Museums in Monaco

Today was the Journees de Patrimoine in Monaco (the French equivalent was 2 weekends ago), so we figured we ought to take advantage of this and visit some museums (although we've been to Monaco plenty of times we haven't really done any touristy stuff - unless you count the Monaco GP or the casino, that is...).



Our first visit was to the Prince's palace, on top of the Rocher de Monaco by the old town. So we got our free ticket (which was handed to us at the entrance by one guy, which we then gave to another guy 10 meters later??), and dutifully joined the hordes of visitors. I have to say it was quite disappointing, kind of like a wannabe Versailles. A lot of cheap, fake-looking decoration and furniture. Really, one could have expected a bit more class from Monaco...




After this we headed for the Museum of Oceanography, which proved to be much more interesting. It's divided into 2 parts. The less interesting one, where we didn't spend a lot of time, is like a maritime natural history museum, with fossils and whale skeletons and the like.



The more interesting part is like a big aquarium, with various tanks depicting the marine life of the Med. Really well presented and interesting. Gave me the itch to do some scuba diving again...

Myriam's housewarming party

Yippee, our first housewarming invitation on the Cote d'Azur, so we really had no choice but to go, right? The invitation came from Myriam, Mathilde's collegue from Sophia Antipolis.


So off we drove to Sophia Antipolis. After faffing about for about half an hour, we eventually found the place. Sophia Antipolis is a modern city - one of the main high-tech centres in France with loads of companies, but a very confusing one, full of round-abouts and one way streets. Anyway, we eventually found the house, and joined the merry-making. It was good fun, with a nice mix of people (I was of course the star attraction as the only foreigner).

We even met an authentic Nicois! (who even speaks Nissard - the local lingo). And we also found out that we are surrounded by Swedes in Cagnes-sur-Mer! (apparently, there is a large community here, and even a Swedish church by the old town).

Walking near Vence and dining in Antibes

Since the weather was glorious today, as it often is around here, we decided to go for another walk. We opted for the Circuit de Malvan, near Vence (so only about 20 minutes' drive from Cagnes).

The walk started near a little Chateau near Vence, which these days houses a museum. The walk took us through some nice forest scenery to the Chapel de St-Raphael, near the ruined village Malvans (which gave the name for the walk). The walk then took us along a valley, which crossed the Malvan "river" (stream would be more appropriate), and back towards Vence, through some nice and gentle hills. So a very nice walk all in all, although it was a bit cloudy...



In the evening, we went to my parents place in Antibes for a nice fish dinner. Jan and Sirpa, cosmopolitan friends of my parents (Jan is Polish, Sirpa is Finnish, they live in Canada, and also have a house in Honduras), were visiting.

Afternoon in Marseilles

Aniko and Philippe had decided to go Marseilles this weekend, since Aniko is going back to the UK soon. So we decided to drive down to meet them for the Saturday. So we got up early in the morning, jumped into our Polo, and off we went down the A8, all the way down to Marseilles.













Marseilles is the 2nd-largest city in France, with a spirit and attitude to match. It was founded in the 6th century BC by the Greeks (as Massalia). Marseilles is first and foremost a port, so it was natural to start our visit in the Vieux port (the old port). It was a very lively place indeed, with cyclists (there was some kind of a big event coming up), Argentinean rugby fans (they were playing Georgia that night, if memory serves me) and of course the fishermen selling their catch, in their loud, flamboyant way. It also affords a very nice panorama of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (the famous church looking over the city perched on its hill).



Having visited the Abbey of Saint-Victor (one of the oldest and most important religious sites in France), we headed back down to the port to meet up with Philippe and Aniko. The initial plan was to have a Bouillabaisse, a real Marseilles institution (a kind of soup made of fish, shellfish and veggie), but were a bit put off by the prices (obviously tourism is alive and well in Marseilles, in spite of its somewhat scruffy reputation). So we decided to have Grand Cru Pastis instead (another Marseillais institution) - much better choice I think :-)

After this we walked around the old town (which is called the "Panier"), and of course went up to the famous Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (taking the tuf-tuf train), from where we had some great views over the city.



A very nice day was rounded off by a great dinner off Cannabis street (or was it Canebière or something like that?) - a great feast of oysters, crayfish and other strange critters (not usually my sort of thing - but hey this was after all Marseilles).

