Another night at the opera

Going to the opera is something I don’t do a lot – each time I’ve done it so far I’ve fallen asleep at some point, which may explain why… Tonight I had the opportunity to redeem myself, as my parents were kind enough to invite us to join them in Cannes at Le Palais des Festivals (which is where the main screenings at the Cannes film festival also take place) to see La Traviata.

La Traviata (as I’m sure you know, my dear educated reader) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, based on La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas. It tells the sad story of a young nobleman called Alfredo, who is in love with a courtisan called Violetta, who is suffering from tuberculosis. After plenty of dramatic twists and turns, the story sadly ends with Violetta dying in Alfredo’s arms. (I have to admit the summary is, er, inspired by Wikipedia – the dialogue was of course all in Italian, without any subtitles, so I had no clue about what was going on…).

After the usual drama which is normally associated with me going anywhere (this time we were just stuck in traffic), we arrived, in the nick of time (me sweating like a pig, having run from the car park – I really felt for the old ladies sitting next to me…). This time I really enjoyed the show, and also stayed awake! And I even recognised a couple of the arias. Must be getting old or something… We also ran into Myriam and Fabian, who were also there for the show.

Walking in Cinque Terre

One of the places we’ve been wanting to visit for quite some time is Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a collection of five villages (Cinque Terre literarily means “five lands”) spectacularly located on the Italian Riviera. This weekend seemed to be a good time to visit, as the weather forecast was promising, and by going this early in the year we thought we’d be able to avoid the hordes of visitors that overwhelm Cinque Terre during the summer months...


So having sorted out a room for two nights with a friendly lady, off we set Friday afternoon, punching in the directions for Cinque Terre into my brand new TomTom (which I got from my parents as an early birthday present). Everything went smoothly, and we arrived as planned at Levanto, from where we took a local train to Vernazza, where we were staying the night. The friendly lady’s friendly daughter met us at the train station, and took us to our room, which was just actually just next door’s to the train station. Which was nice in a way, but also meant that we got to hear the night trains passing by relatively frequently… We went to bed quite early, after a nice enough dinner at the harbour.





We set off early in the morning, having had a quick Italian-style breakfast (an Espresso and a Cornetto – which is like a French Croissant except with Jam), to explore the village. I have to say Vernazza must be one of the prettiest villages I’ve ever seen, with its pastel-coloured houses and its dramatic location, in a sheltered cove…

The way to explore Cinque Terre is definitely by foot (all the villages are basically pedestrian only, although they are linked by a railway line). The 5 villages are linked by a dramatic coastal footpath, from Monterosso al Mare to Riomaggiore. Vernazza is actually the village after Monterossso, so we saved the first leg of the walk for last. The first part of the walk was pretty heavy going actually, as we walked up from Vernazza towards the next village, Corniglia, which is also dramatically located on a cliff top. After a quick tour of the village, we carried on towards the next village, called Manarola. This part of the walk was somewhat different in character, as we were joined by hordes of day-trippers from Milan (most of whom were dressed more appropriately for a shopping spree than a walk). Rarely have I felt like being stuck in a traffic jam while hiking – this was one of those times. We eventually managed to elbow our way to the village, again stunningly located in a protected bay, with multi-coloured houses built on the slopes. Having had a quick wander around, we pressed on, along the famous Via dell’Amore towards the end of the trail, Riomaggiore. The Via dell’Amore was an anticlimax, to say in the least, certainly not worthy of its name. For some incomprehensible reason the local authorities have decided to build a long concrete gallery along the path, which the local kids have decided to cover in graffiti (covering the original artwork on display).

