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Princess Charlene-backed Saint DĂ©vote Tournament set for most international edition yet

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
19/02/2026

The Stade Louis II will swap football for rugby on the 20th and 21st March, when Monaco hosts the 14th edition of the Saint DĂ©vote Tournament, one of the largest under 12s international rugby competitions in the world.

Now in its 14th edition, the event is officially backed by both World Rugby and Rugby Europe. The format is seven on each side, with players all under 12-years-old, and matches run across both days from 9:30am.

This year’s edition is the most international to date. Twenty four teams representing 23 nations have confirmed their participants, with teams travelling from South Africa, Argentina, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Spain, Georgia, Greece, Japan, India, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Ecuador, the United States, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Andorra, the United Arab Emirates, and Monaco itself.

The Saint DĂ©vote Rugby Tournament in 2025, photo credit: FMR

The tournament is organised by the Fédération Monégasque de Rugby, presided over by Princess Charlene, in partnership with the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.

Beyond the competition, there are several weekend activities which are free of charge. Children aged two to seven can take part in the introductory rugby sessions for a first experience of the sport, while dedicated workshops for children and young adults with disabilities will run in collaboration with local schools. Additionally, a fan zone with inflatable games will be open throughout the day.

Doors open at 9:30am on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st March.

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Main photo credit: FMR

Jardin du Chemin des Sculptures set for major transformation

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
19/02/2026

In the heart of Fontvieille, Jardin du Chemin des Sculptures, is set to undergo significant transformation, with redevelopment work starting this month.

Since 2021, waterproofing works have already been carried out to address ageing infrastructure beneath the garden. Now, with the structural issues solved, a greener future is on the books for the Fontvieille garden, and visitors will start to see and experience the changes on ground level.

The Department of Urban Planning has commissioned landscape architects Grand & Associates to redesign the space. The plan is to shift the garden’s usage from just a transitional walkway into a more inviting place to spend time, with more planting, increased shade and areas better suited to everyday use.

Projected image of the garden after the works

Work will be delivered in three phases to allow continuous usage of the garden and to reduce disruption. The first half of the garden is due to be completed by the end of 2026, with the remaining areas developed in stages throughout 2027 and 2028.

This new plan focuses strongly on greenery. Planting will be chosen to suit local climate and to help address rising temperatures, providing shade, cooling and biodiversity. The project also aims to use responsibly-sourced materials and environmentally conscious design principles.

On-site panels will be also placed to provide updates and explain the stages throughout the redevelopment.

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Main photo credit: Grant & Associates

Two lucky Monaco students could have the opportunity of a lifetime in the Arctic

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
19/02/2026

Two students from Monaco are set to join an Arctic expedition this summer, following the launch of the 16th edition of the Students on Ice  programme. 

The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation officially opened the 2026 competition on 11th February at the Rainier III High School auditorium, with students from all three of the Principality’s secondary schools in attendance.

Run by the foundation since 2008, the programme sends two students each year to the Canadian Arctic, where they join an international expedition alongside scientists, educators and Indigenous communities. To date, thirty students have already taken part.

Now, this year’s expedition is scheduled to run from 19th July to 3rd of August. Geoff Green, founder of the Students on Ice Foundation, addressing the students by video, highlighted the importance of “supporting an inspiring young people” to protect the polar regions.

During the official presentation at the Rainier III High School auditorium. Photo credit: Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco

The Foundation’s Scientific Director, Dr Philippe Mondielli, also highlighted the organisation’s broader Polar Initiative, which connects scientific research with diplomatic efforts on climate. He mentioned two projects, the Tara Polar Station, a drifting research base studying the Arctic Ocean, and Ice Memory, a global archive of ice cores stored in Antarctica.

Students who attended also had the chance to hear from last year’s winners, Alexandrine Noghès and Carolina Massey, who recounted their encounters with Inuit communities and elaborated on the scientific work carried out aboard the expedition ship.

Applications for the 2026 competition are open until March 2nd. Candidates who are interested to apply must submit a personal essay setting out their own ideas for tackling environmental challenges. In return, the students will be named ambassadors for environmental protection

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Main photo credit: Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco

Cyrielle Dailly – the baby sleep whisperer brings American know-how to Monaco

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
18/02/2026

When Cyrielle Dailly’s second son refused to sleep, she did what any exhausted mother would do: desperately searched for answers. What she found, however, was something that would change not only her own life, but the lives of thousands of parents struggling with their baby’s sleep.

Dailly is now a sleep specialist for babies and children aged zero to five, and she was in Monaco Tuesday for a lunch event at Little Wonders, the principality’s new space dedicated to early childhood.

Speaking to Monaco Life, she explained the method that has become her life’s work, and why so many parents are still struggling in the dark.

“Usually, they are desperate because they tried everything,” she said of the parents who come to her. “The baby is not sleeping well at night, or has difficulties falling asleep, or wakes up at five, or is doing micro-naps all day long. They tried to find solutions, they’ve tried everything.”

