As some of you may have seen, Vera posted some photos taken October 3rd, when we had the great pleasure of attending a reception here in Moscow with Prince Albert II of Monaco. We were invited to this reception by an old friend from Monaco, the architect Manuel Martin, who worked with many of our early international corporate clients in Moscow doing the design for the finishing works of their offices that we were developing and constructing in the late 1980s – early 1990s. Today Manuel and his delightful wife Alice are the founders and major organizers of the international charitable organization working with the UN High Commission for Human Rights defending the rights of children (en.cyberdodo/presentation.html) , and Prince Albert is one of their financial sponsors. When we were introduced to Prince Albert, he asked me where I was from, and when I answered “the United States”, he said “That is clear, but where in the States?” I then told him I was from Detroit, Michigan, and briefly explained my background as the son and nephew of early organizers of the United Auto Workers union (UAW). I then told Prince Albert that we have great respect for his country, for his family, and especially had great admiration for his late mother Grace Kelly. He thanked me and added “That means a lot to me”! Here are some photos of that evening, including a photo with Monaco Minister of Foreign Affairs José Badia, and photos from our good friend Sasha Mukhin’s restaurant “Oblaka” (“Clouds”), with the nighttime skyline photo taken from the restaurant terrace confirming the logic for this name. A little background information: Manuel Martin was the guy I was skiing with in the Swiss Alps back in the Spring of 1990, when I fell and wacked my head so hard that when I got back up and skied down to the base of the mountain and stood in line at the ski lift, I couldn’t remember where I was, what I was doing there, and what was my name! The great restauranteur Sasha Mukhin, on the other hand, was together with us and his wife in New York when the power went out for 4 days during hurricane Sandy. After 3 evenings of drinking much red wine and singing songs, we wisely made the decision to find a rental car at any cost, and we drove down to Florida together!
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 10:04:31 +0000
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