Having had a quick lunch in Riomaggiore, we took the train back to the start of the coastal path, Monterosso al Mare. Monterosso was pleasant enough, and seemed less touristy than some of the other villages, a bit more real if you will. Time was of essence though, as we only had a couple of hours to reach Vernazza before night fall, so on we pushed. The last part of the walk was definitely the hardest, but also rewarded us with some pretty amazing views over Cinque Terre. The view as we arrived at “our” village confirmed that we had chosen the right place to spend the night! Having had a shower, and a filling dinner, we collapsed on our beds, exhausted but satisfied. This time we didn’t have any problems at all sleeping ;-)

On the next day, we were greeted by sunlight, much to our delight (in spite of the promising weather forecast we hadn’t seen much of the sun on Satuday). Wanting to make the most of the clear, blue skies, we set off again, this time choosing another path heading inlands. Or rather upwards, as we negotiated the steep slopes of Cinque Terre. Hard work it may have been, but the stunning views more than made up for it. Unfortunately we had to double back along the path we came (rather than complete the circular walk, as originally planned), as we kind of took a wrong turn at some point (note for the next visit: bring a map!) – as misty clouds started sweeping over us.

Since we returned a bit earlier than planned, we spent a leisurely hour lazing in Vernazza harbour – I think we had more than deserved it… Then it was time to head back to France, unfortunately. But I think this is one place we will definitely visit again. But not during the summer – I can hardly even imagine how crowded the place must be then, if this is the low season!

More photos here.

A taste of Piedmont

Tonight the plan was to have some Italian food with the girls and my parents in Cagnes-sur-Mer. We started off the evening’s proceedings with an aperitif at our place – once dad eventually found his way (having blindly followed their TomTom the wrong way down our one-way street…). Fortified by the aperitif, we tackled the steep walk up to the restaurant we had chosen for tonight, called Melograno, located in the old town of Cagnes (which is appropriately named Haut-de-Cagnes).

The Melograno serves Piedmontese cuisine – which we acquired a taste for during a weekend spent in the Langhe region in Piedmont last year (Langhe is famous for it’s red wines, such as Barolo and Barbaresco). The food did not disappoint, and neither did the wine (we had a bottle of Nebbiolo, which is of course from the aforementioned region). I was too shy to practice my Italian – which is even dodgier than my French ;-)

More photos here.

Les Turtiainen font des Raquettes

The Finnish ski holidays are in full swing, so my brother’s three daughters (one, Julia, whom I am proud to have as my god-daughter) decided to come over to the south of France for a week. Kind of funny actually (or sad, depending on how you look at it), that the snow situation seems to be better in the south of France (well, in the mountains, anyway) than back in Finland this year – didn’t expect that when I moved here a year ago!

The plan for today was to go up t Greolieres-les-Neiges (where we went a couple of weeks ago) for some snow sports. 
 






We decided to rent some Raquettes (snow shoes) and take a walk in the forest. So off we went, as it turned out into the mist (in spite of the weather forecast promising a sunny afternoon, the mist persisted, unfortunately)… But everybody had a great time – I felt like a kid again, running around the slopes like an out-of-breath elk (some of the French folks I ran past looked at me with a mixture of fear and amusement).

After a simple but filling lunch and some vin chaud (mandatory after such strenuous activity), we decided to return the raquettes as the mist refused to disappear. Instead we opted for some less strenuous touristy activity – visiting some of the nearby perched villages.

The first stop was at Gourdon, in the Vallee du Loup. Gourdon is probably the most dramatically located village on the Riviera, perched on a cliff, overlooking the valley. The views are quite simply amazing (a pity about the fog, then…). Unfortunately it’s also very touristy – although the girls didn’t seemed to mind as they visited the shops selling everything from liquorish in various flavours to Provencal pottery.


After Gourdon, we headed back down to the valley to Bar-sur-Loup, another typical and very picturesque village. It’s also refreshingly unmarked by tourism as of yet, and seems like a pretty typical, quiet and traditional village (traditional indeed – we watched the locals playing some petanque – only the pastis was missing ;-). A nice finish to a very pleasant day (especially considering we weren’t very lucky with the weather…).

More photos here.

Nice - St. Gervais 7-15

I’ve been an ice hockey fan since I was a kid, but haven’t been to a live game for about 7 years now (the last game I saw was between the Edinburgh Capitals vs. the Peterborough Pirates – and I have to say that was nothing to write home about). An opportunity for some live hockey action surprisingly came up when Sami & Mikko (who play for the local hockey team) convinced us to watch their game against St. Gervais, who had come down all the way from the Alps to Nice for the occasion...

