Grand Reopening

On 8 April 2011, The Grand Ducal Couple attended the reopening of the refurbished Theater d'Esch. The theater was originally opened by The Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Félix on 26 May 1962.

The theater closed for renovations two seasons ago. The stage, dressing rooms, and administration areas have been refurbished. The theater serves Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany. A small auditorium seats 100 and the main hall has seating for 517 people. The facility now boasts an art gallery and cafe.

Sources: Cour Grand Ducale, Ville d'Esch-sur-Alzette

Birthday Dinner

Yesterday, Grand Duke Jean's family joined him for a birthday dinner. The celebration was held aboard the MS Princesse Marie-Astrid. Wort has kindly provided a few photographs, but very little information. RTL also provides a gallery of images. Video is also available on RTL (I haven't located the exact video yet). Several of the grandchildren preformed La Danse de Rabbi Jacob from the film Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob.

Archhduchess Marie-Christine is definitely pregnant and she is glowing! Superb!

Constantly pursing your lips together is not attractive AND it causes wrinkles around your mouth, which is even less attractive. Tessy, we don't mind seeing braces. Just smile!

Photos: Cour grand-ducale/Luxpress/Jean-Claude Ernst.

Team Leopard Trek

Prince Félix attended the official presentation of Team Leopard-Trek. The Luxembourg based international cycling team is the new home of Andy and Franck Schleck. All of Luxembourg must be suffering from cycling overdose. The past few weeks have been full of hype and news about the team. 

There is, in fact, so much news about the team that I haven't the heart to translate or summarize it. I will happily provide links to the articles. Cycling News has many articles on the new team and its creation. Wort summarizes the press conference and provides a photo of Prince Félix. RTL provides numerous video and photo galleries. I encourage you to visit their website and explore. Tageblatt provides another summary of the event and includes a short photo gallery (3 Félix pics).

The articles are set to translate as soon as you click he link. Thanks Fleur!

Happy Birthday!! * updated

Today is the 90th birthday of Grand Duke Jean. He is joined by all of his children and grandchildren to celebration this milestone. A special concert is being held at the Philharmonic in his honor.

Many people have written to ask me if they can watch live coverage of the concert. I have found no indications that live coverage will be available. I have RTL's live stream open and it is just general news.

Tageblatt has pictures of the concert. The grandchildren did NOT look happy to be on stage. And, Archduchess Marie-Christine looks to be pregnant!! I'm pretty sure that isn't a wardrobe malfunction. Congratulations!!

RTL offers new pictures of the concert. The Daylife gallery is very nice.

Photographs are available at Belga, Getty and Daylife and then head straight for RTL. There you will find high quality images without watermarks. They offer the greatest number of images and the quality is far greater than the images that I have seen elsewhere. Belga, to their credit, offers he first photos of the concert. Tom Wagner has started adding pictures. I recommend them.

Wort offers a brief summary of the life of Grand Duke Jean. I have dutifully set the article on translate for you. RTL offers audio and visual clips of important moments in his life. You will also find that Grand Duke Jean will be on the cover of the upcoming issue of Revue. I really dig his style. He rocks the hat, tweed jacket and tie. He reminds me of my own grandfather.

I'll keep you updated on the developements in the picture/video area.

I hope everyone doesn't abandon Felix at one time. I'm already getting messages with requests for more Constantin and Josef. I'm glad everyone else has finally noticed the other princes. Just don't underestimate Alexander, Christoph, and Wenceslas. The girls are all just beautiful. Carl, my dear, I prefer your crazy curls. Please, never slick your hair back like this again. ;)

Thanks to everyone that sent pictures, links and updates! Sometime after all the final galleries are posted I'll organize everything properly.

The Grand Duchess at Red Cross Gala

Today, the Luxembourgish Red Cross honoured its most frequent blood donors at the Centre Prince Henri in Walferdange. In her capacity as president of the Red Cross the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa presented different medals to about 800 people who donate blood on a regular basis, and have reached the milestones of 80 donations that qualifies for a medal in gold, a silver medal for 40 donation, or a bronze one for 20 donations.

More pictures can be found on the official homepage of the Court.

Sources: Croix Rouge, Lëtzebuerger Journal

The Grand Duke receives Commissionar General of UNRWA

The Commissionar General of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East paid a visit to Luxembourg. He met various important people of the Grand Duchy, including the Grand Duke Henri.

