Anthony Cervini, Richard Kang, Susan Feaster, Prince Albert, Arianna Lexie Ruiz Jessica Bakken and Nicholas Feaster at the Monaco Yacht Club Library. Photo: Axel Bastell.
On Wednesday, March 15, Prince Albert II met with five Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at the Monaco Yacht Club Library. The Midshipmen presented their USNA Challenge Coin to Prince Albert.
Prince Albert, who is Commander-in-Chief of the Palace Guards (the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince) in which he actively served from 1986 to 2005, returned the gesture by offering the two female and three men Midshipmen his official coin. It is tradition when military and foreign leaders meet to exchange Challenge Coins as a symbol of respect for each other’s commitment to service at a high level.
What is the Challenge Coin? USNA Midshipman Nicholas Feaster explains the history Video: Caroline Mindus.
Additionally, the Prince bestowed from Monaco to the Naval Academy a plaque of the country’s Coat of Arms, as well as a work of art from his private collection, the bronze sculpture “Oceans 11” by local artist Carol Burton, as a symbol of the importance of Ocean Sustainability.
On behalf of the USNA, the Mids had presents for 8-year-old twins Heredity Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella – USNA t-shirts and the USNA goat mascot. And, as Prince Albert celebrated turning 65 the day before, on March 14, he was surprised with a slice of cake as the group sang Happy Birthday. He was gifted a special Top Gun Maverick F-18 Lego to mark the occasion.
USNA Midshipmen wish Prince Albert Happy Birthday.
During their convivial hour together, the Mids shared stories about determination and dedication to service with His Serene Highness. The Prince recalled the time at age 17 when he took an admissions tour of the Naval Academy with his mother, Princess Grace. He chose instead to attend Amherst College in Massachusetts. (Grace Kelly’s first cousin John Lehman Jr was former Secretary of the US Navy from 1981 to 1987.)
The USNA was honourably represented by Jessica Bakken (Julian, California), Anthony Cervini (Vineland, New Jersey), Richard Kang (Columbus, Indiana), Arianna Lexie Ruiz (Greenville, Pennsylvania) and Nicholas Feaster (US residence, Arlington, Virginia).
Nicholas, 20, was educated in Monaco from a young age (Cours Saint Maur, FANB) and is the first graduate from Lycée Albert 1er to receive an appointment to the US Naval Academy. He was also a member of the choir, the Petits Chanteurs de Monaco, for five years and interned at the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO).
Report on Monaco Info.
The Mids have been visiting the Principality for five days over spring break and are leaving Saturday. On Wednesday morning, they visited the IHO headquarters on quai Antoine 1er with IHO Director Admiral Luigi Sinapi. They also had the opportunity to meet Monaco resident Keith Chapman, the creator of two blockbuster animation series, Paw Patrol and Bob The Builder, and Bernard d’Alessandri, General Director of the Monaco Yacht Club.
The Challenge Coin event was organised by the US Ambassador for Yacht Club of Monaco President, Susan Feaster.
USNA and other military academies first accepted women in 1976. According to USNA’s website, of the 1,215 graduates in the Class of 2021, 27% were female (327) and 37% minority (451) midshipmen. It is worth noting that there were 16,299 total applications that year. Each USNA candidate must receive a nomination from a member of congress, who are limited to five constituents attending the Naval Academy at any time.
Prince Albert gives his Chalenge Coin to Midshipman Richard Kang. Photo: Axel Bastell.On behalf of USNA, Midshipman NIcholas Feaster accepts Monaco’s Coat of Arms from Prince Albert. Photo: Axel Bastell.Prince bestowed from Monaco to the Naval Academy a work of art from his private collection, the bronze sculpture “Oceans 11” by local artist Carol Burton (right) as a symbol of the importance of Ocean Sustainability. Photo: Axel Bastell.Richard Kang, Jessica Bakken and Arianna Lexie Ruiz present Prince Albert with USNA t-shirts and the USNA goat mascot for his 8-year-old twins Heredity Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella. Photo: Axel Bastell.The Midshipmen present the Prince with a special birthday gift, Top Gun Maverick F-18 Lego. Photo: Axel Bastell. Arianna Lexie Ruiz presents Prince Albert with a piece of birthday cake. Photo: Axel Bastell.Prince Albert is greeted by Arianna Lexie Ruiz, Jessica Bakken, Richard Kang, Anthony Cervini and Nicholas Feaster at the Monaco Yacht Club Library. Photo: Axel Bastell.
