A walk by the Loire

What with all the Christmas meals we’ve had, we figured it was about time to do something vagely sporty, so we decided to go for a walk. Francoise had picked a nice, decent-length (6 hours) walk through some typical Angevine countryside, starting in the village of Saint-Martin-du-Fouilloux, about a 20 minutes drive west of Angers.

We’d certainly picked the right day for the walk - as all the days of the gone week had been either cloudy or windy. Today, we were blessed with both blue skies and no wind well, not much anyway). But it has to be said, the sun doesn’t warm up the winter days quite as much as they do down here in the South of France – it still most definitely felt like winter.

Anyway, the walk took us from Saint-Martin-du-Fouilloux (a typical, rather charming, Angevine village), down towards the Loire river, through some very typical rural landscapes. We even came across a fair few farms and sheep (who were strangely curious, by sheep standards, and actually approached us – probably in the hopes of getting some food). And of course we passed by a proper Chateau (there are quite a few of those in the region – this being the Pays de Loire region after all – with the Loire valley and its glorious castles not too far away) – unfortunaly it was a private one, so we couldn’t visit.

Our brisk pace brought us down to the midoiint of our walk – which was the Loire River, a bit ahead of schedule. What a great day to walk along that magnificent river it was, with the sunrays reflected in the still waters, a few abandonded barks lying on the shores, and the odd heron taking flight as we approached (those binoculars we got from Santa Claus came in handy).

Eventually we reached another pictureseque Angevine village, La Possonière, where we had our picnic lunch, by the tiny port. It was all very filling, with some sandwiches, pate, cheese, fruits, piparis - all washed down by a couple of bottles of beer. After our lunch stop we did a quick tour of the village and then carried on, heading back to Saint-Martin-du-Fouilloux.

All in all, it was a very nice way to spend a beautiful winter day, and a nice change from the walks we do here in the South of France. The landscapes are perhaps slightly less impressive, but it makes a nice change to see some real countryside, rather than villas and swimming pools.

The rest of our stay in Angers was quite uneventful. Mathilde’s oncle Jacques came over for lunch with his wife, and we also took the opportunity to visit Delphine and Christoph and their little ones, in their nice house near the centre of Angers (where we were treated to some absolutely delicious, home-made Madeleines – yummie…).

And then it was time to head towards Brittany, to celebrate the arrival of 2009…

Christmas in Angers

Our journey from Paris to Angers on the TGV was a quick and uneventful one, and Francoise was kind enough to pick us up at the station and take us back to the house near the Lac de Maine – and had a pot au feu (a hearthy stew of beef and veg) waiting for us – which really hit the spot (not that I was exactly starving after the rather robust lunch and afternoon crepes we’d had in Paris).

After then the typical holiday season social roulette continued, where we had left off in Paris. On Monday we borrowed Francoise trusty Laguna, and set off to visit Mathilde’s granddad and grandma. First off was Grandpa Robert, who lives in the tiny Sarthoise (Sarthe being the departmenet north-east of Maine-et-Loire, where Angers is located) village of Saint-Denis d’Orques. He was on good form as usual, and entertained us with photos from their recent trips to Andalucia and Marocco (I hope I will be as adventurous as him when I’m his age…). We then drove on to see Grandmother Ida in Evron, in the Mayenne (that being the department just north of Maine-et-Loire – where Mathilde’s dad comes from). We decided to have lunch before the visit – which proved to be a rather difficult mission as Evron doesn’t seem to be a very happening place (at least on Mondays). We eventually found a cozy creperie (which was busy – not surprising since it appeared to be the only open restaurant…). The visit went well – Ida was on pretty good form as well (although I get the impression Ida struggles a bit with my French – must be my Finnish accent or something…).

On Tuesday, Stephane, our good friend from our years in Guildford (who seems to feature in most blog entries involving pubs in England…), who comes from the Sarthe, had kindly agreed to come over to visit us in Angers. It was nearly what one could call an emotional moment for me – as Stephane has decided to leave the safe confines of Surrey University to work in San Diego (now that must’ve been a tough choice – Guildford, Surrey, vs. San Diego, California) – which means it’s going to be quite tough for him to appear in future blog entries involving English pubs. Oh well, life goes on. Anyway, after sorting out a place to sleep for Stephane, we jumped on the bus and headed downtown for an aperitif with CoCo (this being all she had time for, busy as she always is). We then proceeded to have dinner – and ended up in a rather special restaurant. Located in an old church, the theme was medieval – with pretty authentic looking décor – there was even an option to rent a medieval costume (free for kids). The food was a bit pricey, but pretty good (I had quails for starters and goose as a main dish – pretty unusual stuff). And the quantities weren’t exactly of “medieval feast proportions” – more like French haut cuisine. Still, we enjoyed the meal. From there we headed down to the legendary (apparently?) Angers bar “Central Bar”, where we met up with Nathalie and Sandra (friends of Mathilde from her years in the north of France) for some more drinks. Sandra was kind enough to drop us off at the house – where we finished off the evening in style (or lack of?) with some Calva and palm wine (another speciality of Francoise’s – great stuff).

