Mareterra

Nothing in Mareterra stands on natural ground. Six hectares of reclaimed land in the Anse du Portier, held inside a ring of eighteen concrete caissons, between the Grimaldi Forum and the Portier. Every level is man-made: a quay at the water around the Petit Portier marina, an esplanade above it on Place Princesse Gabriella, and an artificial hill carrying a pine grove, with a watercourse running down through it.

The surface is pedestrian almost throughout, with vehicles dropping off at Place Princesse Gabriella. Roads, servicing and parking sit underground, and the only road connection to land is avenue Princesse Grace at the Portier roundabout. Officially this is not a ward: it is part of Larvotto, whose official area rose to 27.5 hectares when the extension opened in December 2024.

There is no historic stock and no mixed vintage: nothing here predates the reclamation. The district is one master-planned programme, drawn by Valode & Pistre and Renzo Piano Building Workshop, with Michel Desvigne on the landscape. It reads as a single composition rather than a street of separate buildings — low and mid-rise blocks in pale stone and glass, deep wrapping terraces, villas at the water and others inside the pine grove, a short run of townhouses. Le Renzo holds the western edge, above the marina.

Most of what is on the doorstep is leisure: the promenade, the marina restaurants, Place Princesse Gabriella with its reflecting pools, the climb through the pine grove. The retail around Le Petit Portier is still filling in. The Grimaldi Forum is at the eastern edge, and Larvotto beach a short walk further east along the water. Everyday things — supermarket, pharmacy, doctor, post office — are in Larvotto and Monte-Carlo, a few hundred metres away.

It suits a buyer who wants new build, level ground and a terrace on open water, and who does not mind walking to the shops. The trade-off is exposure. The Grand Prix arrives at the door — the Portier corner and the tunnel run along the landward edge — and building and dismantling the circuit closes roads around the district for several weeks either side of the race. The district’s ground floor is a public park; people pass all day.