Progress, Slow and Steady

It must be an exciting time to be in France right now. The last time the Olympic torch moved through French towns, the year was 1924. 100 years ago! 2024 is the third time for France to be the site of the Olympics. As a good neighbor, the Principality of Monaco must be feeling a decent share of the reflected glory. The win of native Monegasque Charles Leclerc in the Monaco Grand Prix certainly spells good tidings, and as it happened amid the resurgence of good health and spirits in Princess Charlène, and a fantastic display of custom race gear by Pauline Ducruet, in which her first cousin, and Prince Albert’s son, Alexandre Grimaldi, had a modeling role, it seems that the Principality continues unimpeded in its ascent to cultural and economic preeminence in the world. As we enter June, Semaine Philo Monaco (Philo Monaco Week) is moving to the fore, once again putting Charlotte Casiraghi on the stage. Ecology, a favorite topic for the princely uncle of Charlotte and Pauline, is central to the agenda–although ecology is but one of four themes for the week, and Charlotte’s particular favorite is likely to be the discussions about Les Femmes. The emancipation of women is core to Charlotte’s mission in all of her activities, whether she is co-hosting a podcast episode to highlight a female author or honoring Chanel’s history and present as a vehicle for feminine expression.

One year ago, almost to the day, Charlotte sat down to be interviewed by family friend Alain Elkann, who pointedly asked her what Monaco represents to her. She said: “It’s very much linked to family, but also there is a lot of culture for such a very small country.” He observed that Monaco does have a reputation. Some people might dismiss the Principality as a place of frivolity, or, to borrow his words, “a car racing tax haven with a casino.” She could not deny it, but she did go on to indicate that the foreign investment and tourism lend it “a very high budget for culture.” When she organizes events, there are no constraints–no financial limitations, and no shortage of collaborative energy. The guitar-shaped country is a field of dreams for entrepreneurial vision. “Build it and they will come” seems to be written into the history of Monaco.

I find that no matter how far Charlotte advances into elevated thought, people, especially in the royal-watching circles on the internet, seem constantly surprised by her intellectual curiosity. It is similar to the surprise often expressed over the journalistic tactics taken by her sister-in-law, the documentarian Beatrice Borromeo. And yet Beatrice began her political analysis on Italian TV and radio at a very young age. She was just 20 when she emerged on the scene in Milan as a beautiful, intelligent protégé of Michele Santoro, the host of AnnoZero, and she quickly rose in prominence as a nemesis of Berlusconi governance. Charlotte, though, has treaded a bit more softly–ironically, for sometimes, her path has been taken on the back of a horse. Make no mistake: both women are fierce in the execution of their ideas. Sometimes their activities are in parallel. Case in point: Charlotte leading the Literary Rendezvous at Chanel and Beatrice participating in the Dior Book Tote Club. It’s just that, while Beatrice followed a fairly traditional school-to-work, conventional marriage-and-then-kids path, Charlotte was a lot more circuitous. That is to say, she took a few detours. Over the years, watching Charlotte, one frequently did not know what to expect. Whether in school, on horseback, or having babies, she kept the royal gossip junkies on their toes. Constant guesswork: who’s the boyfriend, what’s the job title, what brand is she modeling now? There were even moments when usually reliable sources got it wrong, but I have long since given up trying to fact check anyone purporting some special knowledge of what Charlotte does! To me, it’s not so much the minutiae–where she studied, what she studied–that matters as the fact that she ultimately controls the manner and mode of her own story. Many people have tried to write it for her, yet she stubbornly holds the pen. I admire that!

“I continued studying philosophy while at the Sciences Po Doctoral School,” she told Clare Le Fort of Billionaire magazine. Then Alain Elkann, during his interview with her, said: “You studied Philosophy at the Sorbonne, and after work experience in publishing and at The Independent newspaper in London, went back to university, studying philosophy at L’Institut Catholique de Paris.” It’s that tidbit about studying at the Catholic University that intrigues me because it ties in so beautifully with one of Charlotte’s favorite pastimes–reading Simone de Beauvoir, who studied mathematics at the same school. Simone, as well as her lover, Jean-Paul Sartre, also studied at the École Normale Supérieure, a place Charlotte attempted to pass into after Khâgne at Lycée Fenelon. People respond to “failure” in different ways. Sometimes, when we are young especially, we think failure is an end. It can take some time to realize that failure is a learning curve. Failure really ought to be reframed as opportunity. Sometimes, “failure” is just not getting something you thought you should have had, because there is something else even better in store for you. If Charlotte had gotten into ENS, she might never have done many of the things she went on to do. Her sons might not have been born. Who knows? She knew she wanted to keep philosophy in her life. How she did that, or where she studied was less the point than just making sure she kept to the discipline. Philosophy is more than an academic degree. It is something we can practice and apply across a wide spectrum of activities in life, and that is a point she is careful to make in most of her interviews.

It is not easy to maintain privacy and autonomy in today’s chaotic structures. That is true of most of us who do not face the kind of scrutiny Charlotte does. Charlotte is not even as famous as a Kardashian, yet she can’t have a lunch date with a new boyfriend without it becoming a cover story in Paris. (She and Nicolas Mathieu were on the cover of Paris Match, for god’s sake! Paris Match! For what? Going to brunch and catching a train?) Somehow (and no doubt, there’s more effort than meets the eye) Charlotte maintains mystery. It is that sense of mystery that always made her so appealing. When she was a teen, she posed a delightful contrast to the bare-all Hilton Sisters, and now she does many “normal” things (podcasting, for example, and Instagram) without overwhelming us. She doesn’t broadcast everyday, nor even every week. Rather, she speaks when she has something to say. What a contrast to the “influencer” who speaks only for the sake of being heard. That’s why when Charlotte speaks, it is such a pleasure to listen. We know we are bound to hear something worth hearing.