Christian was born on 17th January 1949. The grandson of Anthony Noghes, the founder of the Monaco Grand Prix and Automobile Club, his father was renowned tennis champion Aleco Noghes. • PHOTO 1 •
Christian’s birth date could not have been more apposite as it fell on what was then the National Monaco Feast Day.
Christian was educated at Le Rosey, Switzerland (1958-63), Downside, England (1963-67), before going up to Cambridge University in 1968. • PHOTO 2 •
Always drawn towards a life of adventure and discovery, Christian worked on a tea plantation and played soccer in Umtali, Rhodesia. While there, he drove around Africa in an old Land Rover (1970). • PHOTO 3 •
The following year he moved to Argentina where he lived for two years. Before returning to Monaco, he drove the length of Brazil on a motorcycle.
After reaching the finals in 1972 of the prestigious “volant SHELL”, a motor racing drivers talent competition, he was sponsored by “Marlboro” and raced in various formula cars, including the Monaco Grand Prix in 1973. • PHOTO 4 •
He had a narrow escape in 1977 when he survived a 150 meters skid on a waterlogged highway upside down in his Ferrari. • PHOTO 5 •
Christian was also intricately involved in the social life of what was at the time the golden years of Monte Carlo. • PHOTO 6 • As a result, he was asked in 1979 to set up in New York the US branch of the “Societe des bains de mer”, Monaco’s dominant state controlled leisure and casino group.
While in New York, he was persuaded in 1981 to audition for the “American Academy of Dramatic Arts”and was admitted to this venerable institution. • PHOTO 7 •
He returned to Europe in 1988 and launched the first mail order company called “Top Trading Hungary” in what was then the Eastern block. After selling out at a profit, he returned to racing competing at “Le Mans” in a Venturi. • PHOTO 8 •
He then acquired a “Honda Goldwing”. For two years, he drove all around Canada and the USA. • PHOTO 9 •
Back in Latin America, he was invited in 2000 to be a judge for the Miss Colombia pageant. Later in 2007 he trekked from Cusco to Machu Picchu in Peru. The year later he navigated the Peruvian Amazon in a canoe. • PHOTO 10 •
With his extensive knowledge of Latin America, Monaco appointed him in 2009 Counsellor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and special envoy to the Caribbean and Latin America . The following year he became Economics Attache at the Monaco embassy in Washington DC. • PHOTO 11 •
He started sharing his time between the nation’s capital and Miami, where he lived with his fiancée Katrina and his son Antoine, caring for his promising tennis career which ended at 17 when he had to retire for medical reasons. Before suffering injuries, Antoine won many trophies. • PHOTO 12 •
He suffered another major road accident in 2017 while preparing to ride a BMW GS motorcycle from Alaska to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. He crashed, broke his two elbows and required a prosthesis in his left arm. • PHOTO 13 •
That did not stop his motoring adventures. But before setting off on the road again, he sold in 2018 his stake in “Monte Carlo Life-style”. • PHOTO 14 •
This was a company he had founded with the ingenious concept of developing 33 luxury brands using imaginary titles of nobility echoing the glamour, the charm and aristocratic heritage of the Principality while keeping for himself his legitimate and official title of 33rd Baron de Massy. • PHOTO 15 •
After this interlude, he was off this time with his son driving to Prudhoe Bay on the northern tip of Alaska in a Chevrolet pick-up truck. • PHOTO 16 •
Next, after returning to Miami, he finally made it to Ushuaia driving a Range Rover Discovery to the capital of Tierra del Fuego and back. • PHOTO 17 •
After this long South American road trip, Christian spent some time on an island in Colombia before returning to Monaco and Spain to prepare for his next big challenge and undoubtedly his most ambitious to date – a round the world solo journey on a motorcycle. • PHOTO 18 •