And then, Christmas Eve was upon us! Me and Mathilde were charged with preparing the dinner – and we decided (to my slight discomfort – accentuated by the raging hangover) to prepare something Finnish. After some frantic surfing on the internet for recipies, we decided upon salmon soup as a main course and some “piparis” (kind of like gingerbread cookies) for desert. Thankfully the xmas eve dinner was a very private affair –only 4 of us. We found nearly all the ingredients, and did manage to put together a pretty decent meal (everybody finished their plates and nobody got food poisoning, at least). Although it has to be said we struggled a bit with the gingerbread pasty – must’ve been the recipy. Unfortunately in France santa claus brings the pressies on the morning of the 25th (in Finland we get them on the eve of the 24th – practical for ol’ Santa I guess to drop them off in his own country first ;-) – so had to wait a bit for them.

The morning of xmas day was spent preparing the big Christmas lunch – this time Francoise’s children Marc and Nathalie were joining with their families (I was assigned to oyster-opening duty with Herve). Before lunch, for something more, though – PRESSIES! I was rather happy with my presents which included some binoculars (good to spy on the neighbours with), a book on Leonardo DaVinci, and a DVD collection on the history of cinema by Jean-Luc Godard (can’t go wrong with that!) and of course several bottles of wine. The food was absolutely delicious, of course, starting off with oysters, followed by some great pate, beef tongue and other delicacies. After a few hours of well-needed rest (French Christmas meals are rather filling), Muriel arrived with Paul, Lucas and Alix. After “the second coming of Santa Claus”, we were treated to yet another delicious meal (more oystes – I’m really getting the hang of it). Of course with Paul, Lucas and Alix around, no point hoping for any rest – so the rest of the evening was spent playing with various toys I felt a bit old for (maybe except for Alix’ Nintendo DS).

The next day continued pretty much the same, playing with the kids. Good fun, but rather tiring, I must say (especially the Twister Mat game which is basically a mat with spots of different colours – where you need to place your hands and feet. You would’ve thought it would be easy for me with my long limbs – think again, I didn’t win once!). We were sorry to see Muriel take off with the kids – the house felt so empty after that ;-).

In the evening we headed down to the local Irish pub in town - less than imaginatively named James Joyce (then again, when do Irish pubs have original names?), where we met up with Aude and Magaye for a couple of well-deserved (I thought so, anyway…) pints of Guinness. And more christmas presents were exchanged ;-). What with all the hustle and bustle of the last couple of days, we called it a night pretty early on, this time...

Saturday we spent digesting all the xmas food we had eaten, mostly. In the afternoon Dorine and Aldo came over for coffee and piparis. Aldo is Peruvian, and was an excellent guide for us when we visited Arequipa in Peru a few years ago – he lives in Paris now with Dorine. It was good to catch up with them, since it’s been a couple of years since the last time we got together. They seem to be enjoying their life in Paris - hopefully we can hear more about it once we get together for a proper meet-up in the near future, either in Paris or the South.

On Sunday Francoise’s children came over for lunch again (this time also Xavier and his girlfriend Aude) – so yet more delicious food was eaten (including foie gras – yummie…). We also ate the buche de Noel that I had prepared (OK, with “some” assistance from Francoise and Mathilde) – the traditional French Christmas desert (basically composed of eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate and flour – simple yet delicious). In the afternoon we were joined by Nathalie and Patrick and their children – including my dear godson Florian. We took them down to the Lac de Maine where we checked out the local playground (and endured the freezing wind…). Florian impressed us all by repetedly beating us all in sprint contests – he must’ve won at least 10 gold medals throughout the day. Tired as we were once we got back to the house, we rewarded ourselves with some piparis and hot chocolate.

A Very Busy Day in Paris

Christmas approaching! This time we had decided to spend it together in Angers (the rest of the Turtiainen clan having decided to go on a cruise to the Red Sea – not a bad option either). Isabelle had kindly invited us to spend New Year’s Eve at her parent’s place in Brittany near Nantes, which fit in nicely with our plans. After exploring various options, we decided to take the train in the end – ending up with the following itinerary: Antibes-Paris-Angers-Nantes-Antibes.

