A Russian cathedral and christmas beers

In the morning, we headed to check out the Cagnes-sur-Mer Christmas market. To be honest, it wasn’t all that impressive. They had put up some decoration that was supposed to evoke Antarctica or something, but I don’t think it was entirely successful… (well, I guess trying to imitate Antarctica on the Cote d’Azur is bound to feel a bit fake…).



In the afternoon, we headed to Nice. We decided to visit the finest example of the Russian heritage (which is quite noticeable in Nice), the St. Nicholas Cathedral. The Russians have had a strong presence in Nice since the 19th century, when a lot of them came here (many apparently suffering from tuberculosis, hoping to be cured by the favourable climate). St. Nicholas cathedral is considered (at least by the French ;-) to be the most important Russian-style orthodox cathedral outside Russia (I personally consider the Uspenski cathedral in Helsinki its equal – more atmospheric, but less ornamental). Well, it has to be admitted it’s a very beautiful building, both on the inside and the outside.



After this bit of sightseeing, we walked down to the sea by Rue Garibaldi, taking in a part of Nice we are not very familiar with. Having seen the beautiful sunset from the Promanade des Anglais, off we went to the cinema. We saw “La graine et le mulet", by a Tunisian chap called Abdel Kechiche. It’s a story of an old immigrant worker who is laid off after 35-years of service, and decides to open a restaurant on a boat. Of course numerous obstacles follow… I have to say it’s the best movie I’ve seen for a while, with some really great acting from mostly amateurs, and a great ending (let’s just say they manage to avoid a tacky feel-good ending that you could just imagine in the Hollywood remake, if there ever is one…). The coolest thing was that the main actor was also at the cinema – he comes from Nice apparently (as does the director – he originally wanted to shoot the film in Nice with his dad playing the main role but unfortunately his dad died before he could start filming…).



After a delicious and "light" dinner (duck cassoulet and a cake which can best be described as "purely chocolate"), we met up with Mikko, Marianne and Sami, and had a giraffe of beer at Checkpoint to celebrate the approaching Christmas… (if you don’t know what giraffe means in this context, I’m sure the photo explains it ;-)