We were very warmly welcomed, as always, by Olivier’s parents, in their lovely house. After a nice apero, and raised toasts to Olivier’s honour (the occasion was also his birthday, actually), we headed down the road to the “best pizzeria in the village” for a nice meal. We were again struck by the feel of community that seems to reign in Greolieres (Ollie and his parents seemed to know just about everybody in the restaurant) – it really seems to have kept its small village atmosphere in spite of our modern age… The meal was nice, just as last year (we celebrated Ollie’s birthday in the very same restaurant), and we all had a good time. Ollie’s globetrotting parents have just moved to Shanghai, so they kept us entertained with their stories – and Philippe naturally chipped in as well with their latest adventures in the southwest of France….jpg)
We went to bed relatively early, since we wanted to be up early in the morning to hit the ski slopes before the arrival of the crowds. After a quick breakfast up at Greolieres-les-Neiges (naturally at a bar owned by a friend of Ollie’s), and having rented our skis, off we set for the pistes. The conditions were perfect – there was still plenty of snow (the snowfall has been very generous this year…) and there was hardly a cloud in sight. And what’s better, the crowds we had been expecting didn’t show up. .jpg)
We had time to try out pretty much all of the slopes at the station – including the 2 black slopes, which were great fun. Things started looking a bit worse in the afternoon, as the clouds swept in - so we had a couple of runs with a visibility of about 10 meters – which made things a bit interesting. But the clouds quickly passed over, and the blue skies were back. So all in all, we had a great day of skiing, then. My only gripe with Greolieres is perhaps that they could invest in some proper ski lifts, my bum felt pretty sore after a day of “tire-fesses”….
We headed back to the village a bit before 4 – wanting to beat the traffic back to Cagnes. So after some tearful farewells and heartfelt thanks to Olivier’s parents for our great stay, we headed back to Cagnes with Philippe and Aniko. Our original plan to head down to Nice or Antibes “to paint the town red” was dismissed, as we realised we were completely nackered after our day of skiing (just ain’t got the same amount of energy these days as a few years back, when we could party no problem after a proper day of skiing…). So we decided to just grab a meal in Haut-de-Cagnes instead. So after a quick tour of the old town, we headed to our favourite haunt, where we were served by our favourite waiter, Pierre Parker, a.k.a. the medieval spiderman. The service was great, as always, with tasty food to match. After the meal, we headed back for a session of Buzz: the Hollywood Quiz; which I won, after a very closely-matched final round against Mathilde. Thankfully we decided (or according to Philippe, me ;-) to play the Hollywood quiz instead of the music quiz…..jpg)
The next day, we had a rendezvous with Olivier for lunch in Valbonne. So after a leisurely breakfast, we drove down to there – a bit early to have a bit of time to visit the village. Valbonne is a typically picturesque Provencal village, located just a couple of kilometres from Sophia-Antipolis, the high-tech community where Mathilde works. It does come across as a bit more tidy and “orderly” than your average village, though, as the streets of Valbonne criss-cross each others in a regular grid-pattern (which is normally difficult to achieve since the villages tend to be built on hilltops). After a quick exploration of the village, we ended up lunching outside on the main square. After a nice and typically drawn-out session, it was time to say bye-bye again, as Philippe and Aniko headed back to Toulouse, and Ollie rushed off back to Greolieres (he had a flight to Paris to catch later on…).So that was that for this weekend – a big thanks to Ollie and his parents for their hospitality again
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