The first leg of the journey took us from Antibes to Paris, on the night train (in my opinion a great way to travel – as long as you manage to sleep on the train, of course). Things didn’t start off very well, as we realised there were no trains from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Antibes (due to a strike, what else?). Fortunately, Hannu, who was returning from his shopping trip, was able to drive us down to Antibes. Other than that, our trip was eventless, and we arrived in Gare d’Austerliz in Paris on schedule, bright ‘n early in the morning.

We had a very busy social schedule for the day, so without further ado, sped down to Gare Montparnasse (from where our train for Angers was departing later on), where we left our luggage in a locker. We then jumped on the metro again, and headed down to Pantin, at the outskirts of Paris, for our scheduled breakfast at CoCo’s place. We spent a couple of very pleasant hours catching up on the latest news and inspecting her typically cozy Parisian apartment (which she had recently bought), munching down croissants and fresh baguette.

From there we jumped on the metro again, and headed for our lunchtime rendez-vous, with Sarah and Bruno, near Bastille. We were actually a bit early, so had time to check out the local market hall with all the tasty Christmas food on display – nice for working up an appetite. Sarah and Bruno had, as always, picked a top eatery – this time a small and cozy epicerie called “Les Crocs”. The food was very good indeed – I had a nice plate of charcuterie followed by a very nice (and big!) home-cooked sausage and mashed potatoes. Simple, copious and very tasty – just the way I like my food ;-).

Our appetites sated, we sped down to Republique, where we were meeting Milene, a good friend of Mathilde’s from her mad ERASMUS days in Perugia. We only had time for a quick drink with her – but it was good to be able to catch up with her as well, short and sweet though it was.

Time was pressing, so back we got on the metro, and headed back down to Gare Montparnasse, where we were meeting Muriel and Mathilde’s lovely niece and whirlwind nephews (we only spent about 2 hours with them but that didn’t stop them from making short work of my leather jacket ;-). Good thing we didn’t have desert at lunch – as we headed down for a very tasty crepe indeed at the Creperie Josselin – a real Parisian institution, apparently.

We then headed back to the train station – where I still had time for one last pint before catching the train – with Emmanuel, and old mate of mine from my student days in Edinburgh. It had been nearly 10 years since our Scottish odyssey, and hadn’t met since, so emotions ran amok. Well, I’m exaggerating a bit – but it was great to hear the latest anyway. With promises of more beer and catching up next time we were in Paris, we rushed off to catch the train for Angers...

Chateau de Cagnes-sur-Mer

We’ve lived in Cagnes-sur-Mer for nearly a year and a half now, and I still haven’t (unlike Mathilde) visited the main tourist attraction – the castle. So since this Sunday started off very rainy, offering no promise for any outdoor activities, we figured today would be a good a day as any to pay the old castle a visit. We had also learnt on the web that a local Finnish artist (so me and Hannu are not the only Finns living in Cagnes-sur-Mer, after all! Yihaa!) was having an exhibition in the castle.

So off we went, climbing up the steep hill to Haut-de-Cagnes, which is dominated by the chateau. As we approached, my heart filled with pride, as I saw the Finnish flag hoisted next to the French one at the top of the impressive structure (we’re a very patriotic lot, us Finns). Before visiting the castle, we took the opportunity to visit the church, which I had not visited so far either (no wonder, given how well hidden the entrance is). It was a typical Provencal chuch, with Baroque interiors, although some of the paintings were pretty unusual (like the one with John the Baptist’s head on a plate).

We then proceeded up the stairs to the chateau, and paid the 3 euro entrance fee. The ground floor houses a small local history museum, which seems to concentrate on olives – which have of course always been very important to the region (I learnt, for example, that olive oil used to be a very important source of fat, since dairy products had to be imported to the region – this being more a region for sheep and goats than cows). Another interesting detail – apparently the castle was founded by one Rainier Grimaldi (the castle is called Chateau Grimaldi). So the name Rainier made me wonder whether the Grimaldis of Cagnes are related to the Grimaldis of Monaco. Hmm, now there’s something to ponder upon...

