Action! Ridley Scott's Winery is Open

Most people know that Sir Ridley Scott (he was knighted in 2003), is one of the top film directors in the world; his movies include Gladiator, Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down and scores of other hits including House of Gucci (2021). His latest, a historical drama called Kitbag—with Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon and Vanessa Kirby as Empress Josephine--begins production this month.

What many people don’t know is that Ridley has lived part time in the Luberon region of Provence--and owned a vineyard here--since 1992, when he bought a pretty mas (farmhouse) planted with 11 hectares of vines.

I first interviewed Mr. Scott in 2006, for articles in Wine Spectator and Conde Nast Traveller UK. For CNT, we discussed A Good Year, the movie he had just shot based on the 2004 book of the same name, written by his dear friend Peter Mayle.

For Wine Spectator, we talked about his passion for wine and his burgeoning wine-maker hobby-turned-business. “The vineyard was in place when I bought the house...” he told me. “I grow syrah, and I sell to the co-op, the Vinicol. They come with their machines and take it away. Now we're deciding if we want to start doing our own pressing, our own bottles and labels; I'm on the threshold of taking that step.”

He crossed that threshold just a few years later, launching his own label in conjunction with the nearby Cave de Lumieres. From 2009 to 2017, a wine made only from Ridley’s grapes (as opposed to a blend from multiple farms), was bottled there under the Mas des Infermières label. He also expanded his property considerably. 

And now, finally, Ridley has taken the next very-big step and opened his own beautiful 1500-square-meter winery, cave, shop and tasting room, just across a large plot of vines from his historic Luberon home. Surrounding the winery are 30 hectares of grapes: large plots of grenache and syrah and a few smaller plots of carignan, clairette, vermentino and roussanne.

Located on a road called the Chemin des Infirmières, Ridley’s house was once owned by General Robert of Napoléon’s Army, who planted vines there (from 1810 to 1830) and made wine.  At one point the house became a hospital for injured soldiers and when there weren’t enough nurses to look after the patients, local farmers were enlisted to help.

Eventually the historic home became the Mas des Infermières, a play on the words for nurse (infirmière) and for farmer (fermier).

My friend Celine grew up down the road and calls this sun-drenched stretch of Luberon land “the most beautiful place on earth.”

Located half a kilometer from the village of Oppède le Vieux and not far from Menerbes, the new winery was designed by Bonnieux-based architect Andrew Corpe, an Englishman who has worked in Provence for more than 30 years. 

“The vineyard is a sanctuary of silence and sunshine,” Ridley says on the back of every bottle, in what’s meant to look like handwriting. “My family and I came here to paint, read and above all to enjoy the magical life that can be found here.” 

Another nice touch: Ridley illustrated all the distinctive labels himself.

The winery is still in soft-opening phase and will officially launch later in spring. It’s a wonderful addition to the wine scene in the Luberon and a fantastic visit for film fans thanks to the memorabilia on display: a helmet from Gladiator, space suits from Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and The Martian, gold coins from The Last Duel and the bicycle from House of Gucci, to name a few. More items are on their way.

Posters and blown-up movie stills line the walls; you’ll see Thelma and Louise in the rest room and a large poster for A Good Year in the tasting room.  Much of that 2006 movie, about a London stock broker who inherits his beloved uncle's Luberon vineyard and run-down 18th-century chateau, was filmed just down the road (“eight minutes from my house,” Scott has said), at the real-life winery Chateau La Canorgue. Other scenes were shot at the Marseille Airport, the Avignon train station and in the Luberon villages of Bonnieux, Gordes and Cucuron, where a fake moon was hung for a date-night scene and the large rectangular village bassin was filled with floating candles. 

The tasting room and shop at Mas des Infermières is modern and inviting, with soaring ceilings, lots of light and vineyard views. A dramatic spiral staircase leads down to a conference room, private cellar/wine library and the vast cave itself, where Bordeaux-sized (225 liter) oak barrels are lined up in perfect rows, doing their thing.

Back upstairs, you can buy the first wines made on site (the 2020 vintage), plus a limited supply of those made at the Cave de Lumières from Ridley’s grapes (2015, 2016 and 2017). Older vintages, in shorter supply, will be released as specials.

The 2020 wines--two rosés and one red--are 15€ per bottle in the shop. Two more reds and two whites are in the works.

