Latest news with #CôteDAzur
The Sun
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
France launch probe after ‘ultra left anarchist gang' claim responsibility for blackout that left 160k without power
AN 'ultra-left anarchist gang' has claimed responsibility for a blackout that plunged 160,000 homes into darkness on the Côte d'Azur – just hours before the Cannes Film Festival awards show. French prosecutors in Grasse and Draguignan have now launched a probe into suspected sabotage after a shadowy statement was posted online by the group. 1 In the anonymous release the group said: 'We sabotaged the main electrical substation supplying the Cannes metropolitan area and cut down the 225 kV line coming from Nice.' They claimed the dramatic blackout was a deliberate attempt to cripple key infrastructure including research centres, start-ups, an aerospace factory, the local airport, and military and technological hubs. Thousands of homes in the iconic French Riviera were left in darkness from around 10am on Saturday until the blackout was resolved at 4.30pm local time. The suspected saboteurs wrote they targeted the region 'on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony and gala evening' in what appeared to be a political statement, BFM TV reports. Authorities have yet to verify the authenticity of the claims. An initial arson attack struck an electrical substation in Tanneron, in the Var region, at around 2.45am on Saturday, weakening the power grid. Hours later, a high-voltage pylon in Villeneuve-Loubet was discovered sawed through – further destabilising the network and triggering widespread outages. .
Al Arabiya
5 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Sabotage suspected after fire cuts power to 45,000 in French Riviera
French Riviera authorities said Sunday they are boosting security around electricity grid sites after an overnight fire in a substation that cut power to 45,000 people, and a massive blackout during the Cannes film festival blamed on sabotage. A blaze hit an electricity transformer in the western part of the city of Nice, knocking out power in the vicinity, the city's offices of the mayor and local prosecutors said. 'We strongly condemn the overnight attack against a Nice electricity transformer,' deputy mayor Anthony Borre said on X, formerly Twitter. On Saturday, a five-hour power cut disrupted the final day of the Cannes festival, knocking out traffic lights and ATMs and forcing organizers to use back-up generators. Local officials said a suspected arson attack on a substation and vandalism of an electricity pylon were the causes. 'I vigorously condemn these criminal acts hitting our country,' Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said on X after the transformer blaze affecting his city. He added: 'In the coming days we are reinforcing the (security camera) network around the city's strategic electric sites.' The Nice prosecutors' office said the substation fire occurred in the city's Moulins district. Power was restored around dawn, said officials and the Enedis grid company.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cannes Film Festival Hit by Power Outage Ahead of Awards Ceremony
The city of Cannes was hit by a major power outage on Saturday morning, just hours before the film festival is set to award this year's Palme d'Or. Around 10:15 a.m., right as the press conference for Kelly Reichardt's competition film 'The Mastermind' was starting, power in various areas of the city went out. According to Screen, which was first to report news of the outage, the power also went down in several screening rooms, halting films mid-way through. In the J.W. Marriott on the Croisette, a festival hub that several attendees fled to for internet access, the power flickered on and off several times. More from Variety Cannes Awards Predictions: Who Could Take the Palme d'Or - and Everything Else? Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff Bezos, Kevin Spacey Spotted at amfAR Cannes Gala as James Franco and Adrien Brody Auction Their Art for Over $300,000 'Love Letters' Review: A French Lesbian Couple Navigates Pregnancy in Alice Douard's Beautifully Realized Directorial Debut French broadcaster France 3 posted a video to its X account showing attendees navigating the festival in the dark, saying there had been a 'general power outage in the city.' Festival de Cannes 2025. Une coupure générale d'électricité dans la ville #Cannes2025 #cannes78 — France 3 Côte d'Azur (@F3cotedazur) May 24, 2025 The festival's awards ceremony is set to start on Saturday night at 6:40 p.m. CET. Jury president Juliette Binoche and members Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Payal Kapadia, Hong Sansoo, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi and Carlos Reygadas will hand out the festival's top awards. Variety has reached out to the festival for comment. More to come… Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
New York Times
6 days ago
- Automotive
- New York Times
Has Monaco Grand Prix lost its crown to Miami, Las Vegas for F1's elite spenders?