This article was first published on March 16, 2023.
“I’m a Dubliner who loves the rest of Ireland,” enthuses Paula Farquharson-Blengino, who grew up and went to an all-girls Dominican convent school. She picked up a Bachelors and Masters from Trinity College Dublin, famous for the Book of Kells medieval manuscript. “This education was a window to the world. My first stop after graduation was New York and having Trinity on my CV opened doors to interviews, landing me a prize starter marketing job at Christian Dior USA-LVMH headquarters.”
This was the start of Paula’s corporate world journey with companies, including L’Oréal and Pretty Polly, spanning the luxury industry and publishing with a stop in Australia and back to Ireland. “Then 20 years ago I followed my dream to base myself in France permanently and haven’t looked back.”
Moving to Nice, Paula changed everything – lifestyle, language and career. She leveraged her communications experience and landed a journalist/editor job at the English-language publication The Riviera Times (now Riviera Insider). “That honed my skills to tell a story although I guess being Irish it came quite naturally!” Writing across a wide range of topics, the job expanded her network in the region.
One ofthe Times partners was Top Marques Monaco so when the time came to leave the newspaper after eight years, she was hired there as Press Officer by the founder Lawrie Lewis. “I learnt a lot from him, like attention to detail and the importance of people to ensure an unforgettable event.”
When he retired, Paula moved back into the corporate world – “quite a change” with the oil, gas and renewable energy industry. “SBM Offshore is listed on the Dutch stock-exchange so that gained me a whole new tool box of skills around governance and compliance. Confidentiality was key in my role when talking to the media; I was a gatekeeper for non-financial information from the company,” she shares.
All the experience that I’ve gained during my varied career, led her to her current position as Director of the Princess Grace Irish Library. “I enjoy working in the non-profit sector now. The Library is under the aegis of the Fondation Princesse Grace, which does such good work helping sick children and assisting young people embark on training for careers in the cultural domains such as literature, music and dance. This is a way to put my corporate experience to work for the good of others,” Paula says.
The mom of two adds, “When I was new to the region, the Princess Grace Irish Library felt like a home from home. It is a lovely, intimate ambiance and over the years I met so many wonderful people at the regular talks – and not just Irish. It is nice to chat with people who ‘get’ your Irish humour and Irishisms!”
The Princess Grace Irish Library represents a loving tribute to Princess Grace’s attachment for Ireland by her husband Prince Rainier III, who inaugurated it in November 1984, and the Princess’ personal collection of books and music scores form the heart of the library. “My favourite is a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses published in 1922. But it goes much beyond its content. We organise our own events and we facilitate conferences, symposia bringing people and academics together, we host writers via the twice-yearly bursaries supported by The Ireland Funds of Monaco.”
This October the Library has a symposium planned with academics from Villanova University close to Philadelphia (Princess Grace’s hometown) and there is a desire to develop more collaboration with the schools in Monaco. Princess Grace supported the arts and culture and the Library continues her legacy, operating under the aegis of the Fondation Princesse Grace.
With Covid, the Library remains open but reservations are necessary to ensure limited numbers and everyone’s safety. “We have the Monaco Safe Label. The health crisis forced us to review how things have always been done and adapt – we have gone online with events and even when normal life resumes, the digital world will allow us to be creative and reach more people, beyond the cosy, intimate setting of the physical Library. There’s no doubt that people are craving face-to-face events but I see us benefitting from having a hybrid offering with both live and online events going forward.”
On St Patrick’s Day, the library was honoured to host a small event with Irish music and drama in the presence of Prince Albert and his children, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella. We filmed it as we could not invite Friends of the Library due to health measures.
“On the programme was traditional music by the pupils of the l’Académie de Musique Fondation Prince Rainier III and a semi-dramatized reading by actors from the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society. The pupils were so happy after a year void of performances.
On a personal level, Paula admits that with pandemic it has been hard not being able to travel to Ireland to see family and friends but “being at the Library allows me the luxury of engaging face-to-face with people safely.”
Paula Farquharson-Blengino has found a silver lining in the Covid cloud. “The past year underlines that people value culture. They also yearn for a physical place to enjoy it and by keeping our door open, the Library acts like an oasis, where you can get lost in books and meet other like-minded people here.”
Located at 9 Rue Princesse Marie de Lorraine in the old town, the Princes Grace Irish Library is open Monday to Thursday 9 am to 4 pm and Friday 9 am to 3:30 pm.