The second and third floors housed the art collection of the chateau – which contains works of art from numerous famous artists (not so unusual perhaps, given that quite a few of them have spent time on the French Riviera). We were treated to a most impressive collection of portraits of one Suzy Solidor – there were paintings of here from probably 20 different artists (which included the likes of Cocteau, Van Dongen, Picabia, Lempika)! Must’ve been somebody pretty famous, I suppose…? And as for Johanna Oras' (yes, that would be the Finnish lady) exhibition? Well, I must admit, despite all my patriotism, I struggled somewhat to be impressed by her paintings. The theme of the exhibitions was teddy bears. Mostly the art consisted of thematic studies with a “teddy bear twist” (“Still life” was, er, a normal still life type of painting but with a teddy bear added to the mix), or famous people in “teddy bear form” (the lady & lord of the castle as teddy bears, Picasso as teddy bear, Jean Renoir as teddy bear, Mika Hakkinen as teddy bear, you get the picture). I guess it’s an original idea, but it just didn’t do much for me. Well, modern art isn’t always my cup of tea anyway…

We finished off our visit at the roof of the castle, where we were treated to some great views over Cagnes-sur-Mer, and the surrounding areas. We could even see our flat from there ;-) And of course we got to see the Finnish flag all close up – Mathilde had to restrain me from climbing up the flag pole (an impressive feat, considering our size difference).

Winter has come to the Cote d'Azur

Winter has come to the Cote d’Azur, finally. Well, to be fair, the nearby mountains have already been snow-covered for a couple of weeks. Isola 2000 (the biggest ski resort in the area) opened last weekend, followed by the other resorts (Auron, Valberg and Greolieres) this weekend. Since the weather was back to normal (sun shining, blue skies), we figured it would be nice to do something winter-related.

So on Saturday, we decided to head for Greolieres (which according to our good friend Ollie is the prettiest village in France – must be a coincidence that he comes from there) – it being the ski resort nearest to us. After some deliberation, we decided to rent raquettes and go for some hiking in the snow, instead of doing downhill skiing. And what a glorious day we picked for it – the air was crips, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining. Just perfect for a hike through the snow-covered alpine landscapes. So off we set, after a healthy and nutritious meal ("Chicken et frites"for me, "steak hache and frites" for Mathilde).

The hike took us through a nice forest, along the ski slopes, towards le Plan des Baumettes, a valley surrounded by some decent-sized alpine peaks. From there we got to the toughest part of the hike – a rather steep hike up to la Croix de Verse (at the lofty altitude of 1706 meters). Once we got up there, we were hit by what is probably the strongest wind I’ve ever experienced, honest! I though I was going to be blown off the mountain for a minute, there! But the views were certainly worh our efforts, the distant and imposing peaks of Mercantour beckoning in the distance, and Jerusalem, a slightly higher peak just to the west of us. But we did not linger, due to the brisky wind, and made our way back down the cliff.

The walk back to Greolieres was just as delightful, although the sun was starting to set. We even found a snowman on the way back… A nice vin chaud in the first bar in sight brought an end to a pretty much perfect hike! Days like this makes me feel really lucky about living where I do – being able to enjoy the warm and sunny winter days on the coast, while at the same time being a 1-hour drive from some great snow-covered mountains….

La Fondation Maeght & St-Paul

This has been a pretty crazy week on the Cote d’Azur. On most days it’s been raining cats and dogs, and on Monday we had even had sleet coming down – to the point were the ground was pretty much white (felt almost like being back in good ol’ Finland). A far cry from the first November I spent here 2 years ago, when I first arrived, when we pretty much had blue skies every day…

So we decided to celebrate the coming of the weekend with a nice meal in Nice on Friday evening, with Sami, Mikko and Marianne. We decided upon a simple restaurant in the old town called Demode (is it supposed to mean it’s really out of fashion, or what?) – and funnily enough it turns out it was ran by some friends of Marianne’s parents. The meal was good enough, the wine went down very well indeed, and many laughs were had. “Unfortunately” the meal carried on just long enough for us to miss the 10:44 train – which meant we had to find a cozy bar to kill the time before the next (and last) train, which was at 00:24.

Unfortunately the miserable weather continued on Saturday, so we decided it was a good day to visit a museum. We picked the Fondation Maeght – one of the more famous art galleries on the Cote d’Azur, located, quite appropriately, in one of the most picturesque (not to mention touristy) villages on the Riviera, St-Paul-de-Vence. Appropriate, I say, because St-Paul has always been very popular with artists. We had heard good things about the Fondation, especially from my parents, who were even registered members - so expectations were high.

And the foundation didn’t disappoint. The location is great, on a hilltop, with a nice view over over the nearby foothills (pity about the crappy weather…). The exhibition itself was interesting, featuring a lot of works by Miro (all of which seemed to be called either “women and a bird” or “persons”), as well as artists such as Giacometti, Leger and Chagall. I liked the outdoors labyrinth as well, also designed by Miro. So In spite of the 7 euros entrance charge (which felt quite a lot for a visit of less than 1 hour), it was well worth the trip.

