Catching Up with the Grimaldis

On September 11, HSH Prince Albert II and his nephew Andrea Casiraghi marked the 100th anniversary of the Club Alpin Monegasque by taking a little hike from the Princely Palace to the top of Mont-Agel, the highest point in the Monaco-France frontier region. The Sovereign Prince hoped to make this a more regular occurance. Later in the week, Prince Albert, Princess Caroline and Pierre Casiraghi attended the 10th Monaco La Belle Classe at the Monaco Yacht Club where the Prince was presented with a commemorative watch by the grateful members for all of his years of support. Later, Prince Albert met with James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, who reported on the Monaco Méditerranée Foundation Conference which had the theme, " The World 2050" which was held earlier in the week at the magnificent Le Meridien Beach Plaza in Monaco. On Wednesday the Sovereign Prince met with members of the Carabiniers Racing Team at a special reception in their honor in Monaco. However, pride of place went to racing champion Jimmy Maccio who recently won the WREC (better than "wreck") French racing championship for the motorcycle division. Young Maccio, like the rest of the team members are all soldiers in the Princely Rifles and he was congratulated by the Prince and his commanding officer for the title which is a first for the Principality of Monaco. Although all in good fun of course, the Princely Rifles (some of them at least) must be capable on a motorcycle for their escort duties in guarding the Sovereign Prince.