December 2015 / Jan 2016
CHRISTMAS is coming and Monaco is in the mood for a glamorous and very festive season. Chefs in restaurants and hotels prepare feasts of delicacies and the best champagnes and wines await the discerning clients who choose Monte Carlo for their family celebrations. The Place du Casino comes alive with music and lights on December 5th as SBM opens the Russian Christmas festivities, with mulled wine and hot chocolate, to entice visitors into the Monce Carlo Pavilions and the new Casino Café de Paris, the most recent addition to the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) portfolio.
SBM announced less than favourable results for the year 2014/15, with a deficit of €31.5 million, compared with a deficit of €11.8 million the previous year, with again no dividend for shareholders. The deficit is partly due to the loss of revenue during work on the Hotel de Paris and the Sporting d'Hiver construction project. SBM is confident that when this is completed at the end of 2018, all will be well. The prestigious penthouse apartments of the seven new buildings around the casino will each be available for rent ... at €2 million a year.
Meanwhile, Monaco certainly has something to celebrate. The government's provisional budget shows that receipts for the year are 7% higher and there is a budget surplus of €1.13 billion. With no debt and no deficit, Monaco is in an exceptional position in the context of Europe and its policy of working to increase income while curbing expenditure and investing in the country's real estate for its future growth and prosperity has proved successful.
The future is an unknown, but there will be cars and even electric flying cars will have to park somewhere as over 40,000 commuters enter Monaco daily. A parking complex on the border with buses into town is one solution, but buses use roads, too. Port Hercule's semi-floating jetty was an innovative idea, so why not something completely different? The railway was put underground ... so what about something overground? So, after long deliberations, it has been decided that, as part of the enlargement of the Carrefour shopping centre, an overhead tram will connect Fontvieille with a large parking complex to be built in the Jardin Exotique. Discussions are in progress ... Funiculi, Funicula, Fontvieille.
THE Monte Carlo Ballet celebrates its 30th anniversary with Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Casse Noisette Compagnie" over New Year at Grimaldi Forum. Another treat for the children is Prince Rainier's favourite International Circus Festival, the largest and most prestigious gathering of circus artists, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary (Jan 14th-24th) with a "Golden Show" featuring a selection of the world's best circus performers from previous years. Despite protests in Britain and elsewhere against animals performing in circuses, it is a long tradition and very popular with Monaco audiences and the animals are well cared for while in Monaco.
BUT the winter's main event is the 84th edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally (Jan 18th-24th) and a surprising number of residents are or have been rally drivers. This year, there is also the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique (Jan 27th-Feb 3rd). Enthusiastic supporters cheer the drivers on as the cars race around the narrow snowy roads in the hills around Monaco. Both events draw passionate automobile enthusiasts to the area and drivers mingle with engineers, mechanics and fans, who crowd the hotels and cafes, moving en masse to Monte Carlo each year, a migration as certain as the geese going south ... as Monaco has always been about cars.
Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! Hope to see you in the Palace Square for the Rally prize giving - January 24th at 15h.