After this dose of cuture, we walked down to St-Paul for a short stroll. It’s always a nice place to visit, with its narrow cobble-stoned streets and cozy houses – in short, St-Paul ticks all the boxes for those looking for the perfect Provencal village. One good thing about the poor weather – for once the place was nearly deserted (normally the place is over-run by tourists). We finished our visit with a nice cup of tea and some cake at a local tea shop.

La Napoule and San Peyre

We had a rather frenetic yet productive Saturday – I managed to finish all my Christmas present shopping in one day! To have done that in November is definitely a personal record (one that is very unlikely to ever be broken). There was a reason for this – my parents are heading back to Finland in a few days time so we wanted to ship our pressies with them. And since we were meeting them for dinner in Nice this evening, we decided to get the shopping out of the way. My parents had selected Trattoria Giuseppe for the dinner, in the old port of Nice, located at the former premises of Jouni (one of the gastronomic highlights of Nice – run by a Finn – he recently moved his restaurant to a swankier location). The quality of the cuisine is not quite up to its predecessor’s (but I enjoyed it anyway), but it has to be said that the price level is rather more reasonable as well (20 Euros instead of 100).

On Sunday, we had decided to continue from where we left off last weekend, and go for another walk. The weather was not quite as nice as it was last Sunday, but at least it didn’t rain... We picked another coastal walk, this one starting in La Napoule. The focal point of La Napoule is without doubt it’s castle, admirably located on the beach, overlooking the sea. It dates back to the 14th century, and is apparently (according, once more, to my Guide Vert) a mixture of several styles (Romanesque, Gothic and Oriental). Most appropriately, our walk started there, taking us along the beach past the imposing castle, towards the Massif d’Esterel. We carried on along the coast line until the small port of la Rague, from where we carried on inlands along the river, bearing the same name. We actually missed the footpath we were supposed to pick, and ended up walking along the river for rather a lot longer than we were supposed to. Oh well, it was a pleasant enough stroll, down a gorge, surrounded by the reddish Esterel rock structures.

We eventually realised our mistake, backtracked, and found the footpath. It took us up a rather steep hill, Mont Turney (well, actually , it’s only 87 meters high - we REALLY are out practice ;-) to a private castle, Chateau d’Agecroft (which has been converted to a kind of holiday centre for companies). From there we walked down towards La Napoule again, and up another hill – San Peyre (the culmination point of our “walk through the wild”). Another frisky hike took us up to the summit, at the lofty height of 131 meters. From there we were greeted by some very nice views all over the cote d’Azur – no wonder this hilltop was once one of Guy de Maupassant’s favourite haunts. He might be a bit disappointed about all the high-rise buildings, swimming pools and shopping malls that litter the coastline these days (the only nearby patch of green we could see was a gold course!).

Walk around Cap d'Antibes

We’ve been rather lazy lately when it comes to hiking – so we decided it was about time to get off our bums and get back into it. The fact that the weather was back to normal (blue skies, sunshine) helped ;-). We decided to start off with a nice and easy walk, just to get back into shape a bit – so we decided to do a walk around Cap d’Antibes.

Cap d’Antibes is, as pretty much all places stating with the word “Cap” on the Cote d’Azur are, a place where the rich and the famous live, and others visit. It’s a very pretty peninsula – with a coastal foot path following its rocky coastline.

Thankfully, French legislation says all the coastline is public space – so in theory nobody’s allowed to build on it. And that is, with some exceptions, the case. If it wasn't for the law, I think it’s safe to assume the coastline would be covered with villas (now they’re all about 10 meters from the coastline, behind very high fences)...

Anyway, the walk was a nice enough one, taking us from our parking spot by a beach all the way to the tip of the cape. Actually, we did most of the walk last year already, but weren’t able to go all the way since part of the foot path was closed at the time. Better luck this time. Our walk then took us back past a massive villa (called Chateaux this-or-the-other), though some rather posh residential areas back towards our starting point.

As the weather was very fine indeed, and we were really enjoying ourselves, we decided to make a detour, and walk up to the highest point of Cap d’Antibes, where there’s a nice little (although rather unremarkable) chapel as well as a light house (which is, according to my trusty Michelin guide, one of the most powerful ones on the Mediterranean, with a visibility range of 52 kilometers for sea vessels in clear weather - now that's a useless bit of information for a pub quiz...). We did have very nice views from there back over the Cape and also towards the mainland. A quick decent brought us back to our starting point.

Another wet week in England

Well it’s been a while since my last work/pub trip to good old England, so it was about time... Which meant an inhumanely early Monday warning wakeup call, quick breakfast and off to the airport! 4 hours later, ahead of schedule (miracles still exist, obviously), I found myself in the country of warm beer and cold food (as somebody French once so eloquently put it) once more. A taxi drive through the English rain (doh, just as the weather on the Riviera was getting warm & sunny again after an uncharacteristically windy and rainy week).