Her own research led her across the Antantic, where she discovered the Family Sleep Institute in the United States and trained in its science-based approach. The biggest insight is quite surprising: the less a baby sleeps, the less they will sleep.

“The number one mistake is to think that they are not tired,” she said. “You think a baby is not tired because they don’t sleep, but usually it’s the opposite.” This state of overtiredness, driven by a build-up of the stress hormone cortisol, can pull families into a cycle that only gets harder to escape.”It’s not the parents’ fault. It’s because you don’t know the science of sleep.”

In fact, Dailly, after four years of working in this field, is quite shocked at how little formal guidance parents are given. “In France and Europe, I think we are so much in the idea that a child sleeps or doesn’t sleep, and then it passes,” she said. Paediatricians, she notes, are generally trained in sleep pathologies like sleepwalking, rather than the everyday challenge of a baby who simply will not settle.

How her method works

Her method, which she has built into a service called Dodo les Petits, focuses on working with a child’s natural circadian rhythm rather than against it by paying close attention to sleep windows, bedtime timing and the environment.

The best part? Results come quickly. “After three days you have big changes, big improvements, and then you keep going and it keeps getting better.” Parents who have worked with her, she says, often have one consistent reaction: “Why didn’t I ask you before?”

How much it costs

The approach is available at several price points designed to be accessible to as many families as possible. An entry point is a downloadable sleep guide at just €25. From there, video programme packages offer more detailed, structured guidance, with the most popular pack priced at around €109.

For parents who want direct support, remote accompaniment over several days runs to approximately €600, while in-person sessions are available for families in the region at a higher rate. Additionally, an English-language version of her programmes, called Baby Dream Secrets, launched around a month ago.

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Main photo credit: Monaco Life

Monaco real estate 2025: high-value flips, limited new supply and a revamped price index

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
17/02/2026

Monaco’s real estate market did something unusual in 2025: it stayed almost exactly where it was. The total value of all transactions reached €5.9 billion, which matched the record set the year before. However, underneath that steady headline, the market was anything but static.

Monaco’s statistics body IMSEE unveiled its Real Estate Observatory 2025 during a press conference at the Ministry of State on Monday 17th February, revealing a market in quiet transformation while introducing a highly anticipated new tool designed to measure the market more honestly than ever before.

Two markets moving in opposite directions

The report shows that in 2025, new-build sales fell sharply, while resales more than made up the difference.

Sales of brand new homes dropped from 101 transactions in 2024 to 64, showcasing a quiet year for completions. Their total value fell by a billion euros to 2.6 billion. Even so, 2.6 billion coming from just 64 transaction is an extraordinary figure. In fact, more than half of those sales exceeded 20 million euros, and five crossed 100 million.

Resales told the opposite story. At 429 transactions worth a combined 3.2 billion euros, the secondary market set an all time record, up 49 per cent in value in a single year. The driver was largely owners reselling recently delivered luxury apartments. “Sales fell by a billion, resales rose by a billion,” said CĂ©line Caron-Dagioni, Minister for Infrastructure and Urban Planning. “A lot of it is simply apartments that had been bought and very quickly put back on the market.”

And the figures are remarkable. The average resale price reached 7.6 million euros, up 26.8 per cent in a year. For the largest properties including five rooms or more, the average leapt to 29 million euros, a rise of 10 million in 12 months. The Larvotto district, with just 13 resales, generated 851.9 million euros, mainly from the Mareterra project and other recent developments landing on the secondary market.

A new way to measure Monaco’s property prices

The most significant announcement, however, was methodological. Monaco now has a more accurate way of calculating price per square metre, which changes the picture considerably.

The old method was quite simple: average the resale prices in a district for a given year. It was straightforward, but easily distorted. For example, three exceptional transactions in Larvotto in 2024 pushed the district’s reported average to 95,000 euros per square metre. But, this figure did not accurately reflect the broader market.

The new model includes both sales and resales and takes into account when a building was constructed, not just where it is and when it sold. Pierre-AndrĂ© Chiappori, Minister for Finance and an economics professor who helped design it, explained the logic: “An apartment in Monte-Carlo is not worth the same as one in Les Moneghetti. A building from the 1970s is not worth the same as one completed last year. This model separates all three effects cleanly, something the old one could not.”

After using this method, Monaco’s average prince per square metre in 2025 turns out to be 57,569 euros, the second highest ever recorded. At the top of the table sits Larvotto’s district at 71,167 euros, the first time any district has crossed the 70,000 euro threshold. Monte-Carlo follows at around 54,000 euros, and even the most “affordable” districts – Les Moneghetti and the Jardin Exotique – come in above 43,000 euros. Lastly, for new buildings completed since 2020, the average prince rises to 65,602 euros per square metre.