You’ll also find accoutrements such as glassware, corkscrews and wine books...and a blended Mas des Infermières olive oil made with fruit from their 50 trees. This micro-production oil is sold only at the winery, for now.

In the large courtyard out front there’s an enormous old amphora (that once held olive oil) and two 1000-liter oak wine barrels. Roughly 150 years old, they were found in Ridley’s house and weatherproofed before being put on display.

When I first wandered into the parking lot of Infermières last summer to see if they had opened yet, I was delighted to find my old friend Thomas Camilleri running the show. I knew Thomas, a sommelier, from Domaine des Peyre, another popular Luberon wine estate; turns out that Ridley had lured him down the road to help create and run Mas des Infermières. Today Thomas oversees the shop and tasting room, working closely with Bordeaux-born winemaker Christophe Barraud (a sixth-generation wine grower) and sales director Melanie  de Rudder. Ridley comes down from London once a month.

Like many wineries in the region, Infermières was hit hard by a late frost in spring 2021; they lost roughly 45 percent of their grapes. Their 2022 is production is expected to be around 45,000 bottles.

All wines are certified by the Bee Friendly Association and carry a cute little gold bee sticker. The winery uses no pesticides or herbicides but isn’t certified organic because, as Thomas explains, “even organic products can kill the bees.” Instead, they're pursuing the environmentally friendly certification HVE: Haute Valeur Environmentale or High Environmental Value.

Landscaping projects still to be completed include more trees and the creation of a large pond surrounded by vines. Future goals include acquiring more land for grapes, the production of honey (they have bees) and creating a hiking path through the vines. In the future, special events might include outdoor film screenings; I would think that watching an epic drama about Napoléon on a property once owned by one of his Generals, at a winery owned by the film director, not so far from the famous Route de Napoleon, would be quite magical indeed.

For the time being, tastings at Mas des Infermières are free; walk-ins are welcome but groups should book ahead. The actual winemaking, barrel and labeling rooms are closed to the public but visits may be arranged by special request. A few different guided tours will be offered, by reservation, starting in April; a VIP tour will include a seated tasting of older vintages (2011, 2014, etc.). All details will appear on the website soon. Until then, follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates! 

Mas des Infermières
1575 Route du Four Neuf
84580 Oppede, France
+33 (0)4 90 75 66 16
masdesinfermieres.com
Winter Hours: 10 to 12:30 and 2 to 6, Tues through Sat. Closed Sun and Mon.

Summer Hours: 10 to 7 daily.

Photos: (1) The winery at sunset. (2) Mr. Scott started with 11 hectares of vines and now has 30; he hopes to have more soon. (3) Ridley at home in Provence. (4) Ground was broken for the new winery in 2018 but Covid stalled the construction; it finally opened to the public a few months ago. You can clearly see how the architect referenced classic Provencal architecture in the design. (5-7) The dramatic entrance, tasting room and shop. (8) Sommelier Thomas Camilleri runs the tasting room and oversees wine tourism. (9-11) The tank, barrel and labeling rooms are currently closed to the public but might be part of upcoming tours. Tour details will be announced soon. (12, 13) Ridley Scott drew the lovely wine-label illustrations himself.  (14) The carignan harvest in 2021. A late frost wiped out as much as 45% of  the grapes.  (15-17) At the winery, movie memorabilia from Mr. Scott's career includes a space suit from the Martian, a poster for A Good Year (filmed down the road) and blown-up movie stills like this one from Thelma & Louise.  (18) Want to sleep among the vines? Three elegant vacation rentals (like this one) are being built. (19) My friend Celine (in an adorable photo from 1973) grew up just down the road from the winery and calls this part of the Luberon "The most beautiful place on earth." (20) The winery is a stone's throw from the medieval village of Oppède le Vieux, the oldest part of which is super historic, largely abandoned and fantastic to explore on foot. 

Note: The annual Festival de Nimes (June 17 to July 24, 2022) features a wide range of concerts in Nimes' stunning Roman amphitheater. A highlight this year  (on June 25) will be “Gladiator Live" – a cine-concert featuring Ridley Scott’s multi-Oscar-winning film shown on a giant screen  accompanied by 200 musicians and singers. The film will be shown in English, with French subtitles. For info: festivaldenimes.com.