After a typical day at the office, I headed back to Guildford, where I was staying as usual. This time I decided to go for style and went for the Manderley hotel instead of the normal Guildford hotel (which is well-located within stumbling distance of most pubs, has decent-ish rooms, and is reasonably priced for the UK anyway). To be quite honest, even though the place is a tad nicer than the Guildford hotel, I expected a bit more for £130 – oh well.... Anyway, the necessary practicalities out of the way, I headed down the high street for my first rendez-vous of the evening – dinner with Manue in La Scala. It was a nice enough Italian place, and the food was pretty good. Maxime decided to join us – much to our amazement wearing a suit (yes, there was an explanation thankfully – he’d just had an interview). My appetite sated, I headed down to the King’s head for a couple of beers. The usual gang was there – Phil, Stephane, Steve and Kartsa. Stephane dropped a bit of a bombshell on us – apparently he has decided to leave his cozy if apparently somewhat underpaid job at the University and move to San Diego to work for Qualcomp! Shocking news – one of my most reliable drinking buddies gone! To mark this sad event we headed off to Farenheit, as always, and spent all our spare change playing the quiz machine. How sad...

Tuesday night the plan was to head off to London. Participation was a bit sparse, as only Nick, Chie and Stephane showed up (even Sinhung disappointed – something about being too old for 2 nights out in a row...!). We met up in the Arch one bar just next doors to Waterloo, for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and catching up. We then had to catch a taxi to make our dinner reservation, at a very nice Japanese restaurant overlooking the Thames – nice idea, Chie. Our taste buds were truly in for a treat – the food was very nice indeed, and something I’d never tried before (a bit like Japanese tapas or something – a collection of nibbles and small dishes).

All washed down with some proper Japanese beer. And the dinner didn’t even set us back more than about 20 pounds, not bad considering the location and variety of dishes we tried. Then it was time to head back to Guildford – sadly enough Stephane convinced me to have a quick night cap at Fahrenheit’s – again.


Wednesday – fortunately (for my wallet and liver) my last evening in the UK this time around – was team building day (along with some colleagues of ours from Tampere). We started in the afternoon with some go-carting in Camberley – great fun. After a few practice laps, we split up into teams of three and race on! I ended up with 2 other Finns as team mates, and figured we’d do pretty will (what with Finnish racing genes ‘n all) – but alas our performance left much to be desired. I blame it on the weight, on the basis that me and Juha are “made of sturdy stuff” whereas Timo, the skinny lad, clocked consistently better times than us (unfortunately Timo’s blistering speed meant we couldn’t blame the car...). Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up 2nd last, but had great fun (that’s the main point, right?). After the racing we headed down to Fleet for some beers and of course a curry! As there were no handy train connection to Guildford, Mohammed was kind enough to drive me all the way to Guildford! Actually, I was back early enough to go for a quick one in – yes you guessed it, Fahrenheit (this time with Stephane and his mate from Paris, Nicholas). Somehow an appropriate end for the trip though?

Nice-Cannes marathon

Should you be a regular reader of my blog, you may have noticed that I’ve mentioned the Nice-Cannes marathon a few times over the past few months. As a result of the completed Nice half-marathon back in May, me and Sami foolishly decided to embark on the grand-daddy of running competitions – the full marathon. Over time, we even managed to recruit Pete and Hannu, two other Finns, to join us.

So, after months of practice, the big day was finally upon us. Except – not for me :-( As a result of trying to show off for Mathilde’s dad a few weeks ago during a practice session, I did my knee in rather badly. I did manage to get back into practicing form after a couple of week’s worth of rest, but alas, in the end the knee gave in again. So no marathon for me, at least this time around :-(

But of course we were still there, in front of the Hippodrome in Cagnes-sur-Mer, to cheer my fellow Finns on. So who was to win of the dynamic trio? Sami has the advantage of having completed a marathon the year before (in Stockholm), but his practice sessions have mostly involved swinging a golf club. Hannu was keeping a low profile (only wanting to finish the race), but had managed to do the most practicing. On the other hand his last-minute preparation had been hampered by a sore back. Pete had not kept a low profile (that just wouldn’t be in his nature ;-) and had impressed during the pre-race practice. So perhaps Pete was the slight favourite of the evenly matched lot.

