Open to hospitality professionals aged 28 and under who work in Monaco’s restaurants, hotels and bars, the competition is free to enter and, now in its third year, has become a fixture of the Principality’s hospitality calendar. It aims to uncover young talent and promote careers in the industry.
A place at the world final
The winning chef, waiter and mixologist will go on to represent Monaco as a team at the YYY World final in London, where the top prize is €15,000. The global competition, founded in the UK in 1979, brings together national winners from around the world.
Building on a silver medal
Monaco has form. Earlier this year, the team that won the 2025 national selection took second place at the world final in London: Clara Germain, a private chef and owner of Gioia; Clara Babkine, demi-chef de rang at Le Louis XV-Alain Ducasse à l’Hôtel de Paris; and Eric Maccario, mixologist at the Buddha-Bar Monte-Carlo, finishing runners-up against dozens of competitors from nine nations.
Robert Lee Mulcahy, president of YYY Monaco, said the competition had become an important annual event for the Principality. “The aim is to support the industry, with a platform, for their young professionals to compete and show how they excel in their chosen career,” he said.
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Photo source: YYY
How to get to the Monaco Yacht Show without the parking headache
Parking and traffic in Monaco are notoriously difficult during the Monaco Yacht Show, and with this year’s edition drawing crowds to Port Hercule from 23rd to 26th September, the Prince’s Government is urging visitors to leave the car at home. Free buses across the network and a park-and-ride at the edge of the city are being promoted as the simplest ways to reach the show without joining the queues.
Travel on the Compagnie des Autobus de Monaco (CAM) network is free from 18th to 30th September, covering the build-up, the show itself and the dismantling afterwards. The free travel applies to every line, including the bus boat, the N1 and N2 night services and the on-demand ClicBus — part of a wider government scheme that waives bus fares during the Principality’s major events. For those coming from further afield, the government points to the train and the regional Zou! bus network as the best-suited options on the busiest days.
If you must drive: the Salines park-and-ride
Drivers who cannot avoid bringing a car are steered towards the Parking des Salines, the park-and-ride at the western entrance to the Principality, reached via the Albert II tunnel or the Jardin Exotique roundabout. With ample capacity, it lets visitors skip city-centre traffic and reach the Port Hercule show site quickly, on foot or by CAM bus, at rates the show’s organisers say are up to 50% cheaper than central car parks.
Since April 2025, spaces can be booked in advance through the resa.parkings.mc platform, for anything from half a day to 14 days, with preferential rates and unlimited entries and exits during the reserved slot. Outside the free-bus periods, drivers parking at the Salines can also claim a 10-journey pass for the entire bus network on presentation of their parking ticket — a benefit that runs year-round.
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Photo by Monaco Life
France’s new ambassador presents his credentials to Prince Albert II
France’s new ambassador to Monaco, Christophe Lemoine, formally began his mission in the Principality on Thursday 17th September, presenting his letters of credence to Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene at the Prince’s Palace. The ceremony marks the official start of his posting; he succeeds Jean d’Haussonville, who served as France’s ambassador to Monaco for three years.
Lemoine, 52, took up the post on 1st September, following his appointment by French presidential decree in August. Before arriving in Monaco he served as an inspector of foreign affairs, and his earlier postings include Consul General of France in Los Angeles and deputy head of the French Embassy in Rome. In Paris, he was spokesperson for the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs — the Quai d’Orsay — and its director of communication, and earlier served as chief of staff to the then foreign minister, Laurent Fabius. A graduate of Sciences Po Bordeaux and the Sorbonne, he began his career with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees before joining the French foreign ministry.
A dense bilateral relationship
He takes up a post at the centre of one of France’s closest bilateral relationships. The two countries are bound by more than 200 treaties and agreements covering areas including taxation, social security, policing, healthcare, education and cross-border employment, and tens of thousands of French residents commute into Monaco for work each day.
Around 8,200 French nationals live in the Principality. France’s representation in Monaco was raised from a consulate general to a full embassy in 2006, following the friendship and cooperation treaty signed by the two countries in 2002.
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Monaco’s real estate sector saw its revenue fall to just under €1.1 billion in 2025, as a slowdown in property development and home sales weighed on one of the Principality’s key industries, official figures show.
Turnover across the sector dropped 5.1% on the year, according to the statistics institute IMSEE — a shallower decline than the 7.6% fall recorded across Monaco’s wider private economy, and one that reflects the sector’s business activity rather than property prices.
Fewer new apartments
The largest part of the sector — the firms that own property and develop projects — accounts for 56.5% of revenue and fell 16.8% to €609.8 million. Property development alone was down 10.3% at €329.7 million, which IMSEE attributed to the completion of several major building programmes and, as a result, fewer new apartments delivered during the year.
Revenue from the buying and selling of property fell further still, down 23.3% to €280 million, also linked to weaker new-home sales. The number of firms trading property has been declining since 2021, a trend the institute connects to a 2024 law tightening the rules for property dealers.
Rentals and management grow
Other parts of the sector expanded. Work carried out for third parties — estate agency, brokerage and building management — rose 22.8% to €268 million, while renting out and operating property grew 8.2% to €201.3 million. These steadier, recurring activities offset some of the fall in one-off development and sales income.