Picasso Opens March 2 in Les Baux...and Paris News

The Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light) is a magical space in a vast cave-like quarry at the base of the hilltop village of Les Baux de Provence. There in the cool darkness, close to 100 video projectors and 27 speakers generate the choreographed movement of 2,000 images over an area of more than 75,000 square feet, onto walls as high as 45 feet, onto the ceilings and even the floor. The sound-and-light show changes once a year and has become one of the most-popular sites in Provence. Since its opening in 2012, Les Carrières de Lumières has attracted roughly 2.5 million visitors.

The last show, called Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo: Fantastique et Merveilleux, (March 2017 to January 2018) drew 554,000 people. If you missed it, you'll have another chance as it will be reprised this summer as part of a program called Les Intégrales des Carrières; more on that appears below. 

The quarry is now closed, awaiting the March 2 opening of the next show, called Picasso et les Maitres Espagnols (Picasso and the Spanish Masters). It runs through January 6, 2019.

The Picasso show lasts 32 minutes and plays on a continuous loop, tracing a century of modern Spanish painting. Part #1 highlights portraits and scenes of daily life painted by Goya, Rusiñol, Zuloaga, and Sorolla; part #2 focuses on Picasso. This year's soundtrack--providing the perfect emotion and rhythm as the images dance from sequence to sequence--blends Beethoven, Bizet and Debussy with Glenn Miller, Keith Jarrett, Otis Redding and many others.

Picasso and the Spanish Masters is part a major international initiative called Picasso-Méditerranée, initiated by the Musée National Picasso-Paris. Between spring 2017 and spring 2019, more than 60 cultural institutions are staging programs or exhibits based upon the artist's Mediterranean work.

Following the Picasso show at the Carrières there's a short (nine-minute) program called Flower Power, celebrating the  pop culture of the 1960s and "the idealistic generation that changed the world." Music comes from Jimmy Hendrix, the Stones, the Beatles, the Beach Boys and more. The Flower Power show was created by Danny Rose, an art and design studio known for immersive audiovisual works.

Once again, this summer the Carrières will reprise the last three shows on ten special evenings in July, August and September. Called "Les Intégrales des Carrières," these special 8:30 pm projections will allow visitors the chance to experience ), Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael: Giants of the Renaissance (2015), Chagall: Midsummer Night's Dreams (2016) and Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo: Fantastique et Merveilleux (2017). On each of these ten nights, you'll get to see all three shows. The dates are July 23, 24 and 25; August 6, 7, 8; and September 14, 15, 21 and 22.  Tickets for these special reprise showings are €24 and can be purchased here.

The Carrières de Lumières are located in the Val d’Enfer, a stone's throw from the hilltop village of Les Baux. The quarries here first produced white limestone, used in the construction of the village and its château. In 1821, aluminum ore bauxite was discovered here by geologist Pierre Berthier, who named it after the village. In 1935, economic competition from modern materials led to the quarries' closure. Dramatic and otherworldly looking, the area has inspired artists of all sorts; it provided the setting for Dante’s Divine Comedy and Gounod created his opera Mireille here. Later, Cocteau came to film The Testament of Orpheus in these very quarries. The Carrières du Val d’Enfer have been awarded Natural Monument status in France. 

Formerly known as the Cathedrale des Images, this particular quarry was closed in 2011 and re-opened (after a €2 million re-do) as the Carrières de Lumières the following year, under the management of Culturespaces, the leading private organization managing French monuments and museums.

Based on the success of the digital exhibits at the Carrières de Lumières,  Culturespaces will launch the new Atelier des Lumières in Paris on April 13. Located in a former foundry in the 11th arrondissement, the Atelier will offer three exhibits in two areas. The opening "long program" will focus on Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele while a shorter program looks at the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, another artist who symbolised Viennese creativity. To see a very nice teaser for the new venue, click here.

Back in Les Baux, adult tickets to the Picasso show are €12.50, kids under 7 are free. There are also family rates and combined-visit prices (Carrières + Chateau des Baux +Musee Brayer) on the website, along with opening hours, directions and much more. 