MONACO — There was a point not too long ago when the Monaco Grand Prix stood alone on the Formula One calendar, as the undisputed 'crown jewel' event. The street track had a pull for big spenders, celebrities and VIPs unlike any other round on the F1 calendar. If there was a place to be seen, it was Monaco. Advertisement Questions around the race's sporting spectacle — or lack thereof — have grown even louder in the era of F1's current wide, heavy cars. It prompted the FIA to introduce a new mandatory two-stop strategy rule for this year in the hope of spicing things up. Yet off the track, with partners and sponsors placing such an emphasis on the American races in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, Monaco is no longer in the rarified air it once enjoyed. 'If you look at some of our sponsors who want to target America, or they have big business interest in America, they want to be attached to those American races,' Mark Morrell, the director of marketing at Haas F1 Team, told The Athletic. F1 has inextricably been connected to the business world through its 75-year history, being far more than a racing series and just what the fans see on the race track. Big brands not only want to be seen as part of such a glamorous, appealing sport, but teams also rely on sponsorship dollars to help them go racing. Haas used its first of three home races in the United States in Miami earlier this month to announce a new partnership with Infobip — a communications service used by companies such as Uber and Google. Haas also had sponsors who signed deals to cover the 2025 season late last year asking to bring forward the announcements to Austin and Las Vegas, in October and November, to capitalize on the American interest. Morrell said Haas has around half as many partner guests with the team in Monaco compared to Miami, and that the sheer busyness of an F1 race weekend had been 'shifting over the last couple of years towards Miami.' Although Silverstone and Monza stand as two major European races for sponsorship events and showcases, 'those U.S. races are the ones.' The off-track events scheduled for those in the paddock is typically full-on during the Miami and Las Vegas races, with sponsor activations and events, in part thanks to their settings in major cities with an array of hotel rooms, dinner locations and event spaces. In Monaco, a cramped location at the best of times and so F1 teams and sponsors are often reliant on the extra space offered on the super yachts moored in the harbor for extra hosting duties, and with Nice a 20-minute train ride away, it's not quite so straightforward. 'There's just more options available to sponsors when they look at the entire calendar now,' Morrell said. 'Whereas, Monaco in the past may have been the one iconic milestone event. They now see more opportunities where they can address their marketing budgets and activate.' Oliver Hughes, the chief marketing officer for Red Bull Racing, agreed that the Miami Grand Prix was 'really up there now as one of the pinnacles because the U.S. is booming,' noting the influx of American company CEOs at the event. More than half of Red Bull's F1 sponsorship portfolio is made up of American brands. For those considering their travel from the States, picking a race closer to home instead of crossing the Atlantic to Europe makes more logistical and financial sense. Advertisement Yet Hughes still feels that Monaco provides a 'huge draw' that was difficult to match given its location on the French Riviera. While Miami is a better race to speak to prospective partners and try to do new business, Monaco is more about impressing existing partners and their guests by making a lasting impression. 'What you'll find is if they go (to Monaco) in year one of a partnership, they'll definitely go in year two,' Hughes told The Athletic. 'It's a long way to go. But once they've been, they come back.' Hughes explained that Monaco was able to offer unique aspects that other races could not match, such as attending events on yachts, arriving at the track on a tender boat, or even enjoying hospitality on Red Bull's one-off floating energy station. Instead of taking up space in the cramped confines of the paddock next to the other eight teams, squeezing onto the harborside, the two Red Bull-owned teams have their normal hospitality unit placed on a barge that is moored in the harbor for the weekend. There are some extra additions, including a large patio area to host guests next to a vertically-suspended Red Bull F1 car, a prototype of the RB17 hypercar and even a swimming pool on the top floor. Hughes said it had become something of an 'accidental legacy' for Red Bull that the novelty of the floating energy station was so popular in the paddock, given it was done initially for logistical reasons. From 2026, temporary, uniform hospitality units that serve as a F1 team bases at the track will be used in the Monaco paddock — similar to how the paddock is arranged for events outside of Europe — instead of the motorhomes for other European races. But Red Bull still plans to bring its 'floaterhome,' given it does not rely on the paddock space. The Monaco paddock space will be even smaller in 2026 when Cadillac joins the grid as an 11th team. The novelty of Red Bull's floating hospitality meant rival teams' partners are also keen to sample its offering in Monaco, claimed Hughes. 