What the data revealed

Using this new model, one unexpected finding arose, say the experts. Buildings from the 1990s appear relatively cheaper per square metre than those built in either earlier or later decades. “That is the definition of a good statistical model,” Chiappori said. “One that teaches you things you couldn’t see before.”

Caron Dagioni provided an explanation for this. The 1990s were Monaco’s first generation of modern urban development, before today’s standards on energy performance, construction quality and public space were established.

The new index goes beyond publishing annual statistics. The government already uses it as a shared reference point in negotiations with developers over projects involving public land, removing the scope for competing valuations. “It gives everyone – including investors, developers, and the state – an indicator that is the same for everyone and cannot be challenged,” Caron-Dagioni said.

She then added: “A developer planning a project can apply the district and decade to get a credible first estimate. The only real uncertainty is where prices will be in two or three years. But this removes an enormous amount of guesswork.”

All historical square metre data has been recalculated under the new method for consistency and can now be found at imsee.mc/publications.

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Main photo credit: Monaco Life

Interview: How one woman is manufacturing bionic prosthetics for Ukraine from Monaco

by: Kyriaki Topalidou
16/02/2026

Olena Chernovolova left a successful legal career behind when Russia’s invasion transformed Ukraine in 2022. Today, from Monaco, she runs the Dopomogator Foundation, a charity that has already delivered 26 advanced bionic prosthetics to Ukrainian veterans and civilians. 

Born in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Olena studied law in Kyiv, built a decade long career as a private notary and spent years quietly supporting other charities. Then in 2017 she decided to establish her own, and named it ‘Dopomogator’: Ukrainian for ‘someone who helps’.

The foundation’s early work focused on low-income families, elderly people, and children in residential homes. Then, February 2022 arrived, and everything changed.

“Everything changes, for everyone,” Olena tells Monaco Life. She closed her notary office, left Ukraine with her children, and devoted herself entirely to the foundations work.

The meeting that changed everything

In 2023, Olena met a man with an idea to manufacture bionic hands in Ukraine, for Ukrainians, at a fraction of the international price. The meeting was, in her words, entirely by chance. The result was ‘Regenerate Ukrainians’, a joint initiative between Dopomogator and Ukrainian company Allbionics, which uses cutting-edge 3D CAD design and 3D printing to produce prosthetics domestically.

While a bionic hand on the international market costs around $15,000 and can take more than two months to produce, Allbionics manufactures prosthetics for as little as $8,500, with components produced in as little as three days. The full fitting process, involving multiple sessions with the recipient, is completed within two to three months.

Twenty six hands, twenty six stories

To date, Dopomogator has delivered 26 bionic upper-limb prosthetics. Behind each number is a real person. There is Arsen, who now rides horses using his bionic hand. There is Andrii, a father of three children and a war veteran, who sustained a severe injury and lost his arm during military service, who now cooks traditional Ukrainian borscht with ease, washes the car, and plays board games with his family. There is also Daria, a doctor and young mother from Kherson, who wears her prosthetics to work at a medical centre and is now able to push her child’s stroller.

But the story that moves Chernovolova most is that of a recipient with a high amputation above the elbow, one of the most technically demanding fits. “He wrote a letter with his bionic hands,” she said, her voice cracking. “It was his dream to do it, and he did. We said: we need this result for every person with a high amputation. It shows that impossible things are possible.”

Olena Chernovolova with one of the recipients, photo provided. 

A new ally in Monaco

It was in Monaco that Chernovolova met Alexandre Caracchini — the Principality’s newly appointed Honorary Consul of Ukraine.

Alexandre, also present in the interview, adds: “She is genuine and authentic. She’s always trying to help and happy to do whatever is needed. She deserves more recognition in Monaco.”

For Caracchini, whose own work is focused on reconstruction and ensuring Monaco does not forget the realities unfolding in Ukraine, Dopomogator’s mission resonates deeply.

Unbroken women, unbroken Ukraine

When asked what keeps her going after eight years of charity work, Chernovolova gives an unexpected answer. It’s not the recipients, not the results, but her team.

She tells us the story of Olga, her most trusted collegue, whose apartment building was struck by a missile last summer, with half the building left in ruins. “Thank God she’s alive,” Chernovolova says. “And do you know what she did the next day? She started collecting electric kettles for the elderly people in her neighbourhood who had no gas, no way to cook.” She pauses. “These people are unbroken. With volunteers like this, I think Ukraine is okay.”

Her next ambition is even broader: to make the project, and the culture of inclusivity it carries, known beyond Ukraine.

How to help

Dopomogator is currently seeking donations. Each bionic prosthetic costs from $8,500, with the average around $10,000 per limb. Those wishing to contribute or learn more can contact the foundation at info@dopomogator.org or visit dopomogator.org.

See also: 

Interview: Monaco’s new Honorary Consul of Ukraine Alexandre Caracchini

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Main photo of Olena Chernovolova and Alexandre Caracchini provided.