Carrières de Lumières 

Route de Maillane  

13520 Les Baux de Provence 

Tel: +33 4 90 54 47 37

carrieres-lumieres.com

Photos: (1) You can be sure everyone is tres busy at the moment in the chilly caves at Les Baux, putting finishing touches on the upcoming show at the Carrières de Lumières. (2, 3) Two of the many images you'll see in the show: Picasso's 1922 "Deux Femmes Courant Sur La Plage" and "Just Out of the Sea" by Joaquin Sorolla, 1915. (4) This looks like fun: after the 32-minute Picasso sound-and-light show, you'll see a nine-minute projection called Flower Power, celebrating the 1960s. (5) The old bauxite quarry, now the Carrières de Lumières, in daylight. The geologist who first discovered aluminum ore here named it after the village. (6) One section of the vast space is often lit beautifully for private parties and other events. (7) One of my favorite photos of the village of Les Baux, taken by Philippe Clairo. (8) I went looking to see if Picasso was ever photographed in Les Baux and found a number of great shots taken by the late Arles-based photographer Lucien Clergue, on the set of "The Testament of Orpheus," in 1959. To the left of the artist are Jacqueline Picasso and Luis Miguel Dominguin. On the right, Jean Cocteau, actress Lucia Bose and choreographer Serge Lifar. (9, 10) Based on the success of the Carrières de Lumières, Culturespaces will open the Atelier des Lumieres in Paris on April 13. The new digital art center will host three shows at once, in a former foundry in the 11th arrondissement.

For general information including upcoming activities in Les Baux, click here.

Want to spend the night in a quarry? Sure you do! All the details on one very cool Luberon rental are here. 

You're Invited: Cannes Film Fest Luncheon

The annual Cannes Film Festival Luncheon Party hosted by the American Club of the Riviera always attracts a great mix of locals and visitors. This year it's Saturday May 14 and everyone is welcome. There are 75 seats available on the terrace but if they sell out and the weather looks good, more tables will be set up on the beach.

Guests will gather for Bellinis and hors d'oeuvres at noon at the restaurant Vegaluna Plage Restaurant, just in front of the Carlton Hotel. During the three-course lunch (foie gras, sea bream, apricot tart), film industry folks will provide insider insights and, as in years past, there will be a famous film quiz.

If you're going on to the Palais des Festivals afterwards, it's an easy ten-minute walk along the seafront.

Water, wine and coffee are included in the price: members 65€, guests 75€. The reservation deadline is Monday May 9th and the event is expected to sell out. For all the info or to reserve: americanclubriviera.com. 

The 69th annual Cannes Film Fest launches with a screening of Woody Allen's new film, Café Society, on Wednesday May 11 in the Palais des Festivals’s Grand Théâtre Lumière. The festival runs until May 22 and all the info is here.

Julia Child's Provence House is For Rent

Now that it's possible to rent Julia Child's old house in Provence, it's only a matter of time until someone settles into that famous kitchen, whips up some delicious new recipes and publishes a cookbook titled In Julia's Provençal Kitchen or Channeling Julia or something similar.

From the moment I heard that Sotheby's had listed the house for sale (asking price: €880,000), I had a half-real, half-ridiculous fantasy of buying it and transforming it into a cooking school. And now that's exactly what Makenna and Yvonne (Evie) Johnston have done. They swept in, snapped it up and announced they'll be offering week-long "courageous cooking" workshops there, for six people at a time, in 2017.

In the meantime they're renting the house out via Airbnb, as of June 13, 2016.  Which means that alone or in a group, you could fulfill that classic foodie fantasy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in Julia's actual kitchen! Or, of course, write your own master work. When one of her students spied the house on Airbnb, food writer Molly O'Neill quickly booked it--along with another next door--for two one-week writers' retreats in October. (Molly is a former NY Times food columnist, author of six books, a multiple James Beard Award winner and founder of LongHouse Food Revival. For info: molly@cooknscribble.com.)

I'm so delighted that Julia's old digs--the summer home she loved so much--will continue to be a magnet for French food- and wine-lovers!

In reality this isn't the first time the house will be used as a cooking school.  In 1993, Kathie Alex, who knew and worked for Julia, took it over and ran a program there called Cooking with Friends in France.  She put it on the market in November 2015.

The story beyond the house--how Julia and Paul Child came to have it, who hung out with them there, why it was important to the whole American food revolution--has been well documented so I won't go too deeply into that here.  (If  the topic interests you, you'd love Julia's book My Life in France and as well as Provence 1970 by Luke Barr, which you can read about here.)