Jobs still rising
The sector continued to hire even as its revenue fell. It employed 1,904 people in 2025, up 2.5%, at a time when private-sector employment across Monaco fell 1.2%, while the number of employers held steady at 462. Most of those jobs are in third-party services, which make up 87% of the workforce, led by building and co-ownership management. Property development employs far fewer people but saw the fastest growth, up 17.9%.
An older, more Monegasque workforce
IMSEE said the sector’s staff were older, and included more Monegasque nationals, than the private sector as a whole. Workers aged 45 and over made up 59.3% of the total, against 45.2% across the private sector, while Monegasque nationals accounted for 21.6% of employees — more than double their share of the wider workforce. Italians were also over-represented, at 20.5%.
The institute cautioned that Monaco adopted a new activity classification, NAF 2025, in January 2026 and recalculated the sector’s results, so the figures cannot be compared with its earlier reports.
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Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
Navigating the future: Inside the 2026 Cannes Yachting Festival
The 49th Cannes Yachting Festival concluded its six-day run on 13th September, welcoming 56,000 international visitors and cementing its position as Europe’s largest in-water boat show.Â
Port Canto. Photo credit: Cannes Yachting Festival 2026
Divided waters, unified scale
Spanning 100,000 square metres of exhibition space, the dual-site layout divided the event between the Vieux Port and Port Canto. The Vieux Port served as the showcase for motor yachts measuring 12 to 50 metres, alongside thirty multi-hulled motor designs featured in the Power Cat Village.
Across the bay, Port Canto brought together the sailing and compact craft sectors. The dedicated sailing area presented 120 new sailboats and multihulls exceeding 10 metres, complemented by a marina for 180 motorboats up to 13 metres, a brokerage section featuring 45 pre-owned yachts over 25 metres, and an expanded water sports arena.Â
In total, the exhibition gathered 95 catamarans—including 51 sailing and 44 motor models—reflecting the broad spectrum of vessels on display.
Photo credit: Cannes Yachting Festival 2026
The green transition and slow yachting
The 2026 edition functioned as a barometer for a marine industry undergoing profound structural change. Rather than pinning its hopes on a single silver bullet, the sector’s environmental transition emerged as a mosaic of complementary technologies: hybrid drive systems, solar integration, recyclable battery banks, hydrogeneration, and low-impact hull coatings.
Simultaneously, a cultural shift towards ‘slow yachting’ captured the imagination of designers and buyers alike. Prioritising acoustic comfort, autonomy, and deliberate itinerary planning over high-speed transit, modern vessels were increasingly conceptualised as floating sanctuaries rather than mere vectors of velocity.
Innovation Route Awards winners. Photo credit: Cannes Yachting Festival 2026
Recognising industry excellence
This spirit of innovation found formal recognition through the Innovation Route Awards. Selected from 120 entries by a panel of marine professionals and specialist journalists, five standout projects were celebrated during the opening days. BlueNav claimed the navigation equipment prize for its Smart Mooring system—a high-tech automation and positioning assistance technology designed to make docking and harbour maneuvers much easier and safer, while Suzuki Marine secured the sustainable product award with its Edge ECoat. Excess Catamarans triumphed in the innovative boat category with the Excess 11, D-Marin earned recognition for its Biohut biodiversity initiative, and Azimut Yachts walked away with the special jury prize for the imposing Grande 44M—a high-profile, four-deck vessel that represents a major step forward in large-yacht design and engineering.
Adding further weight to the capital’s international calendar, the festival also hosted the revelation of the 31 finalists for the Best of Boats Award 2026, reinforcing Cannes as the essential launchpad for European marine manufacturing.
As exhibitors dismantle their stands and industry analysts evaluate the commercial impact of nearly 150 world premieres, planning is already underway for the milestone 50th edition.Â
Scheduled for 7th to 12th September 2027, the anniversary event will mark half a century of maritime heritage while looking ahead to the future of the sector.
Prince Albert II has visited the first major retrospective devoted to French painter Éva Gonzalès, whose family had deep roots in Monaco, with several works from the Princely Collections featuring in the Paris exhibition.
Open to the public from 15th September 2026 to 24th January 2027, the exhibition seeks to restore Gonzalès to her place in 19th-century French art and examine a career that developed within a cultural world largely dominated by men.
An artist with deep ties to Monaco
Born in Paris in 1847, Gonzalès was the daughter of novelist and journalist Emmanuel Gonzalès. A bust of her father stands in Monaco’s Saint-Martin Gardens.
The family descended from a Spanish lineage established in the Principality in the early 17th century, when a Spanish royal garrison was stationed on the Rock to help defend Monaco’s sovereignty.
Although often associated with Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, Gonzalès pursued a distinct artistic path. She studied under Édouard Manet and was his only formally recognised pupil, but developed an independent body of work encompassing paintings and pastels.
Her career was cut short when she died in 1883 at the age of 36.
The Princely Collections hold around 10 paintings by Gonzalès, while the Palace Archives preserve a collection of family documents connected to her Monegasque ancestry.
Prince Albert is an important lender to the exhibition, allowing works from Monaco’s collections to contribute to what the Petit Palais describes as the first major retrospective devoted to Gonzalès in France or internationally.
The exhibition brings together works from different stages of her career, placing greater emphasis on Gonzalès as an artist in her own right rather than viewing her primarily through her relationship with Manet.
Following its run in Paris, an adapted version of the exhibition will be presented at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from February 2027.
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