The Monte Carlo SBM Resort is playing host to this year’s edition of the Monte Carlo Jazz Festival, in partnership with Rolex and Audi.

This year the festival will be held in the Salle Garnier – one of Monaco’s most prestigious venues, which will lend its unique ambience to the proceedings. The programme runs over 3 days, with the opening night featuring some of the World’s greatest guitarists, and the following night boasting a set by clarinettist and sax player Michel Partal.

There is also an appearance by drummer and composer, Aldo Romano. The final night introduces an array of upcoming Jazz musicians that explore the frontiers of Jazz by blending it with alternative musical styles such as hard rock and folk music.

The main and final set will be performed by Avishai Cohen; a bassist and pianist and composer who has become one of the most symbolic figures in contemporary music. His sound compromises jazz, world, pop, hard-bop and traditional music, and it is said to be worth getting a ticket for him alone.

The festival is a must-see for jazz fans of all ages, and combines tradition and innovation in its mix of performers. Legendary personalities are billed alongside major names for the future to demonstrate the constant evolution of jazz music.

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Is it any wonder, with its ancient sea port, and an ambitious cultural package that features more than 74 artistic projects for a budget of 98 billion euros, the bustling and cosmopolitan city of Marseille, with more than one million inhabitants, beat its French rivals, Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeaux to be announced winners of the European Capital of Culture in 2013.

Whilst Marseille’s excitement at being crowned the queen of culture in 2013 may have finally settled down, the news that there is to be a merger between Orange and the Marseille-Provence 2013 European Capital of Culture has ruffled Marseille’s colourful cultural feathers once more, as the event is now anticipated to be a major technological showcase as well as a cultural one.

In the year 2013, Marseille, the largest city on the Cote d’Azur, will hold hundreds of artistic and cultural events, which will bring the whole province flamboyantly alive.

But now, through the strong partnership with Orange, the 400 planned events will be accessible to an expected audience of 10 million, as the spectacular occasions and events taking place on the Cote d’Azur will now be transmitted in real time, thanks to a series of innovative technology and services.

Through the use of augmented reality, GPS positioning will be available, enabling spectators to interactively share their favourite moments of this monumental occasion on the Cote d’Azur, but particularly Marseille, with friends and family.

The 2013 European Capital of Culture events will pool all the assets and strengths of Marseille and the Cote d’Azur province together, with the government, public authorities, leading institutions and some of the region’s most prominent artists, uniting together to become a single dynamic force.

The city of Marseille has never been a stranger to producing avant-garde, inspiring and innovative projects, events, artwork and architecture, but in 2013 this cosmopolitan French city promises to take the meaning of cultural innovation to new heights.

Mairead Malloy is internationally renowned for playing cupid to the some of the world’s elitist, richest, famous and most desirable singletons.

Her dating agency Berkeley International has offices in both Cannes and London, and is one of the most exclusive introduction agencies in Europe.

Facconable caught up with the ‘millionaires matchmaker’ and talked about her love-affair with Cannes and the bankers’ and celebrities’ love-affair with Berkeley International…

In 1999 you bought a hotel in Cannes. What attracted you to move to Cannes?

I wanted a change of scene, something new to do in order to spread my wings, and move abroad.

What inspired you to head up Berkeley International, Europe’s most exclusive introduction agency?

I actually fell into it by accident! It wasn’t something that I had planned to go into

Does the clientele of Berkeley International, Mayfair differ at all from the clientele of Berkeley International, Cannes? If so, in what ways?

Sure, London is a very different city to Cannes and Monaco, but similar in many ways to Paris

London is a very fast paced, snap your fingers culture, with higher expectations and longer ‘shopping lists’ for the types of dates that clients want.

Cannes is much more relaxed. And the French really believe in love, which is wonderful. Anglo Saxons are naturally more cynical!

You are internationally renowned for playing match-maker for the rich and famous. Could you give us a hint on some of the most famous names you have had on Berkeley International’s books?

Oh I’m afraid I really couldn’t tell, confidentiality is so important to all our members. All I can say is that we have some truly fabulous celebrities as members!

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The Cote d’Azur was recently likened to an “unworldly youthful dame of great verve and beauty with an infinite power of imagination.”

The person who wrote these words was Alice Poon, a writer, who shares her thoughts with readers on her blog.

Ms Poon compares her “apt symbol” of the Cote d’Azur to Paris, “A mature lady of understated glamour in elegant poise, with a certain savoir-faire that comes from a polished culture and living with the best.”

Paris exudes romance, history, art, culture, fashion and style. For centuries Paris has been a great source of producing some of the finest fabrics on the world. Paris has long been a breeding ground for skilled designers and craftsmen, producing high-end, expensive fashion, copied across Europe and beyond spawning the very essence of the term ‘fashion capital’.

Given its age-old aptitude at creating world-mimicked, decorative clothing, Paris can certainly be considered as a “mature lady of understated glamour in elegant poise.”

Whilst Paris has been a mecca for the world’s most stylistically influential and elite, the Cote d’Azur, did not gain similar implications with such refinement and wealth until the mid-19^th century when it became a popular vacation spot of British, Russian and other aristocrats, such as King Edward VII and Queen Victoria.

In this sense, the Cote d’Azur, compared to its country’s capital, as an “unworldly youthful dame”, whereby comparatively recent aristocrats attracted by the ‘verve and beauty’ of the region, congregated to this spectacularly stunning region in their droves.

But it is Alice Poon’s “infinite power of imagination” quote what bears the greatest amount of truth.

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Fashion is a truly artistic expression of an individual’s identity and this artistic expression is embedded firmly into the culture of the Cote d’Azur.

Obviously inspired by the stark emphasis on fashion, uniqueness and identity, the British fashion and music photographer, Rowan Smith based himself in Cannes, one of the style-conscious capitals of the world.

As well as being dubbed as ‘one of the sexiest Englishmen on the Cote d’Azur!’ photographer Rowan Smith, is one of the most respected and revered photographers on the French Riviera. His talents in photography excel beyond fashion photography alone and have branched Rowan Smith into music, maritime, scapes, people, and digital, as well as, of course, fashion.

So compelling is fashion photography in Cannes that each year a Festival of Fashion Photography is held in the French Riviera town. The Cannes Fashion Photography Festival has been a roaring success for eight consecutive years, which gives the residents and visitors of Cannes the possibility to feature in the vast display of images spread across the town.

Each year a panel of judges award three prizes for the best photographers, based on creativity, imagination and ‘daringness’.

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