Kelly Rutherford’s Guide to Visiting Monaco

There’s a simple sophistication about Kelly Rutherford that pairs perfectly with the glamorously ritzy lifestyle in Monaco. While she still calls the United States home, the actress, best known for playing Serena’s mom Lily van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012, has fallen into step with the lifestyle in the small nation for the greater part of the last decade. 

“It’s actually quite peaceful,” the 55-year-old actress told Travel + Leisure exclusively at this year’s the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. “It’s the opposite of what everyone thinks it is, for me at least. It’s a place you can come and really just be quiet.” 

While its flagship events, like the famous Monaco Grand Prix and nearby Cannes Film Festival, bring international crowds in the summer months, the off-season is especially low-key, she noted.

“In the wintertime, it’s very quiet, very private, and very peaceful,” she said. “It’s like the Hamptons in the summer versus the Hamptons in the winter.” 

And regardless of the glamorous stereotype of Monte-Carlo, her perfect days are quite simple.

“I just walk the dogs, hang out with the kids, and run errands,” she said. “If there’s a gallery opening or something like that, I’ll go just to see. But it’s mostly just quiet time here for me.”

On those easygoing days, she enjoys taking walks in the cove near Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel, stopping by the organic cafe Woo for its sandwiches, salads, cappuccino, and organic juices, especially its Starter Juice in the morning. Another favorite is Cova, an Italian pasticceria with roots dating back to 1817.

Of course she sees the magic about the destination too. “Grace Kelly really created this beautiful feeling here,” she explained. “She invited all the Hollywood people to Monaco early on and made it very glamorous.” 

But during her time there, she’s also seen a shift.

“It’s still very old school, traditional, private, beautiful, but it’s also now becoming sort of a cultural center,” she said. “There’s the feeling like it’s having another new energy.” 

That includes the art scene that she calls “amazing,” especially with the 2021 opening of a location of Hauser & Wirth gallery in a skylit-splashed 3,121-square-foot cube. She’s also watched a new district built up near Larvotto, which is scheduled to open in 2025, as well as more fashion shoots in town, and even a surprise from New York City on the way.

“They’re also opening a Dean & Deluca here — finally, after all these years,” she said, adding that “all we need is a good deli everywhere in the world.” 

For first-time visitors, she suggests walking around the iconic area around the Casino de Monte-Carlo, as well as in the Lavratto neighborhood and around the Port of Fontvieille, including La Condamine market. She also suggested going up to Monaco-Ville, also known as The Rock, where there’s the prince’s palace and Oéanographique Museum.

“It’s worth seeing the view from The Rock — it’s really beautiful!” she said.

Another benefit of being in the small French Riviera nation is its strategic location. “It’s just such a good center to be in and go everywhere,” she said. On one recent day trip, she ventured to Théoule-sur-Mer, including taking  a tour of Pierre Cardin’s bubble-shaped Le Palais Bulles. Other highlights she calls out: Saint-Paul de Vence, Cannes, and Antibes, plus Château La Coste. 

Spending so much time in Monaco has also led to her working on her first European production, the French series Escort Boys, streaming on Amazon Prime Video. “We were filming in Arles — and it was really magical,” she said of the Ruben Alves-directed project. “It’s like the dream to work in France, like we rode horses and on the Camargue. My son came with me and it was just lovely.”

While she still considers the U.S. her home, the Kentucky-born performer has taken to her global lifestyle, which feels innate. “I think we descend from like Sir Francis Drake or something — we sort of have the explorer in our family,” she said of her family’s passion for travel. “We focus so much on education in school, but I think the greatest education is getting to know other cultures and how other people do things. We judge less and we’re more aware and respectful when we travel.”

It’s a philosophy she’s instilled in her two teenage kids, Hermés born in 2006, and Helena, born in 2009 — though the tables have turned. 

“I’m just trying to keep up with them,” she admitted. “They’re both so incredibly savvy and smart and I’m very thankful. They have a much more global mentality too for young people. I’m learning so much from them all the time. I hope they’re learning something from me — I don’t know what!” 

In fact, she is learning from the European mindset too.

“In the U.S., we’re kind of like worker bees, which is good — the work ethic that we have is incredible in many ways,” she said. “There are many other cultures that have very strong work ethics as well, but I think something to learning the balance. There’s something so luxurious about slowing down and enjoying life and taking the time to actually look at someone and connect. Sometimes we are so busy, we don’t really connect with our own humanity and other people as much — I don’t know what we’re rushing towards.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t love the hustle and bustle of urban cities as well. “There’s a momentum and you feel it,” she said. “You go to New York, and there’s so much incredible energy and people helping each other.” 

Though she hasn’t spent as much time in the city since her Gossip Girl years, she still thinks of it fondly. “I spent a lot of time in Central Park with the kids when they were little, and I still love it,” she said. In true Lily fashion, she said she also loved the Upper East Side, including spots like the Guggenheim Museum, Sant Ambroeus, Le Bilboquet, and The Carlyle too.

Another neighborhood she was drawn toward was SoHo, just walking around and popping into the shops, and spots like the garden at Laduree. 

“So much of New York is just like Paris and other cities, where it’s all about being able to walk around the neighborhoods,” she said. “It’s the slowing down aspect, when you just have time to look in the windows. Just taking it in and discovering — it’s the discovery that’s so beautiful.”