François Blanc

François Blanc, a French businessman, obtained in 1863 the concession of Monaco's Société des Bains de Mer and its gaming monopoly. With his wife Marie, he developed the Hôtel de Paris in Monte-Carlo, completed in 1864 on the Spélugues plateau. On his death in 1877, Marie Blanc took over management and commissioned the Monte-Carlo Opera House designed by Charles Garnier.