Monegasques Andrée and Michelle outside the palace in Monaco Ville. Photos: Nancy Heslin
To celebrate National Day on November 19, Andrée and Michelle – the “Mamies of Monaco Ville” – share their stories about growing up on the Rock and how Covid has impacted the community.
Andrée and Michelle are sitting on a bench outside the palace, nearby the marble statue of tribute from foreign colonies presented to Prince Albert I on the occasion of his 25 years of reign in 1914.
“When I was a child, I used to climb that statue,” Andrée points. “Everything has changed. This used to really be a square.”
“Well, it was different,” says Michelle. “When I was younger, we would bike and roller-skate in the square. You know, the other morning, there was no one here except for a few kids from the painting school (Pavillon Bosio Visual Arts School) who were sitting in front of the palace on the sidewalk with their papers and pens, and the teacher was there. I saw a Carabinier approach and tell them they had to leave. The gentleman said he was a teacher here in Monaco-Ville and the students wanted to draw the palace a little. The Carabinier replied, ‘No, it’s out of the question.’ I found this completely absurd.”
“When I was young and in the month of Mary (May), we would all go to the Cathedral. There are arches at the top of the church tower and you can see there is a floor. There was a door and so we would go up and look at the choir sing. Now, you have to show your credentials everywhere. It’s not like before.”
These days, Covid also makes life different for the two women. Before the health pandemic, Andrée and Michelle would usually meet with friends every day for coffee. “We would meet up every morning at 9 at the San Remo bar,” says Michelle. “Before Covid, Monaco was far more lively. I think that with lockdown, we realise that apart from tourism, there’s not much on the Rock. Even people from Monaco, they are not going to come here to buy souvenirs. Although, some have come in a stand of solidarity.”
“In our day, it wasn’t like that,” shares Andrée. “There were grocery stores, a stationery shop, florists, a cobbler … we had everything. Souvenir shops practically did not exist. But it changed in the Sixties, they took away all the stores.”
Michelle agrees. “Monaco-Ville used to be a village but it gradually changed and is now essentially touristic. I’m going to tell you the honest truth. At the time, we were a bit fed up, because you couldn’t walk in the street in the summer, in the middle of August. Between the restaurant’s terraces and the groups, going out was really annoying. Frankly, we were bothered by this but when you look around now, it’s obvious that it is dying with sadness.”
Andrée adds, “I think, there is going to be a reversal. It’s necessary for the souvenir shops to do something else.”
“But some can’t close because they have big management,” Michelle remarks.
Village Life
“Before, all the families used to all know each other in Monaco-Ville. Now we no longer do,” says Andrée. There are many foreigners who have bought as secondary residences.
“The old grannies would take their chairs,” Michelle describes, “and bring them in the street and they would be in front of their doors, chatting. I remember that.”
“I can see them now,” recalls Andrée, “with their aprons, and they would shell peas or beans…”
Michelle remembers how the women would wash laundry. “You’ve seen the Parking des Pêcheurs? There was a lavoir there. I saw women who would leave their house with the thing on their heads and they went to wash their linen there.”
“Not my grandmother,” says Andrée, “because we had the bassine on the terrace.”
“Well, Claudie, with her sister, who are roughly my age, they would go there,” Michelle responds.
Andrée adds, “Not so long ago, some people still didn’t have toilets at home, they would still go wash to the washhouse. And there was a lavoir at Sainte Devote church, you know where the stairs go up behind, there were toilets there. They removed them, and there was a washhouse.”
Michelle says she sold her 3-bedroom apartment on Boulevard des Moulins to buy another apartment on the Rock for her son “because I couldn’t see myself living at Palais Miramar. For me, my stronghold is here.”
“My neighbour can see me in my bed,” Andrée, who has one daughter, laughs. “It doesn’t bother me, it’s been like this since I was born. Where I lived before, my neighbour was Madame Augusta, and when I opened my windows, there she was. ‘Hello Madame Augusta,’ I would say … My grandfather bought the place I now live in 1921, I have the deed. I wanted to leave because I had back pain and I have four floors. But at my age, I couldn’t picture myself moving.”
“I don’t have neighbours opposite,” says Michelle, who has a son and daughter. “I have a view of the mairie. It’s my grandmother’s house and I was raised there, so were my children, and even my grandson. My grandparents used to live near Sainte Devote, at villa Lilly Lou, I think it’s still there. And they sold it to buy here on the Rock, a house with two floors. They bought the second floor first, because the first floor was rented. And I remember that later when they bought the first floor, there were always two apartments. I was raised in one of the apartments with my grandparents.”
