Prince Jacques, the 11-year-old heir to the Monegasque throne, was symbolically handed the keys to Les Baux-de-Provence on Friday, during a visit by the Princely Family to the French village that carries one of his hereditary titles.
The Prince was accompanied by his parents, Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene, and his twin sister, Princess Gabriella, for the public visit to Les Baux, a member of Monaco’s network of Grimaldi Historic Sites. The family was received by Anne Poniatowski, mayor of Les Baux-de-Provence and vice-president of the French association of Grimaldi Historic Sites, for an official ceremony held on the esplanade of the old château in the presence of local officials and residents.
A title dating to 1642
The visit celebrated a link stretching back nearly four centuries. Under the Treaty of Péronne, agreed between King Louis XIII and Prince Honoré II, which shifted Monaco from Spanish protectorate to French protection, the seigneury of Les Baux was raised to a marquisate in 1642 and granted to Hercule Grimaldi, son of the Monegasque sovereign.
The title of Marquis des Baux has since traditionally been borne by the heir to the Monegasque throne, and passed to Prince Jacques at his birth in 2014. In handing him the keys to the town, Les Baux repeated a gesture made in 1982 for his father — then hereditary prince — during a visit in the company of Princess Grace.
An ‘ambassador of goodwill’
Addressing the gathering from the château esplanade, Prince Albert II presented his children to the village and reflected on 384 years of ties, recalling his own earlier visits in 1982, 1991 and 2012. “Princess Charlène and I are particularly moved to present to you today our son Jacques, whom I wished, at his birth, to link to your commune — as I myself was, by my father, in 1958 — and our daughter Gabriella,” he said, noting that Gabriella is herself connected to another French region, the Carladès in Auvergne.
The Prince was keen to stress that the title looks forwards rather than back. It was, he said, “in no way a matter of recalling, through the title of Marquis des Baux, a bygone age and regime, but of offering an ‘ambassador of goodwill’ who embodies roots and ensures continuity”.
A house for the princes at Les Baux
Prince Albert II also used the occasion to announce that Monaco is buying a property in the village. “I am very happy to announce today the ongoing acquisition, from your commune, of a house in the village: the house known as the Connétable de Montmorency house, on the edge of the old ramparts,” he said, adding that it would be restored under an ambitious project in the months to come.
He framed the purchase as an inheritance for his son. “This house will be his — that of the princes of Monaco at Les Baux — but also a symbol and a showcase for the whole French network of Grimaldi Historic Sites,” he said, describing it as a “new relay” in a family attachment he was passing to Prince Jacques.
Stained glass and a stamp
The Monegasque delegation also visited the church of Saint-Vincent, which houses contemporary stained-glass windows created in 1962 by the master glassmaker Max Ingrand, a gift from Prince Rainier III following the birth of his son, Albert.
To mark the visit, Monaco’s stamp office is issuing a postage stamp depicting one of the windows. The marquisate of Les Baux was also the subject of a Monegasque €2 commemorative coin in 2025.
Prince Albert II closed by pledging that the bond would endure. “We will always be — I assure you — Baussencs among the Baussencs,” he said, using the local name for the people of Les Baux.
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Main photo credit: Michaël Alesi/Palais princier