During Grandi's meeting with the Luxembourgish minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian affairs, Marie-Josée Jacobs, it was agreed that Luxembourg will give an extra of one and a half million Euros to support UNRWA health care in the Palestinian territory. Thus, Luxembourg has contributed about 4,25 million Euros in the year of 2010 and is one of the major contribution forces and, therefore, qualifies for membership of the Advisory Board.


Sources: Cour Grand-Ducale, UNRWA

Maria Teresa Honors Volunteers

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, in her capacity as president for the Luxembourg Foundation Against Cancer (Fondation Luxembourgeoish Contre le Cancer), hosted a reception for volunteers of the Foundation Against Cancer at the Grand Ducal Palace on December 5, 2010. Appropriately, the reception coincided with International Volunteer Day.

The Luxembourg Foundation Against Cancer works to prevent cancer, assists those living with the disease, and works to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. The foundation offers many free services to those coping with cancer, such as: support groups, psychological counseling, administrative advice, yoga, chemotherapy consultations for choosing wigs and personal care products, and a network of volunteers to provide companionship and support. The Grand Duchess honored these deserving volunteers for all of their hard work. 

Sources: Monarchie.luGalerie, luxembourg.angloinfo

The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Visit the International Bazaar

Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess visited the International Bazaar at the LuxExpo Hall in Kirchberg on December 4, 2010. They visited the stalls of 53 different countries and sampled some of their best national products, foods, and wines, all of which produced one-half million euros to benefit over 100 international charities. This year's Bazaar also benefited TRH's foundation's efforts in Burundi. 

Between December 4th and December 5th, more than 30,000 people visited the International Bazaar which was celebrating it's 50th year in Luxembourg. The International Bazaar of Luxembourg is an independent, secular, voluntary, charity organization that traces its origins back to a series of small church bazaars that began in the early 1960's. 

Post-war Luxembourg was growing in its engagement in European affairs and the country was teeming with foreign born residents, particularly young European officials and their families. These creative individuals produced a number of new organizations, including the International Bazaar. The first Bazaar was held in connection with the Anglican Church of Luxembourg to raise money for the church and for charity. After its first year, the Baazar moved further into the Luxembourg community being held on rue Notre Dame in 1961 under the joint patronage of American and British ambassadors and staffed by volunteers of many nationalities. 

The 1962 Bazaar raised 75,000 Luf for the "Clinique d'enfants, Fondation Jean-Josephine Charlotte," bringing the event to the attention of the Grand Ducal Family. In 1967 the Bazaar was placed under the high patronage of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte and continues under the high patronage of Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa today. 

Sources: Monarchie.luGalerie, bazar-international.lu

Maria Teresa attends film premiere

Today, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa visited the premiere of a film called "Lynn? Virwat net? Inclusioun gëtt et!" at the Utopolis Cinema. Unfortunately, my (almost non-existent) knowledge of the Luxembourgish language is insuffcient to translate the title. The film focuses on a young girl with trisomy 21 and accompanies her throughout her last year at Primary School in Lorentzweiler, the very same school Guillaume, Félix and Louis attended for their first six years of schooling.

The film is produced by Elteren a Pedagoge fir Integratioun, an organisation of parents and teachers that campaigns for the coexistence of all humans in all parts of society. The Fondation du Grand-Duc et la Grande-Duchesse helped to realise the film.

Elteren a Pedagoge fir Integratioun kindly offers a large gallery of pictures.


Sources: EPI, Cour Grand-Ducale

European Microfinance Award

The Grand Duchess and The Hereditary Grand Duke attended the third European Microfinance Award. The award was part of the European Microfinance Week hosted by the European Microfinance Platform.

It is difficult to tell if Maria Teresa and Guillaume have participated in any other parts of the conference. Maria Teresa gave an address at the award ceremony last night. She gave certificates of achievement to representatives of several mirco-credit organizations. Harbu received the 100,000 Euro award for enhancing value chain financing. The finance award was funded by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The focus of the conference is ‘financial inclusion’ and ‘combining profit with social impact.' The conference seems intellectually stimulating. Combining profit with social contribution can be a delicate balancing act.

On the superficial side, I feel like the US Ambassador always looks like she wants to eat Guillaume. Maria Teresa looks fab. I love the Asian inspired jacket and orange is a great color for her. Now my dear Guillaume...I love your beard. I like your cute belly. I can deal with how thin your face and arms are. I can even deal with knowing that you aren't really all that nice and that you aren't always professional. You know what I can't deal with?? I abhore that worn out yellow tie that you insist on wearing to practically every other engagement. Mmmmm, haterade. ;) I think it is time for Secret Operation Dancing Hula Pig 2.0.

Manuel Dias has a gallery of photographs of the award ceremony.