Visiting Le Renzo
August 31, 2025
Yesterday morning, we did a day trip to Monaco. The main thing I wanted to see was Le Renzo (which is a project I have written about before). Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, it is among the most expensive residential buildings in the world. Condominiums have reportedly sold for as high as €120,000 per square meter (or about €11,148 per square foot).
Before the trip, I emailed the district's PR contact to see if we could get a tour inside. Unfortunately, it's August in Europe, and they told me that nobody from the development team would be around to take us through. So we ended up just walking the perimeter. Here is a photo of the project's north elevation, facing inland.
Here's the south side facing the sea:
And here's a photo of its western edge, including the building's outdoor pool amenity:
The -1 level is boat slips and retail, some of which are still in the process of opening. The fact that they placed the retail where they did stood out to me, because it feels akin to second-floor retail — meaning, it only works in certain places and under certain conditions. Maybe this is one of them.
The ground plane — or at least the level that connects inland — is visually open on all sides, except for the elevator cores and exit stairs coming down from the buildings. This gives you a clear view of the Mediterranean as you approach the district and makes the entire area feel publicly accessible. It's also meant to evoke the image of ships sitting in a dry dock.
We didn't stay in Monaco very long, but this project was the highlight for me. I would have really loved the opportunity to tour inside and get closer to its details.
Leaving Monaco requires some maneuvering if you didn't drive or take the train (which we didn't). Uber is banned within the principality. You can get dropped off in an Uber, but you can't request a car once you're there. This is what you'll see if you open up the app and try:
We were also told that they're very strict about this. If, for example, you get dropped off in an Uber and then try to go off-app for your return, the Uber driver runs the risk of a heavy fine and having their car confiscated for a week. So many drivers don't want to do this unless you're willing to compensate them for the risk.
What you instead need to do is walk to the Monaco-France border, which usually isn't far given the country has a total land area of around 2 square kilometers. As soon as the GPS on your phone signals that you're in France rather than Monaco, cars reappear in the app. And from my experience, the geofencing is accurate within a few meters. It was pretty neat.
In the future, I think a better option might be to road bike over. I saw a number of people doing that yesterday and, boy, it looked like fun.
