Agent A, Frank and Matilda visiting

After a well-deserved week of rest at the office, the weekend beckons once more. Agent A (who wishes to remain anonymous), whom we’d seen just last weekend, was coming over on Friday. We kicked off the proceedings with a drink in the Villeneuve-Loubet Marina – where we were also joined by Hyam. We then headed down to one of the many pizzerias in the marina – the one we picked specialised in giant pizzas. Just to be sure I wouldn’t go hungry, I had a pizza Valostana (named after Val d’Aosta, a region of the Italian Alps). Basically, it was a giant tartiflette on top of a pizza base – so not what one would call “a light meal”, then. Pretty much just what I like, then ;-)

After the “not-so-light” meal (which we followed up with a grappa and a coffee), we headed back to our flats, where we were joined by Yousef and his girlfriend (whom we finally had the honour to meet). Agent A also got to taste Mathilde’s grandma’s home-made Calvados as well as Marcelle’s Charantaise eau de vie. Going by the grimaces on Agent A’s face, the drinks had their desired effect ;-).

After a good night’s sleep, we spent Saturday doing all sorts of useful stuff that we occasionally neglect… (and some less useful stuff, like lounging by the swimming pool). Anyway, the day just flew by, and before we knew it, the next set of visitors; Frank and Matilda; arrived. Frank is a fellow Finn who worked in Southwood at the same time as me, who has now moved back to Helsinki, where he’s living with his lovely girlfriend Matilda. Matilda’s sister is studying in Barcelona at the moment, so they decided to do a detour to Nice during whilst visiting her.

After welcoming our visitors, and kindly giving them about 5 minutes to freshen up (after all, they had just spent about 6 hours on the road), we rushed down to the train station to catch the train to Nice, where we had planned to meet up with some other friends for drinks & dinner. We started off at the Thor pub, where we were first joined by Mikko and Marianne (whom we hadn’t seen for a good few weeks, what with their globe trotting to Rome, Istanbul…). Later on we were also joined by Gary and his girlfriend, as well as Agent A (who had spent the day in Cannes). Thor was entertaining as always – it’s a bit of an unusual bar since they only serve beer in pints; highly unusual in France where people tend to drink half-pints (now that’s a bit of useless information if there ever was one…).

From there we continued the theme of the weekend of “restaurants serving massive portions” by going to an Italian restaurant at Cours Saleya (the name of which escapes me), where everything they serve is massive (they have massive plates of antipasti, absolutely humongous bowls of pasta, not to mention an absolutely gargantuan bowl of chocolate mousse – which I actually managed to finish last summer). This time I “just” had a humongous plate of macaronis. I must grudgingly admit it was better than the good ol’ “makaroonilaatikko” which was my introduction (as for all proper Finns my age) to Italian cuisine back in Espoo, when I was a wee lad. After sharing a chocolat fondant with Mathilde, it was time to catch the last train back to Cagnes…

After another good night’s sleep, and a lazy breakfast, I headed down to the beach with Frank and Matilda. We had a great time jumping about in the sea like little kids the waves were absolutely huge) and just enjoying basking in the sun. After a nice BBQ lunch in front of the telly (since the Formula 1 race was on – ended disastrously for the two Finns, as most races so far this season), I took our guests for a bit of a tour of the surrounding area. We started off by a visit to Tourrettes-sur-Loup, one of the nearby pretty perched villages. After a cappuccino at the main square, we had a peaceful walk around the village’s pictereque cobble-stone streets, and of course stopped for a home-made ice cream (the local speciality being Violet ice cream).

Our next stop was Saint-Paul-de-Vence, which is probably the most famous village on the Cote d’Azur (certainly the most touristy one). Well, can’t deny it, it’s a very beautiful place – and I suppose the fact that most of the shops in the village contain over-priced art rather than tacky souvenirs is sort of a good thing… Anyway, after a quick walk around, it was time to head back home – dinner time! For dinner, we decided to head down to the seaside and try out Le Neptune – which is the only restaurant in Cagnes-sur-Mer which is actually on the beach. So the location couldn’t be much better, and the place itself is pretty cozy as well. Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything good to say about the service – I suppose I could put it kindly and call it “indifferent”. Thankfully, the food was pretty good. We headed back home for the coffees, and a bit of Ida’s home-made Calvados, of course ;-)

All in all, another busy, but great, weekend on the Cote d’Azur then ;-)