Andrée, with Michelle, in front of the Palace statue she used to climb as a child.
Living With Lockdown
During the first lockdown, the women say they only did what was authorized, like went out to do shopping or a morning walk in front of the Carabiniers or around the garden and then home.
Andrée admits, “Confinement didn’t bother me the first time.”
“I have a terrace with the sun, I have a view on the mountain … there is worse,” Michelle says. “We are very privileged in Monaco. Even if things have changed, we are privileged, really.”
“You know,” says Andrée, “you have to be born in Monaco-Ville, because there are a lot of people from Monaco who tell you they would never live here. I can’t leave.”
“Things never change here, and never will,” says Michelle. “Except that they repaired houses but otherwise, you can’t touch Monaco-Ville. When we look at the old photos, it was a bit old-fashioned. Now, when you look, it’s all perfect. It’s all redone.”
Michelle adds, “Everybody dreams about coming to Monaco. It’s the only place where you can go out with your jewellery and not worry about your purse. Let me tell you something. We are all happy, even those who complain, in Monaco, everyone is happy. And everyone would like to live there. Aren’t I right?”
Andrée nods in complete agreement. “If you only knew how I hear from friends because we are less locked-down than in France.I don’t know, it seems that people are jealous,” says Andrée. “There is good and there is bad, it’s a bit like life.”
“I can’t stand when people criticise Monaco. I can’t stand it,” admits Michelle.
National Day
“The fête nationale in Monaco is something close to our heart,” says Andrée. “Every time we come to the square, there is a party. I was born on the Rock, really, and I’ve never seen this before.”
Michelle agrees. “We come to the square with a flag, we wait until the Princely couple stands at the window. This year it’s sad because it won’t happen. There will be a speech on television. They are doing the Te Deum but with distancing and that’s all. For the Prince’s Day, everything has been cancelled.”
Typically, in the days leading up to the National Day in Monaco, which has been on November 19 since 1952, there are rehearsals for the parade in the Place du Palais and the ambience is festive. As we sit near the Place du Palais two days before the big event, there is little activity. This year, there will be no military parade or symbolic wave from the window by the prince and his family. Mass at the Cathedral and the ceremony in the Cour d’Honneur will be broadcast live on Monaco Info.
“Every year, the Princely couple would stand at the window, sometime’s the whole family even,” Michelle points out.
“It was a family holiday,” says Andrée. There were two different days, on Wednesday and Thursday.”
“Back in our children’s time, they would have all the games at Place du Palais. There were things for children all day long.” Michelle says warmly.
I ask the ladies if they saw Prince Albert as a child at the window, and they admit seeing all three young siblings – Caroline, Albert and Stephanie.
Michelle recalls the birth of Princess Caroline. “I was at school and I must have been in 6th grade. I remember, with the teacher, there were cannons fired.”
“… to know if it was a boy or a girl,” Andrée chimes in.
“And then, after the cannon shots,” Michelle relives, “we all left school and came here to the square with flags, shouting. It really came from our hearts. We were kids.”
Andrée and Michelle say that before Princess Grace, “Monaco was not much.” For Michelle, “Grace is the one who brought about the renewal of Monaco that led to making Monaco known all around the world. The whole world was invited to Monaco. There were parties, there were galas, and it was sumptuous. Sumptuous. Even now, it’s not the same anymore. It’s not the same thing, it was a different era.”
Andrée adds, “At the time there was Le Bal de la Rose at the palace or on the square … we would see all the artists pass by, I saw Charles Aznavour.”
“In the morning, we would always see Princess Grace bring her children to school,” Michelle reveals. “We would meet them in the streets. One day, I was walking down the ramp and there came the Princess, such simplicity. She had a small scarf, flat shoes. You remember Andrée?”
“Yes,” Andrée replies. “We would often see them. I also remember her with Stephanie, and their dog, the little poodle.”
“We had the most glamorous period of Monaco,” Michelle says. “We were very lucky because we had a time, I think, no one will have again. It was the time of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. It was magic.”
Words cannot express my gratitude to Andrée and Michelle, two characterful ladies who provided a rare glimpse into a very private world in honour of National Day. They only removed their masks for photos.
I wish I could organise a Rediscover Monaco-Ville day to encourage Monaco residents to explore and support the old town, to eat at the restaurants and buy some gifts and souvenirs for a Very Monaco Christmas. But alas, I cannot. So I will continue to share stories of real people and maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference together.
Good News, Monaco 