Party at Marianne and Mikko's!

Tonight is party night, as Mikko and Marianne kindly enough invited us to “faire la fete” at their lovely house overlooking Nice this evening. After the normal Saturday morning activities (getting up rather late, having a late breakfast, heading downtown for shopping at the local market etc.), we jumped in the car and drove down to Nice (figuring to catch a film and do a bit of shopping before joining the fun).

Not for the first time, we realised that taking the train is a much easier way to get into Nice than driving, as we were stuck in traffic first on the promenade, then on avenue de France and finally on Rue Victor Hugo. And of course it was mission impossible to find parking in the street, so we ended up parking at the Nice Etoile shopping centre car park (and paying about 3 euros/hour for it – bloody daylight robbery if you ask me!). But we spent a nice enough evening, first seeing a French film called Le Bal des actresses (a pretty funny mockumentary about French actresses and their challenges – I especially enjoyed Karin Viard trying to go Hollywood with a VERY French accent...) and then doing a bit of shopping.

We arrived at the party fashionably late, said hi to everybody (Nathalie, Pete, Anne and little Jasmine had already arrived) and then dug into the tasty food (fajitas, tacos, yummie....). I was pretty impressed by the fact that Mikko had done a lot of the cooking (confirmed by Marianne) – especially considering that the meal even contained some vegetables. Now that’s making an effort ;-) Sami eventually arrived as well - we were already gotten a bit worried by his absence. I suppose he had been chasing his flat mate (a rather cunning and stealthy mouse) around the flat all evening or something ;-). He then spent the rest of the evening talking me and Mathilde out of visiting Karunki next summer (we’re planning a bit of a road tip up north, and figured a stop at Karunki is an absolute must after all the good things we’ve heard about the place). But in a most entertaining manner, as usual ;-)

Several beers and a couple of shots of Laphroig (ah, that Scottish nectar of life) later, it was time to stumble back to the car and head back home (thankfully, with Mathilde at the steering wheel). Thanks to Mikko and Marianne for another great party! We’ll be there for the sauna-warming party ;-)