The house is called La Pitchoune ("the little one") but everyone calls it La Pitch or La Peetch. It was built in 1963, on a property belonging to Simone Beck, one of Julia's original cookbook collaborators. M.F.K. Fisher and James Beard were frequent guests. It's set amongst the olive groves near the villages of Châteauneuf and Plascassier,  not far from Cannes and Grasse.  (Not that Châteauneuf...but one of many villages with the same name.)

Makenna and Evie say that La Peetch Ecole de Cuisine will be more than just a cooking school. It will also welcome high-end retreats, family experiences, food and wine journeys and more. 

The Airbnb listing calls it "a space to cook, commune, explore and walk in the footsteps of the culinary greats." On Facebook they call it "A Center for Food, Culture and Community." 

Evie, a former U.S. Air Force captain who left the military in 2014,  is now studying at the International Culinary Center in New York. Makenna, a business strategist and life coach, will train at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, where Julia earned Le Grand Diplôme in 1951. (Like Julia did, Makenna graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA.) 

The house has three antique-filled bedrooms, a sitting room, gardens, a pool...and of course that famous kitchen, which is virtually intact. Even Julia's pegboard is still there, the one Paul made and painted with outlines so Julia knew exactly which implements went where. The only thing missing is Julia's beloved white La Cornue stove, which now belongs to that other famous American cookbook author and cooking teacher in Provence, Patricia Wells. 

So of course I had to ring up Patricia to ask how she got Julia's stove.  "When the time came for Paul and Julia to give up La Pitchoune," she told me, "I asked her if I could buy it and she said no. Then she changed her mind and said I could have it as a gift, as long as I replaced it. So that’s what we did! We went to Darty, bought a new stove, went to her house, took the La Cornue and replaced it with the new one, which I believe is still the one in the house."

The La Cornue has two gas burners, a side burner where you can set a series of pots and a small, single gas oven. If you have Patricia's most-recent book, The French Kitchen Cookbook,  you'll see it in there. "The oven is bit cantankerous," Patricia reports, "and it's very difficult to adjust the heat so we don't use it often. But we definitely use the cooktop with our students, who of course love to cook on it. I always joke that having Julia's stove is a bit like having Freud's couch!"

As to what Julia would say about all this, I have no idea. I met her a few times over the years at food-world events but didn't know her. So I turned to someone who did,  my old pal Bob Spitz. Bob is the author of Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child and he's currently putting final touches on the script for a one-woman show of Dearie, which will open on Broadway early next year.

"Julia always filled La Peetch with friends and guests," Bob says, "so I’m sure it would delight her that the house was continuing her gracious tradition.  The fact that it will live on as a cooking school and retreat would be the icing on her, well, Reine de Saba.”  

Want to know more? Check out the stories on La Peetch in Vogue,  Conde Nast Traveler and People, then go to Lapeetch.com, where you can sign up for email updates.

Photos: (1) Julia's famously colorful Provence kitchen has been kept (almost completely) intact. Rent the house and have it all to yourself...or come take a weeklong "courageous cooking" workshop next year. (2) In the kitchen at La Pitchoune, Paul Child painted outlines of Julia’s tools and equipment on the pegboard walls. [Photo by Benoit Peverelli, courtesy of Luke Barr.]  (3) Julia Child on the terrace at La Pitchoune in the early 1970s, courtesy Luke Barr. (4-8) Interior and exterior shots of the house. Makenna says "Our goal is to maintain the house as much as possible, we have no intentions to remodel or update the house itself.  But we definitely are updating some elements of decor, including furniture and linens." (9) Julia's old La Cornue range now lives with Patricia Wells at her home and cooking school in Vaison-la-Romaine, Provence. Owning it, Patricia says, is like "having Freud's couch." (10) Julia at La Pitchoune in 1969. [Photo by Marc Riboud/Magnum Photos, from the Wall Street Journal.]

Out This Week: Brangelina's 2013 Rosé

The newest Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sequel is being described as powerful and elegant, but the rave reviews aren't for a film...they're for the celebrity couple's second vintage of rosé wine, which is being released this week.

The grapes are grown and the wine is produced at the Jolie-Pitt's 1200-acre, 17th-century Provencal estate Château Miraval, located in the village of Correns, just north of Brignoles, in the Var. And if the new rosé is anything like it's predecessor, it'll be a huge hit with critics and consumers alike. 

