Christmas in Finland

So, time for a traditional Christmas in Finland. Well, except that this year there was to be no snow unfortunately (as you can see in the photos), so not sure you can really call it very typically Finnish...
But we had a very nice time in spite of that; got some nice pressies, got myself stuffed with loads of food and met up with friends & family.

After the christmas festivities I spent a couple of days walking around Helsinki - not doing much since all the shops were closed. I did have time to meet up with some old friends for a couple of beers though, of course ;-)

Christmas shopping in Nice

Last weekend before Christmas...
Friday night we went to see "Laitakaupungin valot" by mr. Aki Kaurismäki, which was quite an interesting experience. Before the viewing we were treated to a half-hour lecture about Finnish cinema (I learnt a lot - I recognised about 2 of the directors mentioned!), followed by deep analysis and debate about the film (which I was forced to contribute to, since people had somehow spotted I was Finnish??).
On Saturday it was time to get all those last-minute xmas presents then (which in my case would be all the Christmas presents pretty much)...
On Sunday we did quite a long walk along the coast to Villefranche-sur-mer, very nice indeed. We even spotted some people swimming in the sea (well, I suppose swimming in the sea in December in this part of the world is kind of like swimming in Finland in June... :-)

On the left, the view from Cap de Nice towards the harbour.



Above and to the left, Villefrance-sur-Mer.

Mathilde in Nice!

So, finally, time for Mathilde to leave the misty British isles for the fresh pastures of the south of France. I must say the adjustment has not been very difficult for either of us (as much as we liked England...).
The weekend was spent buying things for the flat mostly. Not an entirely straightforward business, as it turned out. Having chosen some furniture for less than 300 euros, we were told the delivery would cost about 100 euro! This was not acceptable to our salesman (well, not to us either!) so he decided to champion our cause and managed to talk his manager into giving us free deliver. Interesting experience indeed...



On Sunday we decided to go for a walk to Italy. Not all the way from Nice admittedly - we did take the train to Menton (which is near the Italian border) and walked from there. Very nice, sunny (I think I actually got mild sunstroke!) and warm (had to strip down to my t-shirt!). We ended up in a small and very pretty village called Mortola.

Last weekend in Guildford

Last weekend in Guildford (also for Mathilde)? Well, at least the last one in 2006... Since Isabelle was organising a traditional Christmas meal (you know, with the overcooked turkey 'n all...), I really didn't have much of a choice, did I? (she can be quite insistent ;-)
On Friday Mathilde and her flat mates had organised a kind of Christmas party at their "Tormead pad", which rapidly degenerated into karaoke madness (even I made some sounds which I suppose could be interpreted as singing!).
On the Saturday it was time for the meal, which we had in the Jolly Farmer between Guildford and Woking, was actually very nice. Very good to see the old mates again as well, including Isabelle, Philippe (visiting all the way from Toulouse), Sinhung and so forth.

Trip to the UK

So time to go back to the UK... Why, you might ask, so soon? Well, there are so many things I miss in the UK: the weather, the lovely food, and so forth.... OK, seriously speaking; I was there for work and of course Mathilde is still stuck in old blighty as well (and to be fair, the pubs are better over there as well ;-)
It was nice to be back in the Farnborough office, so busy and energetic compared to my relatively quiet new professional life over in Nice. And we did pop into London a couple of times, which was very nice. And yes, we did find time to pop into a couple of pubs as well over the week ;-)


On the first weekend we also visited the historic seaside of Portsmouth. We were planning to visit some of the ships, but after seeing the entrance fee of £20 per ship we decided a couple of pictures of them would be enough...




On the second weekend we met up with Mr. Winston Wong and his lovely lady friend in London, with whom we had a nice walk around town, seeing all the tourist attractions (for the nth time)...



And then of course we were treated to some excellent Chinese cuisine in Chinatown.



The trip was rounded off by an excellent thai/chinese meal in Shalford, just down the road from Guildford, with Joanna, Mathilde's if not young, then at least young-at-heart French student.

Visiting Nice

So 3rd weekend in Nice, Mathilde flew over for a visit. We spent the weekend mostly sorting out the flat, and walking around town. Very nice place indeed.



Above, some pictures of Nice port, as well as some free advertisement for a Finnish restaurant ;-)

Road trip on the Cote D'Azur

First weekend for Mathilde on the Cote d'Azur. She definitely picked a nice weekend for it ;-) We spent quite a lot of time sorting out the flat, but found some time to explore the region a little bit.


So we jumped into Francoise's Laguna, and drove down the coast toward Italy, stopping on the way in some of the lovely perched villages of the Riviera, such as Eze (very pretty but oh-so touristy - not sure where all the people live since ever house seems to either be a touristy shop or cafe/restaurant) and Roquebrune (also very pretty and a bit less touristy, pictured on the left).



We stopped for a picnic in Cap Martin, with very nice views towards Menton, the mountains, and Italy. On the way back towards Nice we stopped briefly in Monaco (seen from a bit higher up on the left) for a couple of photos (first impression wasn't that great I have to say - seems to me it's mostly ugly high-rise concrete buildings to me). But anyway - a very nice trip indeed.

Arrival in Nice

To kick the project of moving to the south of France, we spent rather a stressful weekend packing our things into Dave's van (Dave being the chap who agreed to move our things for a relatively modest fee), and found out rather quickly that we had somewhat overestimated the size of the van - the result being that we had to leave about 20 boxes of things in Stephane's cellar (what are friends for, eh?)

Took the early easyjet flight Monday morning from London Gatwick, and arrived in sunny Nice around noon. Fist step was then to acquire the keys for the flat, which turned out not to be entirely straightforward, as I first had to get the flat insured. I eventually (having marched around half of Nice with all my luggage, in the heat which at the time didn't feel all that pleasant...) found an insurer who agreed to insure our flat in spite of me not having a French bank account. In the end I wasn't that late for my appointment with the letting agent. The first night at the flat was a bit cold and spartan as there was obviously no furniture... Although I was kept company by Joel and Francoise who came along all the way from Angers to help me find me feet....

The next day Dave arrived with our furniture, and the van was emptied with admirable speed and efficiency... The rest of the day was mostly spent assembling furniture, although we did also manage to acquire a fridge.

But of course inspite of all the work, we did find time for an improvised quick lunch in the "garden" :-)

Wednesday was a public holiday in France, so in addition to assembling yet more furniture, we explored sunny Nice. Very nice, as you can see ;-)