side Olympiacos FC after four years with AS Monaco. The 28-year-old joined the Principality team in 2019 for a reported €30 million fee, but this transfer is rumoured to have been agreed for a much reduced €3 million. 

On 2nd January, AS Monaco confirmed in a press release that Martins would be leaving the side for Olympiacos.

The player came to Monaco back in 2019 from Atlético Madrid in a transfer that reportedly cost the Principality’s football club in the region of €30 million.

During his time in Monaco, Martins wore the Rouge et Blanc kit 129 times and scored 16 goals as well as helping 14 more on their way to the back of the net, but had been noticeably absent from games in recent months.

“By signing up with Oympiakos, currently third in the Elláda Superleague and the most successful club in Greek football history, the 28-year-old attacking midfielder is now preparing to discover a fourth league after Portugal, Spain and France,” said the Monegasque team via an official statement. “AS Monaco wishes him every success for the rest of his career.”

 

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Photo credit: AS Monaco Football

The winter sales have begun in Monaco

by: Stephanie Horsman
04/01/2024

The Soldes d’Hiver – or Winter Sales in English – officially began in Monaco on 2nd January, giving shoppers who didn’t get their fill during the Christmas period a chance at nabbing some amazing deals from their favourite brands and shops.  

Monaco’s sales periods are set by ministerial decree and are limited to two sessions each year. In 2024, the winter sales will be taking place until 15th February, while the summer dates have already been set for 28th June to 12th August.  

Merchants selling sporting goods, however, have a different schedule this winter. Sales for this sector are delayed until 15th February and will run to 31st March. The summer schedule syncs up with the rest of the retail industry.  

RETAIL COMPETITION 

Monegasque businesses have the jump on the French, whose winter sales don’t begin until 10th January and run only until 6th February.

“We start the sales earlier and we end them later. It is a small advantage,” says Alexandre Pasta, the president of the Union des Commerçants et Artisans de Monaco. “People wait for this period to get good deals.” 

See more: A guide to the best shopping malls in and around Monaco

The competition from online retailers is, nonetheless, still a present threat.  

“We are facing a dilemma. The internet is a source of competition, but merchants are rethinking and expanding their offerings through these channels,” says Pasta. 

But despite these challenges, the retail industry is strong in Monaco and 2023 was a positive year for its shop owners and franchises.  

“We know that Monaco is a diamond and that our merchants will continue to have shops,” he concludes.  

 

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Photo by Monaco Life

Where to find Monaco’s Christmas tree collection points

by: Niki Borisova
04/01/2024

Before it’s reduced to a pile of pine needles on the living floor, now is the perfect time to turn your Christmas tree into compost that can be used in the parks and gardens of Monaco and the surrounding area. Here’s how.

Until 26th January, the Mairie de Monaco, in collaboration with the Société Monégasque d’Assainissement and the Monegasque government, is running a Christmas tree recycling scheme that allows residents to freely and, more importantly, ecologically, dispose of their natural Christmas trees.

11 drop-off zones across the Principality are now up and running: Place Saint-Nicolas, Place Sainte-Dévote, the Jardins d’Apolline intersection of the Promenade Honoré II, Allée Saint Jean-Paul II, Esplanade Albert 1° opposite the Casino supermarket, Boulevard du Larvotto before the Rue du Portier junction, Place des Moulins, Pont Sainte-Dévote at the upper entrance of the SNCF station, Place Saint-Charles, Boulevard de Belgique next to the Bosio bus stop and Avenue Hector Otto near Escorial. 

The idea is to encourage people to drop off their Christmas trees at dedicated sites rather than dumping them in rubbish bins or at the déchèterie.  

In the past, the trees collected have been transported to a composting centre in Carros where they are transformed into useful mulch and other easily biodegradable materials that can be used in gardens and parks.  

 

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Photo source: Mairie de Monaco

Carmen review: Sensual innuendoes turn into nightmare

by: Celina Lafuente de Lavotha
04/01/2024

Carmen, on the program until 4th January at the Grimaldi Forum, was reinvented by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger and performed by the dancers of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Manuel Coves. 

The legendary Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera.

Swedish choreographer John Inger takes on the mythical saga entrenched in Spanish culture and chooses to unveil his tragic heroine through the eyes of an innocent child, playing the role of a witness, enveloping the esoteric whirls of seduction and violence into total conundrum.

Photo credit: Alice Blangero

If Bizet’s version of Mérimée’s popular novel shocked its Paris audience back in 1875 with its crazed sensuality, Inger’s version if original, is even more barbarous than beautiful, more calamitous than sensual.

This mythical piece, originally developed for the Compaňia  Nacional de Danza that premiered in Madrid in 2015, is accentuated by the wild agility of the talented dancers from the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, exerting superb control over every muscle of their bodies.

Photo credit: Alice Blangero

In the last devastating dance, when Carmen succumbs in the hands of Don Jose, dancers spin like intermeshed automates, on the border of terrifying.

David Delfin has created an atemporal dress code in red, white and black; the re-staging play of mirrors proliferating the silhouettes to infinity; precious light spectrum between colourful bursts and black demonic shadows — the coalition of hot and cold gives a different life to the ballet which intensifies energy an lushness.

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Main photo credit: Alice Blangero

 

Salim Zeghdar officially becomes one of Prince Albert’s closest allies

by: Cassandra Tanti
04/01/2024

Following the shock departure of Claude Palmero in 2023, Salim Zeghdar, appointed acting Administrator of the Prince’s Assets, has been officially elevated to the key role by Sovereign Ordinance.

It is official. Salim Zeghdar has become one of the most powerful men in Prince Albert’s inner circle.

After accepting an acting role on 7th June 2023 following the controversial ousting of Claude Palmero, Salim Zeghdar was appointed Administrator of the Prince’s Assets (l’administrateur des biens) by Sovereign Ordinance No. 10.283, published in the Journal de Monaco on 22nd December 2023.

At the same time, Valentina Franco was appointed Assistant (Attaché) to the Administrator of the Prince’s Assets, effective 1st January 2024.

Who is Salim Zeghdar?

Salim Zeghdar was born 8th August 1970 in Monaco. On Friday 5th July 2019 in the Journal de Monaco, it was confirmed that Zeghdar had been naturalised as a Monegasque citizen.

The 53-year-old is a well-known local figure, most notably as deputy president of the luxury trade show Top Marques, as well as managing director of Monaco Live Productions, and most recently as general director of the newly-launched TV Monaco.

Salim Zeghdar’s role now is to manage the personal fortune of the Prince, the Princely Family, and that of the Sovereign House.

The controversy continues

Claude Palmero, 67, was a key figure in the Palace for 22 years, first serving under Prince Rainier III and then his son, Sovereign Prince Albert II.

After becoming embroiled in the so-called ‘Rock Files’ (Dossiers du Rocher), a series of unverified leaked documents alleging corruption at the highest levels, Palmero was relieved from his position on 7th June 2023.

Claiming innocence, Palmero lodged an appeal against his dismissal with Monaco’s constitutional court, known as the Supreme Tribunal, on 13th July, seeking one million euros in compensation and his reinstatement. His case was rejected. Palmero has since indicated that he will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.   

Meanwhile, Prince Albert, together with his sisters Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, are reportedly taking legal action against Palmero.

In an interview with Monaco Matin in November 2023, the Prince said that an audit had been conducted on the ‘Sovereign Household’ following Palmero’s sacking, prompting the Princely family to file a “criminal complaint”.

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Photo of Salim Zeghdar at the press launch of Top Marques in 2023, by Monaco Life