'We are sneaking in our partners' CEOs left, right and centre on this platform,' he said. 'They'd rather be here than over there, sitting in the shade. They want to be in the sun by the pool. Obviously the other teams will probably tell you the complete opposite, that they're all in their place…' Advertisement Red Bull used the 2025 Monaco weekend to make another major partner announcement — extending and expanding its relationship with Visa, a title sponsor of the sister Racing Bulls team. This will be increased branding on the Red Bull Racing cars as a result. Visa's president first attended the 2024 Monaco race and was eager to return, even holding an event for other CEOs, including Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, on Thursday night in the principality. 'Visa have their biggest banking CEOs here this weekend,' Hughes said. 'So it's all timed in nicely.' Red Bull was not alone in using Monaco for major sponsor activations this year. Aston Martin used the track to give its new F1-inspired supercar, the Valhalla, its public debut. F1's official cruise partner, MSC, has moored the luxury Explora II cruise ship in the harbor, with VIP packages running into the tens of thousands of dollars. There's still a desire to impress and F1 and MSC also used the weekend to announce their partnership contract length has been extended. On Wednesday, McLaren and OKX, a cryptocurrency platform that is one of the team's major partners, held an event on the $50 million Coral Ocean yacht. They launched a new campaign including a tweaked F1 livery design that was revealed on a full-scale car — which had been lifted onto the yacht for the unveiling. Drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were on hand to lift the covers off the car, while McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown commented it was probably the first unveiling he'd ever attended in his socks, shoes not being allowed on expensive yachts. 'Monaco is still the jewel in the crown of the European calendar,' Lou McEwan, McLaren's chief marketing officer, told The Athletic. 'If you look back through from a fan point of view, I think last year's race was still third in the most-watched race in the U.S. ever. We know it resonates with fans. 'We've got double the number of B2B (business-to-business) guests that we had last year as a team — doubled it — and of that, we've probably got more C-suite and CEOs than any other race in the calendar. So, it's a really big focus race for us as well.' Haider Rafique, the chief marketing officer at OKX, said the history and significance within F1 of Monaco made it the perfect place to launch the campaign, particularly with a livery alteration. 'If you're going to do something that's making a fashion statement, which this livery absolutely is, I think Monaco's a great place,' he said. 'People come in, fans come in, they want to dress up, they want to really enjoy the environment. It's the crown jewel of F1 in my view as a fan.' Advertisement Morrell agreed that despite the 'logistical headaches' that come with activations in Monaco, the race remained iconic within F1. 'It's still an invite you can probably never turn down,' he said. Hughes argued that Monaco's star had not diminished at all amid the presence of the new, American races, but instead had risen with F1's commercial tide. 'We've just got these new shiny toys like Vegas and Miami that are perfectly placed, and perfectly timed, to grab the attention of the new audience that has come into the sport,' he said. 'I think Monaco is still growing. There's just other shiny toys around it now.' As impressive as those 'shiny toys' may be for F1, the teams and their sponsors, Monaco still has an appeal those events cannot buy: its history, its prestige, and its location. 'You look at the backdrop of this race, for all the people that watch it on TV or on social media —it's just spectacular,' Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said on Friday. 'In terms of guest activation programs or sponsors coming, it's huge. And, especially for the European market, very important. 'Monaco needs Formula One, and Formula One needs Monaco.' Top photo: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Forbes
These Tech-Forward Art Stars Have Mastered Hospitality In Provence
A quiet corner at Toile Blanche For decades, the Leroy Brothers have been known for their conceptual, tech-forward and boundary-pushing art. One of their early projects jumped off from Myspace; now they're working with AI entities like Midjourney, ChatGPT and Grok. But Toile Blanche, the Leroy Brothers' longtime hotel in Provence, is the opposite of all that. It's devoted to everything that is pleasurable to see, to touch, to taste, to breathe in. It's delightfully analog. Toile Blanche started life as a restaurant and small bed-and-breakfast about 20 years ago. Even as the Leroy Brothers—Gilles, Gregory and Nicolas—were becoming very online art stars in their native Belgium, and beyond, their father had the idea of a hospitality project in the south of France. The main pool Dad asked