Arrive by helicopter and catch your fi rst aerial glimpse of

INTERIORS MEET ME IN MONACO Billionaire’s playground or cultural hub? Stay Both, says Rosalyn Wikeley HOTEL nly once through Airport’s Monacair gates METROPOLE and into a shiny blue chopper (the most effi cient There’s something gloriously

way to zoom into the Principality) can you fully Pool-side dining at Hotel refi ned about ’s digest the bracket of wealth in the Monegasque Metropole’s Odyssey Belle Époque Metropole. Oslipstream, unperturbed by excess. As you hover along the Jacques Garcia has fi lled its fringes of the Côte d’Azur, a calm Mediterranean lies below palatial bones with a warm contemporary fi nish, you, a sun-soaked, busy scene beckons ahead. calling on a soft, yesteryear glamour rather than Preconceptions of Monaco can be unforgiving: where money chasing a fl eeting and uncomfortable modern comes to roost and taste comes to perish – a riot of red Ferraris, one. Its grand lobby hosts a roster of contemporary a fake-tanned limb and gazillionaire ghetto, rolling out to form installations amid Venetian tapestries and marble a wealthy country no larger than New York’s Central Park, fuelled fl oors while sumptuous, pillar-clad suites celebrate by revenues. To rule out spicy tax haven antics would be Monaco’s golden era. Gluttony gets an elegant seal foolish. But to overlook Monaco’s rich history, cultural booty and of approval for breakfast and a Riviera-ready spa sustainability effort would be even more so. Monaco has, after all, serves up Givenchy treatments and a pool area operated as historic short-hand for European glamour. designed by Karl Lagerfeld. Add to the mix the Amid a backdrop of Grand Prix, and superyachts, not only Golden Square location and fashionable haunts, does the government dedicate fi ve per cent of its budget to culture, Odyssey and Joël Robuchon restaurants, and this treating residents and visitors to fairly priced tickets for opera, ballet, Belle Epoque beauty really is the most culturally exhibitions and theatre, but curiously, a burgeoning artisanal, ethical astute, lavish spot to park your Goyard trunks at.

movement is vying for space in the second smallest country in the world. Superior Rooms from €340. metropole.com PHOTOS: VISIT MONACO; GETTY IMAGES; STUDIO PHENIX

104 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | January 2019 Make time to visit the Oceanographic Institute

EAT

A ROCA A ROCA has been serving up a no-frills, fresh Mediterranean approach to gourmet snacking for over Visit 25 years. OCEANOGRAPHIC MUSEUM Built by Albert I, a passionate marine scientist and explorer, this exquisite early 20th-century building beautifully presents the Principality’s relationship MAYA JAH Get your art fi x with the marine world over the decades For lavish Indian cuisine in a at Villa Paloma with an impressive, curiosity cabinet-style moody, refi ned setting. The cocktails taste as good as the exhibition Monaco & The Ocean: theatre accompanying them. from exploration to protection. The building itself, dramatically positioned over VILLA PALOMA the cliff, is something to behold. One of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco buildings, Villa Paloma Monaco’s Cathedral – once the villa of a well-heeled Monegasque – is now home to rotating contemporary art exhibitions (currently COVA Tom Wesselman’s provocative American A new, informal haunt prints until 6 January 2019). (which for Monaco means Burberry loafers), COVA serves fresh pasta, real The legendary Monte Carlo Italian coffee and their lights up at night signature panettone to be decadently enjoyed dipped into vanilla and chocolate sauce. THE PALACE AND CATHEDRAL Wind through the toytown that is Monaco- Ville until you reach the Grimaldi marvel with a regal, candy-coloured fl amboyance that only Monaco can pull off. The State MONTE-CARLO CASINO Apartments fulfi l all opulent expectation, YOSHI Integral to Monaco’s history, Charles opening from April to October. The tombs For healthy and exquisite Garnier’s magnifi cent casino remains of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace lie in Japanese cuisine (chef Takéo Yamazaki embodies that the cathedral nearby, by St Martin Gardens. Europe’s most opulent playground – the native precision), head to the risky, beating heart of the Principality, Metropole’s YOSHI with its dripping in Fleming-inspired glamour. JIMMY’Z fresh sashimi, maki, nigiri and Place your bets and indulge in Monegasque, a delicious Japanese garden For a fl avour of Monaco’s party culture, for le digestif.

PHOTOS: VISIT MONACO; GETTY IMAGES; STUDIO PHENIX international culture at its fi nest. head to its original HQ.

January 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 105 2019’S CULTURE LIST

Opera Otello, Giuseppe Verdi, 21-30 April, Salle Garnier, Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Contemporary Dance Variety Show, Contemporary Dance, 12-16 December 2018, Monaco Dance Forum. Ballet Going Green The Nutcracker by the Moscow Classical Ballet, 28- 30 December 2018, Grimaldi GARDENS Forum Monaco. Despite its urban jungle-on-sea reputation, Monaco boasts Festival eight meticulously preened parks to take the edge off life in Printemps des Arts de the fast lane. The renowned Princess Grace Rose Garden Monte-Carlo (a host of music blooms with over 300 varieties of roses, Le Jardin Exotique and artistic performances), March to April (5 weekends), is a cliffside labyrinth of tropical plants, mostly from South across a series of locations. America, South Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and Le Jardin Japonais is a welcome oasis of zen, waterfalls and Theatre Two performances by the bamboo in the touristy Principality. Comédie Française: Racine’s Bajazet on 5 March, directed and designed by Eric Ruf, TERRE DE MONACO and Ce que j’appelle oubli Unbeknown to many, Monaco is embracing the (What I Call Forgotten) with sustainable zeitgeist with green gusto. Take Terre Denis Podalydès on 2 April, de Monaco, a company on a mission to establish urban Théâtre Princesse Grace. agriculture throughout the Principality, creating ecological vegetable gardens, Art Show fruit and herbs and selling products from these plots to owners and tenants Artmonte-carlo, 26-28 April, of the buildings or local restaurants. Workshops available, too. Grimaldi Forum Monaco.

BRASSERIE DE MONACO It’s far from Monegasque chic and falls short of hipster approval, but Brasserie de Monaco on Port Hercule is the Principality’s only brewery, Brewing with craft beer fermenting away behind an Sport enormous, industrial bar. Even Monaco has Culture Formula 1 Grand Prix, 23-26 yielded to the craft beer movement. May, Monte-Carlo. L’ORANGERIE Monegasque Philip Culazzo, a Dubliner with Italian and French heritage, found a way to salvage a relic of Monaco’s agricultural past – bitter fruits from its orange trees, too bitter even for charity. In 2015, he founded Monaco’s fi rst liqueur distillery, l’Orangerie, peeling, distilling Monaco Yacht Show, 25-28 and fermenting these bitter oranges manually. September, Port Hercules.

This is 2019 artisanal Monaco at its best. PHOTOS: VISIT MONACO; GETTY IMAGES

106 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | January 2019