So off we went to the local hockey rink in Nice (which, it has to be admitted, could do with a bit of a refurbishment). After a very professional and entertaining display by the team’s pom-pom girls, game on! (this being the south of France, about 15 minutes behind schedule ;-).




The game started badly for Nice, with some impressive playmaking and finishing from St. Gervais giving them a safe-seeming 5-1 lead after the first period. Mikko’s and Sami’s line did quite well though, keeping an even score, I think. The rest of the game went much the same way, with a final score of 15-7 for St. Gervais. Well, as Mikko and Sami said after the game: “it could’ve been worse”. In spite of their heroic, self-sacrificing game and staunch defence, Nice were sorely missing their third Finnish reinforcement, Mr. Karumo, the playmaker of the team.





After the game, we headed for a well-deserved dinner (both for the chaps who played, and us fans who shouted our lungs out for Nice!) in a nice little restaurant near the hockey rink.

Mimosas on the Massif d'Esterel

 

One of the "things not to be missed" we missed last year was seeing the Massif d’Esterel with the mimosas (scientific explanation of the word: pretty yellow flower) in bloom.

So we figured this glorious, sunny Sunday was as good a day as any for it. So off we set from Theoule-sur-Mer to explore the heights of the Esterel. We ended up doing quite a marathon walk actually. The first leg of our walk took us past a group of energetic pensioners to the Rocher des Monges, at a height of 300 meters. The view over the Cote d’Azur was well worth the climb…


After enjoying the views for a while, we trekked past Col du Trayas to Col de Theoule, where we had a brief picnic lunch (home-prepared sandwiches followed by apples and mandarins - yummie). Our journey then continued to a curious monument called Notre-Dame de l’Afrique (it commemorates French soldiers who died whilst fighting in Algeria).


The original plan was to then head back to Theoule, but since the sky was still blue and the sun was shining, we decided to press on to Pointe de l’Esquillion, south of Theoule. The walk took us past some "Cote d'Azurey" style over the top villa, at the end of which we were once more rewarded by a stunning panorama over the coast-line.

We then finished what turned out to be a 5-hour hike by trekking back along the coastline to Theoule-sur-Mer. What a nice trek it was! And yes – we saw plenty of mimosas in bloom as well!

Mikko's and Marianne's housewarming party

After we got back from our skip trip in Greolieres, it was time to prepare for Mikko’s and Marianne’s housewarming party. So we quickly took our showers and got ready, and headed to Hauts de Vaugrenier, where we were supposed to pick up Pete. It turned out to take more than 7 minutes (which was what Mappy estimated the drive to take) – more like 1 hour. Let’s just say we took a wrong turn more than once. Well, we did eventually find it, and eventually also found our way to Mikko’s and Marianne’s place (I think we only took one wrong turn this time).

I have to say M & M have picked a pretty good location to live – they’re located right next-doors to Marianne’s parents (who own a swimming pool ;-), and have some great views over Nice and the sea. The party was great. Among the guests were the usual Finnish suspects, as well as friends of Marianne. Great food (I especially liked the chocklatty treat in a glass- dunno what it’s called), great beer (although in spite of all the pouring techniques I tried I always ended up with more foam than beer in my glass?) and of course great company. Mikko also showed us his music room and DVD collection – cool :-)




So now we are waiting for the sauna to be built so we can have a sauna-warming party (get the "subtle" play on words ? ;-)

Visiting Ollie and Raphaële in Gréolières

A friend of ours from out glorious years in the UK, Ollie, had come down for the weekend with Raphaële, his lovely girlfriend, to do a bit of skiing in Gréolières (where his globetrotting parents have a house – or two actually).

So when we got the invitation to join them, we accepted without hesitation. Off we went, Friday night, down the Vallee du Loup, to Gréolières. It’s a very nice and dramatic drive, with some gorgeous views over the valley. Gréolières is a typically picturesque village, and refreshingly un-touristy (considering there's a ski resort just up the road).