We were there well in time to cheer the lads on. The first to arrive were Sami and Pete, running by the sea with a look of cool confidence and fierce determination on their faces. So no problems there, they all looked in good shape – although we noted that they would have to increase the pace a bit if they wanted to reach a time of 4:00-4:30 (which had been mentioned in the pre-race speculations). Hannu followed just a couple of minutes later – his face calm and composed as always. We were later informed that all three made it to goal, with commendable times of 04:55:37 for Pete, 05:02:19 for Sami and 05:10:16 for Hannu respectively. They all did better than me, anyway ;-).

We still had other duties for the Sunday – as today was Father’s day in Finland. Mum and dad kindly invited us for dinner at their flat in Antibes – and we gladly accepted. So we spent a very pleasant afternoon there, starting with aperitifs on their balcony (basking in the southern sun – which was back after way too many days of rain) and continuing with a very tasty meal, finishing off with a very tasty Tiramisu alla Turtiainen.

Villeneuve-Loubet

After a rather lazy Sunday of doing stuff around the house, we decided it was time to get out a bit. Since we didn’t feel like taking the car anywhere, we decide to pay the old village of Villeneuve-Loubet a visit. It’s not what some would call an obvious choice, since a lot of Villeneuve-Loubet could be used as a bad example of town planning, especially the seaside, where concrete really rulez. I also work in Villeneuve-Loubet, actually, so I figured it was about time to visit the place properly.

Well, as often is the case on the Cote d’Azur, the old part of Villeneuve-Loubet was a lovely spot. Our short walk took us by the old castle of Villeneuve-Loubet (what we saw of it behind looked pretty cool – unfortunately the place is closed to the public), then down the hill to the old village, down typically winding little lanes, bordered by well-kept, cute houses. I guess you could say that the old town of Cagnes is more harmonious, and prettier, and, well, older. But Villeneuve-Loubet was still a very pleasant place to stroll around, and feels greener and more colourful somehow.

Having explored the streets of Villeneuve-Loubet, we decided to visit one of the two local museums; Musee Escoffier de l’Art Culinere (for some reason Mathilde preferred that one to the military museum…). Well, I wasn’t exactly opposed – any museum dedicated to the noble art of cooking must surely be worth a visit ;-). Actually, we couldn’t have picked a better place to visit, as the museum put on a wine-tasting/lecturing session for the afternoon. The wine tasting was preceded by a very thorough lecture on the wines of Bourgogne. As far as lectures go, this was one of the most interesting and entertaining ones I’ve ever been to. I didn’t realise there was so much to say about the wines of just one region (and the guy was obviously just scratching the surface). And did the guy know his stuff, or what. And I can’t really fault the wines we got to taste afterwards, either – although my criterias for what a good wine is supposed to be like are rather easier to fulfill than for the average Frenchman, I suppose…. ;-)

We only had about half an hour to visit the museum itself afterwards – which turned out to be enough. The museum is dedicated to one Auguste Escoffier, who was (according to that well of knowledge known as Wikipedia) one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine. The museum is actually located in his birthplace (he died in somewhat more glamorous surroundings - in Monaco). The museum was interesting enough, with old recipies, cooking utensils and menus on display (I especially liked the ones by Toulouse-Lautrec). There was also an exhibiton about the tragic life of Bernard Loiseau (who shot himself, rumour has it, because The Michelin guide was planning to remove one of his restaurant's 3 stars). Well, a well spent five euros, all in all!

Île Saint-Honorat

Since the sun was shining over the Cote d’Azur, as it often does, we figured some outdoors activities were called for before a dinner data we had booked for the evening in Cannes. After pondering various options, we decided on a trip to Île Saint-Honorat, just outside Cannes. So having prepared a picnic, we jumped on the train to Cannes. A brisk walk through sunny Cannes took us to the Vieux Port, where we jumped on the ferry.

Île Saint-Honorat is the smaller of the îles de Lérins (the other one being île Sainte-Marguerite, which we visited a while back). Apart from 30 or so good brothers living in the local monastery, the island is uninhabited. In spite of its diminutive size, its history spans back all the way to the 5th century, when Saint Honorat came to inhabit an island. Rather quickly his disciples followed him there, which prompted him to found a monastery there.

We started off our visit by walking around the island, taking in the crystal-clear waters (and all the yachts anchored there) and the neighbouring île Sainte-Marguerite. A 30 minute walk brought us to the still solid ancient monastery, stubbornly clinging to the shoreline on a small piece of land, surrounded on three sides by water. It actually resembles a castle more than a monastery. We spent a good while there, climbing up the narrow staircase all the way to the top, where we enjoyed some amazing views over the island and the adjacent modern monastery.

