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….