A big Jacuzzi

Mikko and Marianne (well, rather Marianne’s dad) have an ambitious plan; to build a proper Finnish sauna at their wonderful place near Nice. As part of that project, some strong men were needed to move a Jacuzzi from its old place in the garden, next to the in-progress sauna. So obviously (??), their thoughts went to Mikko’s strong and reliable Finnish friends.

And also hung over Finnish friends (too much of Ida’s calva – see previous blog entry…) Amazingly enough, I did get up in time, and would’ve been on time (11AM) if it hadn’t been for a couple of wrong turns in Nice (and that’s with Mikko’s address punched into the GPS – it really must be the calva I tell ya….). But in the end we were only about 15 minutes late, so still had time to join the party. With 8 of us to lift, the 400 kg Jacuzzi (it felt lighter…) was moved pretty much in no time – Pete didn’t even make it in time for the lifting… But he did, of course, make it in time for the beer, wine, and socca ;-) Boy, did we enjoy the food and drink – thankfully I had a light breakfast. Pizza, aperitif cake, socca, chorizo, as well as great wine and beer to wash it all down with. That’s the kind of "light lunch" I like! Rather generous compensation for 5 minutes’ worth of work, I should say ;-).

After this feast of gargantuan proportions, we decided to head down to Nice instead of going back home, since we were in the neighbourhood, so to speak. We decided to catch a movie, so headed down to Rialto. Since there were a couple of hours to kill before the start of the film, we decided to pop into the nearby Musée Masséna – a place we’d passed by several times but never actually visited. It’s a pretty interesting museum, and what’s best, also free. The museum is housed in an old Nicois mansion built at the end of the 19th century, which was inhabited by an aristocratic family, the Massenas. The bottom floor was a reconstruction of what the mansion would’ve been like about a century ago – with period furniture and all that. This kind of museum isn’t always my cup of tea, but this one was well executed (compared to for example the castle in Monaco, where you’d have thought they’d have the money to do a proper job).



The top floors of the building housed a local history museum – which was actually very interesting. I found especially the history from the start of the 20th century onwards pretty fascinating, which describes how Nice (and the rest of the Cote d’Azur) started changing into the tourist spot it is today. I also liked the old photos from the city – they show (as these types of photos often do) that all development definitely is not good… (a lot of the recent urban development on the Riviera is not particularly “aesthetically pleasing” – the words “concrete hell” spring to mind…). All in all, we spent a very interesting afternoon at the museum.

We then headed back to Rialto to watch Gran Torino – the latest work from Mr. Clint Eastwood. We both enjoyed it – although the story is a pretty standard one, and certainly doesn’t lack clichés. It’s your typical (??) story of “old bitter, bigoted war veteran meets young immigrant standup lad, sees the errors of his ways, saves the kid from a nasty gangs trying to recruit him, and (almost) everybody lives happily ever after”. But Clint just handles the story with a very assured hand, turns out another great performance, and doesn’t wallow too deeply in the clichés/sentimentality - so the film just works. And I loved the ending (a true Clint Eastwood ending, with a twist – although again it didn’t exactly come as a big surprise).

After the cinema we met up with Maikki and Jarkko, who we had agreed to meet up for dinner. After a walk around the old town (taking in the main sights, such as Cours Saleya, the cathedral etc.), we ended up having a nice meal in le Gesu (a nice place to try local specialities). It was good to catch up with them properly, finally (hadn't really had a proper chat with them during the last two rather hectic nights). I really loved listening to their anecdotes about their life in China (where they spent a couple of years working). It will be good to see them next summer, on their wedding day, this time in Finland!