The 2012 vintage sold out all 6,000 bottles five hours after release last March. And Wine Spectator reported that a single autographed barrel (about 300 bottles) fetched more than $13,000 (about double its market value) at a charity auction. 

Roughly 200,000 bottles of the 2013 will be sold for about 15€ ($20) each. 

While the Miraval website says: "Sorry, booking exclusive Miraval first bottles of Rosé 2013 is now closed. Communicate your email address, we will keep you informed of upcoming availability," my contacts at the winery tell me it will be in shops in France and the U.S. starting in early March. Wine-searcher.com shows it on sale through many international retailers here.

Decanter has given the 2013 Miraval 91 points, describing it as "charmingly pretty in colour" with "a delicate structure that deepens through the palate."  The magazine goes on to say the wine has “a sense of power alongside the elegance, a structure and a fresh acidity that gives the wine persistency, with a grip of minerality that gives a delicious mouthwatering finish.” 

The 2012 vintage, Pitt and Jolie's first, was a serious rosé ranked No. 84 in Wine Spectator’s list of the top 100 wines of 2013...the only rosé to make the list.  (Press releases immediately started touting it as ''the best rosé in the world.'') Wine Spectator managing editor Kim Marcus described the 90-point wine as "Refined and elegant, offering pure and concentrated flavors of dried red berry, tangerine and melon. The focused finish features flint and spice notes, with a hint of cream." 

To make their wines, the Jolie-Pitts joined forces with the Perrin family of the renowned Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate Château de Beaucastel and the Central Coast property Tablas Creek Vineyard.  At the time of the release of the 2012, Marc Perrin described the Miraval domaine:  “This is a magical place that we traverse from one end to the other to discover exceptional plots. The valley, property of the château, offers an unmatched eco-system and gives the wines a unique style in terms of freshness and elegance.” Perrin says he worked closely with Pitt and Jolie to develop the wine. 

The rosé project has gone so well, Decanter's Jane Anson says, that the movie star duo has signed up the Perrins to make a red wine “in the style of Italy’s Super Tuscans.” But first they have to plant the vines and before that, according to Perrin, they’ll need to “experiment with different grape varieties, from Syrah and Mourvèdre to Cabernet Franc and others.”

If you get your hands on the 2013 Miraval and want to share your source, please leave a comment below! And I'll leave you with this fun factoid: One rosé wine previously made at Miraval (before the Jolie-Pitts took over) was called Pink Floyd, because the iconic British band recorded part of The Wall at the estate in 1979.

You're Invited: A Côte d'Azur Thanksgiving

Once again, the American Club of the Riviera is hosting a gala Thanksgiving luncheon on Thursday, November 28 at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco. (Capacity is around 170, there are 30 seats left and Monday is the deadline to sign up.) The menu includes all the traditional holiday dishes and the event kicks off with a Champagne reception. The Hôtel de Paris is, of course, where Alain Ducasse has his sumptuous Michelin three-star restaurant Le Louis XV.

The Thanksgiving guest list includes members of the US Air Force, who are spending this quintessentially American holiday serving their country far from home.

This year's speaker will be Dr. Os Guinness, who will discuss "What Made America Great?" Dr. Guinness was born in China--where he witnessed the end of the Chinese Revolution-- and educated in England; he holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford. He has written or edited 30 books including The Free People’s Suicide … Sustainable Freedom and the American ​F​uture. Dr. Guinness has worked for the BBC and the Brookings Institution; he's spoken on scores of university campuses, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford. In 1759 his family began the Guinness Brewing Company in Dublin, but today he lives with his American wife Jenny, just outside Washington D.C.

Details:

*Reservations and tickets: Click here. Last call is Monday, November 25.

*Venue:  Salle Empire at The Hôtel de Paris, on the Place du Casino, Monaco (location and directions here).

*Date:  Thursday. November 28th, 2013. Champagne reception starts at 12:30, followed by lunch and presentation.

*Dress: Jacket and tie required.

*All-Inclusive Prices: € 80 per person for members of the American Club of the Riviera and their immediate families. € 90 for members of affiliated clubs. € 95 for non-members.

*More questions? Contact ACR president Burton Gintell: bgintell@aol.com, 06 20 40 11 28.

Photos: The Restaurant Salle Empire and the splendid Hôtel de Paris in Monaco.