We then hurried down to the modern monastery, which dates from the 19th century. As the place is still in use, it’s only possible to visit the church, which in spite of its impressive façade disappointed somewhat. I was a bit gutted about the fact that we didn’t have time to visit the monastery shop, as reliable sources tell me the monks are famed for the wines they produce… Next time, I s’ppose…

We hurried back to catch the last ferry to Cannes, rather pleased with our little excursion. After doing a bit of shopping (hey, it’s Cannes, after all, right?) it was time for our dinner date. We were meeting up with my parents, and a big bunch of relatives who had come all the way from Karis, Finland, to visit (our good friend Karita was also there). My parents had chosen a restaurant called Caveau 30. The place was nice enough (and spacious enough for the horde of Finns) with good seafood, although the bill ended up being a bit steep (maybe I should’ve skipped the Kir Royal…).

Phil and Stephane visiting

Finally, after a couple of aborted visits, our good friends from Guildford, Phil and Stephane graced us with their presence this weekend. You may know these two gentlemen from several previous blog entries – as I seem to run into them in pubs whenever I’m visiting the UK.

We kicked off the weekend’s activities by picking the lads up at the airport, and driving straight down to central Nice. Having showed them the Things One Must Absolutely See in Nice (Place Massena, the promenade des Anglais, the old town), we got down to business and went to the Thor Pub – or rather the Althor or some such silly name. Well, in spite of the name change, the place was much the same as always. After another drink in Ma Nolan’s (must show them the regular watering holes, after all) – where I much to my shame had to settle for a Coke (the woes of being the designated driver, eh…?), we headed down to Place Garibaldi for dinner at Le Petit Gari – a cozy little restaurant we’d read good things about on the ‘net. And a nice place it was – if a bit pricy. The waiter was especially entertaining – who amazingly even managed to figure out I was Finnish (I can tell you that's something that doesn’t happen very often…). Having wined and dined very well indeed, it was time to speed back home. But there was still time (there always is!) to have a couple of digestifs before going to bed – time to take out Mathilde’s nan’s bottle of Calva again - any excuse will do ;-)

Surprisingly, we didn’t get up very early on Saturday (I put part of the blame on Stephane – but then his lie-ins are rather legendary – I think on most days I probably have my lunch before he gets to the office – only due to the time difference, obviously ;-). After a nourishing breakkie (having guests has the upside of giving me the excuse to buy those lovely croissants and Pain de Chocolates), it was time to hit the road again. This time we decided to take our guests to Italy – to the lovely village of Dolceacqua. Having walked around the village's narrow cobble-stoned streets and taken in the lovely view of the castle overlooking the famous old bridge, we drove on to Isolabuona, the next village in the valley. It was a lovely little community, as these places usually are in Italy, if somewhat less picturesque than Dolceacqua. The village tour was quickly done, especially since our stomachs were grumbling rather loudly by now. So off we went in search of an open restaurant – a nearly impossible mission in Italy as it was after 2PM. But eventually we found a place, up a long and windy road, nicely perched on top of a hill. And what a gem of a restaurant it was. Not only was the food great – and reasonably priced – but the proprietor was a real laugh. Of rather interesting origins (Danish-Russian-Italian, brought up in Monaco), he entertained us with stories of what an adventure it was to go fishing with his wife, of how to cook poisonous mushrooms, amongst other things. I even managed to nearly have a conversation in Italian (although for all I know he might’ve been talking about something completely different from me all along).

Having downed a grappa (the old chap told me off for not drinking enough to “clean my glass” – that’s another thing that doesn’t happen very often to me…), we said our farewells and promised to come back, and drove back towards France again. Our next stop was Monaco – where we took the boyz on the standard tour (the old town, the palace, the port and of course the Casino). All seemed well in Monaco (the Ferraris were there, the yachts hadn’t gone anywhere etc.), credit crush ‘n all. I was even told off by the police for not crossing the road at the sidewalk – I thought things like that only happened in Finland and Singapore!

We had to keep our Monaco tour a short one, since we had a table booked in Haut-de-Cagnes for 8PM. This time we had decided to try out Josy-Jo, a classy-looking establishment just on the outskirts of the old town. Wd did have time for a quick walk around the town before dinner – good for working up the appetite. The dinner was tasty enough (reassuringly meaty – their speciality seems to be various types of meat, prepared next to the dining room in plain view), as was the wine, which was just as well, considering the rather steep bill. Shouldn't complain – but of the eateries we frequented this weekend, this one had the the least entertaining staff. As the local pub (which I affectionately call "Le Pub") was closed as always, we were happy to contend with digestifs back at the flat again.

And that was it for this weekend. Having taken Phil & Stephane to the airport, We pretty much spent the rest of Sunday assembling IKEA furniture….