Villa Kerylos

Today was “Journees de Patrimoine” in France, which means that a lot of historical buildings are open, without an entry fee, all weekend. So we decided to take advantage of this. But due to our lack of internet access (which we are trying to sort out…) we were unsure of what was open, we had counted on visiting the tourist info and finding out. But of course, this being a Sunday, it was closed.

So we decided to chance on Villa Kerylos, a famous –style Greek villa-museum in Beaulieu-sur-Mer (which means “beautiful place on the sea” in French – and a very nice place it is indeed). Unfortunately, since the Villa isn’t publicly funded, we had to pay an entry fee (although it was lower than normally).



Villa Kerylos was built between 1902 and 1908 for Theodore Reinach – a quite remarkable character who was, among other things, an archeologist, numismatic, historian and also a senator for Savoy. And also quite obviously, a big fan of ancient Greece. The appointed architect (Emmanuel Pontremoli), decided to model the villa on the rich mansions of the Delos island, which is situated in the middle of the Aegean sea.



I have to admit we were very impressed by the villa. It’s kind of like a modern building (from its time), but really made to look like ancient Greece (including the decoration, furniture, garden, everything!). A real one-of-a-kind masterpiece!





There was also a pretty cool Paris Match photographic exhibition (the photographs being placed amongst a collection of replicas of ancient Greek statues – quite an interesting idea) with photos of film stars, artists and other celebrities.

A well-spent 12 euros, all in all!

Beer, pubs (and a bit of work)

The prospect of going back to the UK filled me with some dread, as I had seen headlines such as “rainiest summer ever in UK” over the past few months (I mean the rainiest summer in the history of the UK must be very rainy indeed!). But since my work demanded it, there was no choice but to go (OK, so it’s not like they had to twist my arm or anything, as I must I do miss old Blighty a bit…). I will not bore you with details about what I did work-wise, and will instead concentrate on the social aspect of my visit (which admittedly might be only marginally more interesting).








The first night I spent in Richmond, as Adrian had kindly offered to accommodate me for the night. So we dropped off my things at his flat (in a very typical Richmond neighborhood), and headed off to his local. After a pint there, we headed for the riverside, which is really a great place to hang out when the weather is good (which it was, in spite of my worst fears!). After another of pint there, were we met up with Amal in the town centre. After another drink (getting a bit repetitive..?) and a nice Italian meal, it was time to stumble back to Adrian’s flat.



Tuesday night I headed down to Guildford. I was staying at the Guildford Hotel (as always), which hadn’t changed at all (so all the staff was still eastern European, and the guests seem to be either from Russia or Newcastle). Needless to say, I really like the place. According to normal custom, I joined the old gang for the pub quiz at the Stoke.





Wednesday night was also spent in Guildford (getting there took me about 2 hours because of some confusion at the train station which meant I ended up taking the somewhat unusual route of Farnborough-Woking-Basingstoke-Woking-Guildford, instead of the somewhat more straightforward Farnborough-Woking-Guildford itinerary). After a delicious dinner at Stephane’s place, where we watched Italy unconvincingly beat Romania in rugby, we headed out to The Guildford Tup (a French bar in an English town, if you can imagine such a thing). After a few beers there, I ended up in Farenheit’s with Stephane and Maxim, where we drank beer and played the quiz machine until 2 in the morning (how sad is that?).



Thursday was spent in Fleet, starting with a few drinks after work with some colleagues at the Heron on the Lake. It’s a very nice pub when the weather is nice, with its beer garden by Fleet pond – and once again we were blessed with some great weather. After that we stumbled onwards to have a nice curry (another “English” specialty I must admit I miss…) at the Blue Room, Golden Circle, or whatever it was called.

So to summarize, what a great week, just like the good old days :-)

Plan des Noves walk

It’s been a few months now since we’ve done a proper hike, so we thought it was about time to get back into the habit… We chose an easy walk near Vence, to get us back into the rhythm, so to speak.



The walk took us from near Col de Vence to Plan des Noves – a kind of flat terrace at about 700-800 meter’s height, which in the olden days was a busy agricultural zone. These days the area is pretty savage, although a couple of ruined sheep farms remain.

It was a nice and not too difficult walk, with a clear blue sky, some nice views over the Cagnes valley, with different landscapes compared to what we’re used to (a bit arid compared to the foothills around Nice).