Once we got unpacked, we headed over to Ollie’s uncle, who also has a house in Gréolières, for an aperitif. After we’d stuffed ourselves with some gorgeous Spanish sausage, and started feeling merry after a couple of Americano’s (a cocktail of Campari and Martini – and something else I think?), we headed over for a delicious dinner cooked by Ollie’s mum. After a most filling Daube (a beef stew), some tarte Tatin, and a fair few glasses of Bordeaux red wine, it was well and truly time to go to bed (we did, after all, want to do some skiing the next day as well…).

We got up pretty early the next morning, drove up to the ski statrion called Gréolières-les-Neiges, got our gear rented, and managed to hit the slopes before 10 AM. The skiing was great – the snow was perfect, the sky was blue, and best of all, there were very few people on the slopes (compared to our recent trips to Auron and Valberg). We were expecting worse, since Gréolières is the closest ski station to the coast, and school holidays had also just started… We were also treated to some great views from the Cheiron (the highest point at the ski station - at about 1800 meters) all the way to the sea – apparently on a really clear day you can see all the way to Corsica, apparently.

After a light lunch (an Entrecote with fries, and apple pie for me, I mean that’s light, right?), we carried on in the afternoon. It was a lot busier now than in the morning, but we still managed to find a couple of relatively skier-free slopes

After a nice after-ski at Ollie’s place, it was time to head back to Cagnes (since we had a housewarming party to get ready for – more about that later…). It was short, but sweet. Big thanks to Ollie, Raphaële and last but definately not least, Monique!

Vence and the Musee Renoir

We had hoped to go for a walk today, but rather unusually, the sky was cloudy and the air was a bit nippy. So we decided to do some low-key touristy stuff instead, by visiting Vence. Vence is a pretty famous little town, which was pretty influential in the olden days, and is actually just down the road from Cagnes. So we figured it was about time to pay it a visit.

The old town was very pretty, as they normally are around here, and pretty well preserved. In spite of its fair share of shops, it didn’t seem all that touristy, or busy, either (that’s probably because of the lousy weather – it even started raining, imagine…!). After a walk around the twisty alleys and narrow passages, Mathilde was starting to feel the chill a bit, so we popped into the nearest Brasserie for a quick lunch and a coffee.

After this the plan was to visit the Chapelle du Rosaire, a chapel made famous by the fact that it was decorated by Henri Matisse (who spent a large part of his life on the Riviera). Unfortunately, it was closed, though… So instead, we headed back to Cagnes and visited Musee Renoir – a museum dedicated to Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the famous artiste. The museum is located in the house, called Les Collettes, where he spent the last 12 years of his life. It’s a nice enough museum, showing how the old chap lived – actually there isn’t that much art by him on display. There gardens are also pretty nice, and afford great views over the old town of Cagnes.

Shopping, dinners and a birthday party

My parents have been back in France for a couple of weeks now, so it was about time for the first visitor (first of many this spring, I doubt not…). This time it was my aunt Tutta’s turn to pay a visit – she came down for a week from Strasbourg. We met up with her and my parents Friday night for dinner in Cannes. My parents had picked a restaurant in the Royal Grey hotel for the occasion. A pleasant evening was had with good food and excellent company.

On Saturday, we headed down to Nice for some shopping – sales were on (yippiyayee!). I purchased two pairs of trousers and two BD’s (Bande Dessinée – French comics, great way to learn the lingo!). After this we went (of course!) to the cinema – this time we saw “No Country for Old Men” by the Coen brothers. I absolutely loved this film – I’m a big fan of the Coens and their wry wit – and this is one of their best efforts…. To follow the typical “Saturday in Nice” formula, Sami then joined us for dinner in old Nice – this time we opted for a Corsican restaurant. And a good choice it was, I had a plate of Corsican charcuterie followed by some wild boar stew – washed down with some hearty Corsican red wine.

We finished off the evening in Ma Nolan’s by celebrating Youcef’s birthday with a few pints of Guinness.