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Day: 9 September 2026

From Rolling Stones to Whitney Houston: New Moods unveiles new line-up

by: Cassandra Tanti
09/09/2026

On one small stage off the Place du Casino this winter, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and Whitney Houston will each take a turn — a bill no promoter alive could ever assemble, and precisely the conceit at the heart of New Moods, the Monte-Carlo live-music room that returns on 1st October for a third season built entirely on tribute acts.

Revived in 2024 by Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, the intimate venue runs Thursday to Saturday evenings through to 27th March, and this year casts its net wider than ever — from uncanny stand-ins for today’s biggest names to affectionate revivals of the greats who can no longer tour.

From Ed Sheeran to Elvis

The season opens with an Ed Sheeran tribute from 1st to 3rd October and barely pauses for breath: ABBA, Madonna and an Amy Winehouse night follow in the same month, before a run that takes in Céline Dion, Lady Gaga, Johnny Hallyday, Sting and a Coldplay tribute to close out December. The new year brings Whitney Houston, Dire Straits, Depeche Mode, Queen, Bob Marley, Elvis Presley and U2, before the curtain comes down on 26th and 27th March with a Rolling Stones tribute. French and Italian chanson gets its due throughout, with nights devoted to Michel Sardou, France Gall, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Francis Cabrel and Eros Ramazzotti.

Homegrown talent, too

It is not all impersonation. The programme leaves room for Monaco’s own scene, with an ‘MC Talents’ showcase on 25th February and a set from the local rock band Rabata Roca the night after.

The venue’s revival was led by SBM chairman and chief executive Stéphane Valeri, while the season is curated by the group’s artistic director, Alfonso Ciulla, and the room is run by director Stéphane Lobono.

Dinner, families and private hire

To go with the music, Victor Marion, head chef at the Café de Paris Monte-Carlo, has devised a new sharing menu. The venue also stages two family days — a Halloween afternoon for children aged 4 to 12 on 28th October and a Christmas one for younger children on 20th December — and can be hired privately year-round for between 40 and 200 guests.

New Moods is on the Place du Casino, open Thursday to Saturday from 7.30pm to midnight between 1st October and 27th March, with a minimum spend of €65 per person including food, drinks and entertainment. Reservations are on +377 98 06 20 08.

Monaco Life is written by qualified journalists, writing original content. Sign up for our free newsletter, listen to our podcasts on Spotify, and follow us across Facebook,  Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok. 

Photo: Coldplay tribute band at New Moods, source: MCSBM

Ironman World Championship to bring 5,500 athletes, and major road closures around Nice

by: Cassandra Tanti
09/09/2026

More than 5,500 professional and amateur triathletes from over 100 countries will compete in Nice when the Ironman 70.3 World Championship returns to the Côte d’Azur on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September.

The women will race on Saturday, followed by the men on Sunday, over a 113-kilometre course stretching from the Baie des Anges into the hills behind Nice and back to the Promenade des Anglais.

For residents travelling between Monaco, Nice and the western Alpes-Maritimes, the championship will also bring extensive road closures affecting the seafront, the lower Var valley and roads around Vence throughout the weekend.

From the Mediterranean to the Col de Vence

Each race begins with a 1.9-kilometre swim from Plage des Ponchettes in the Baie des Anges. Athletes will then leave Nice for a 90-kilometre cycling course containing approximately 1,190 metres of elevation gain. Most of the climbing comes during the first half, culminating in the ascent of the Col de Vence.

The climb begins around kilometre 26.6 and continues for 9.7 kilometres at an average gradient of 6.6%, with some sections approaching 10% and the steepest exceeding 12%.

After passing Coursegoules, competitors face an increasingly fast and technical descent towards the Var valley and Nice. The final discipline is a flat 21.1-kilometre run completed over two laps of the Promenade des Anglais, where the world champions will be crowned.

Leading triathletes head to Nice

The professional field will compete for a total prize purse of $500,000, with $75,000 awarded to each of the men’s and women’s champions.

Among the leading names announced for Nice are three-time defending women’s champion Taylor Knibb and Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt, the Olympic champion and former full-distance Ironman world champion.

The men’s field also includes defending champion Jelle Geens, 2025 Ironman world champion Casper Stornes, two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion Gustav Iden and Germany’s Rico Bogen.

Nice previously hosted the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in 2019, when Gustav Iden and Daniela Ryf claimed the titles.

Major disruption across Nice and the hinterland

Traffic restrictions will begin before race weekend as organisers install the start, transition and finish infrastructure. The City of Nice has warned that the Promenade des Anglais and Promenade Corniglion Molinier will be affected on both Saturday and Sunday, with diversions operating while the cycling and running events are underway.

Quai des États-Unis, Avenue Max Gallo, Avenue de Verdun, Avenue du Capitaine Ferber, Port de Carras and several streets around the Old Town and port will also be closed or restricted at various times. Access arrangements for the Sulzer and Port Lympia car parks will be modified.

Beyond Nice, roads will be affected through Saint-Laurent-du-Var, La Gaude, Saint-Jeannet, Vence, Coursegoules, Le Broc, Carros and Gattières.

The Route de Saint-Jeannet between Vence and Saint-Jeannet will be completely closed along the race route on both days. Restrictions will also apply to sections of the Route de Nice, Route de Cagnes, Route de Saint-Laurent and Route de la Baronne.

The authorities are advising drivers to avoid the course, allow additional travel time and use public transport or park-and-ride facilities where possible. Roads in the hinterland will generally reopen between 5pm and 8.30am.

Monaco Life is written by qualified journalists, writing original content. Sign up for our free newsletter, listen to our podcasts on Spotify, and follow us across Facebook,  Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok. 

Photo source: Ironman

Renoir paintings worth millions stolen in French Riviera art heist

by: Cassandra Tanti
09/09/2026

Four paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir were stolen from the museum dedicated to the artist in Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, early on Tuesday, though the thieves dropped two of them as they fled, leaving two works still missing.

Two intruders broke into the Musée Renoir shortly before 6am, cutting through a fence to reach the grounds through the garden and slicing the clips that held the paintings in their frames, according to the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Bryan Masson. The museum’s alarm was triggered at 5.48am and police arrived within five minutes — an intervention the mayor said “forced the burglars to flee in haste and helped limit the scale of the theft”. Two canvases were recovered in the garden; the other two were gone, and a manhunt is under way. Reports valued the stolen works at an estimated €9 million.

Masson described the raiders as “well-equipped” and “well-informed”, and said they had timed the break-in to coincide with a change of security shift. Their identities remain unknown.

“Attacking the Renoir museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” the mayor said.

The house where Renoir spent his final years

The museum occupies Les Collettes, the hillside estate where Renoir lived out the last years of his life and died in 1919, and which opened as a museum in 1960. It holds around a dozen of the artist’s paintings alongside sculptures, furniture and photographs, and was closed on Tuesday as the investigation got under way.

Inside the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, photo by Monaco Life

Part of a wider wave of thefts

The raid is the latest in a run of brazen museum thefts across France and Europe. Last October, thieves made off with French crown jewels valued at €88 million from the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon in Paris in a raid lasting minutes, and in March three paintings — among them a Renoir — were stolen from a private foundation near Parma in Italy. Europol warned last month that specialist gangs were increasingly giving way to opportunists recruited through social media.

Mayor Masson called for tighter security at museums across the country. “This incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums, which now face a new form of organised crime targeting works of art,” he said.

Monaco Life is written by qualified journalists, writing original content. Sign up for our free newsletter, listen to our podcasts on Spotify, and follow us across Facebook,  Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok. 

Main photo by Monaco Life