his sons to open the restaurant; they said they were artists and couldn't cook. He insisted, and it turned out they could. Even as they were still living in Ghent and traveling on the international art circuit, they returned to this corner of the Côte d'Azur every summer to cook 'pure Provençal cuisine.' As their success grew, so did their hospitality offering—slowly, and then all at once. About five years ago, they had the opportunity to buy the property of three of their neighbors. They set about renovating the existing buildings and adding more—they legally could have put about 50 accommodations on their 6.5 acres but chose to limit it to just 22 large, soothing and understated suites for now—doing all the architecture, landscape design and decoration themselves, along with their parents, wives and children. Everyone involved emphasizes that this is a family project. Family members chose every detail in the rooms, the parents take road trips to French wine regions and fill their trunk with special bottles from small producers, and someone from the family is always on site, interacting with their international but generally like-minded ('down to earth') guests and having big conversations about art and the ways they see the world. The dining terrace beside the main restaurant 'The whole family is present,' says Nicolas's sister-in-law, Caroline. 'My father-in-law is almost 80, and he's around every day. He loves to do it. We all work almost every day, but we love it. And guests really feel our family's involvement. Representing our love for our guests is the most important thing.' That involvement has most clearly manifested itself in the art around the hotel, not only works by the Leroy Brothers, but vintage pieces made by their grandfather, who never had the courage to show them during his lifetime, and in a growing collection from all the artists who pass through. After using the hotel reception as an exhibition space, they inaugurated a separate gallery and invite international artists to show their works for two or three months at a time, combining the exhibitions with four-hands dinners with French or Belgian chefs, concerts and other special events. In winter, they offer residencies for artists they find through their international network of dealers and collectors. As part of the deal, every visiting artist gives them a piece for their collection, which is displayed in the rooms and among the lightly manicured gardens and on the wild grounds of the hotel. A bedroom But it's not only the art that sets Toile Blanche apart in a region filled with grande dame hotels and design-forward opulence. 'On the French Riviera, a lot of the luxury hotels are palaces or châteaux,' says Nicolas, who notes that they worked with a local architect to bring their ideas to life, including working with earthy materials to have a natural feeling. 'You don't find places like this,' with this idea of living outdoors 'like in Southeast Asia or Mexico.' (There are two shared swimming pools, as well as private ones in some of the suites.) At the same time, the connection between hospitality and art is vital. 'We didn't want to have only a place where people come and go,' he continues. 'We added art to tell personal stories.' As for the seemingly opposing ideas contained in AI-driven art and nature-forward hospitality, Nicolas says, 'Both for us are very interesting. On an intellectual side, we are very much into 'Where is humanity going?' But the two things don't have to be together. They can be apart in our creations.' The main restaurant's outdoor area He also emphasizes that any work they make or display has to be 'avant-garde yet accessible. You don't have to study it for hours to know what's going on.' And perhaps that's one reason they've been accepted into the community in nearby Saint-Paul-de-Vence, one of those impossibly picturesque Provençal villages that's the stuff of tourist dreams. Locals from the surrounding area frequent their restaurant and art events, and in turn, they highlight some of the galleries and institutions in the village that are doing real artistic work (between the souvenir shops with their watercolors of lavender fields, banal photography and vintage postcards promoting the Côte d'Azur), such as the Maeght Foundation and Fondation CAB Saint-Paul-de-Vance. With their focus more on art these days, both in the village and in their own global career, the Leroy Brothers brought in a new chef a couple of years ago. Nicolas Leclair continues their legacy of local recipes with a modern twist. At the original restaurant, overlooking the main pool, that means dishes like house-made duck foie gras, roasted turbot, lobster fricassee with bisque sauce and Maxi Spaghetti di Gragnano, or rack of Provençal lamb, grilled eggplant with caviar, Muscat grapes and crispy panisse. A few years ago, they added the casual, summer-only La Guinguette. There, on small tables set amid the garden, guests, both from the hotel and especially from outside, share plates like grilled octopus with chickpeas and a popular saucisson bridé (an artisanal dry sausage of pork). In both restaurants, much of the produce comes from the hotel's aromatic gardens—a short journey that's as low-tech as can be.
