Dinner with the folks

My parents have spent a bit less of the winter months on the Cote d’Azur this year than usually. I guess they chose a good year for it, since the weather hasn’t exactly been brilliant this winter – and on the other hand, southern Finland has for once been blessed by a proper winter.

But, finally, they were able to make it here, if only for three weeks, for starters. So we were graciously invited to their flat in Antibes for a combined “back to the Riviera”/delayed birthday celebration (in my honour). We were treated to a typically delicious dinner; this time lamb chops with broccoli (it’s one of the few things I don’t actually like eating – I guess my mum is still trying to “educate me”) and other veg. Accompanied by a classy Piedmontese red wine, and followed by an impressive chocolate cake. So no complaints in the culinary department ;-)

Otherwise, it sounds like my old folks are getting back into the rhythm of life on the Riviera, having already had their weekly petanque session (followed by a rather long lunch…), and with the 10-years anniversary dinner of the Finnish association and a ballet in Monaco to follow this week still… They’ve got a busier social life than us, that’s for sure!

I was rather happy with the two bags of birthday pressies, as well, especially by the latest book from Kjell Westö (one of my favourite Finnish authors…).

Greolieres encore une fois...

Our good friends Ollie and Raphaelle were visiting the Cote d’Azur this weekend. As always, they were staying at Ollie’s parents place in “the most beautiful village in France”, Greolieres. The plan was obviously to meet up. As we usually do when Ollie and Rapha are over, we were planning to do a night out in Greo, followed by a day of skiing. This time, however, the weather forecast for the weekend looked rather grim, so we were already preparing alternative plans. But thankfully, during Friday afternoon, the weather forecast drastically improved for Saturday, so we decided to stick to the original plan, so up we drove along Le Loup towards the mountains on Friday evening.

Things kicked off with an aperitif at Ollie’s parents’ impressive house. His globetrotting parents were there as well (at the moment they live in China), as well as Marc (a friend of Ollie’s, a real local stalwart, whom I met during my last visit to Greolieres). After a couple of glasses of bubbly, we headed down to the best restaurant in Greolieres (not to mention the only one…). The welcome and food was great, as always. You really get a sense of community at this place; pretty much everybody seems to know each other. Except for the large party of hang-gliding Swedes at the table next to us, they kind of stood out from the crowd. As you may or (more likely) may not know, Greolieres is apparently one of the best places in Europe for hang-gliding. The location of the village, I suppose, sat in the imposing Gorges de Loup, helps…

After a very tasty and entertaining meal (which we finished with some grappa and eau de vie, of course!), the lads decided to head on to the local put “Le Relais”, for a couple of drinks more. Hmm, quite a few, as it turned out. The bar was frequented by a rather strange mixture of folks that night; in addition to our party there were a few of the hang-gliding Swedes, a few local stalwarts (at least one of who by the looks of things spends quite a lot of time at Le Relais), as well as an American who splits his time between Greolieres and Basingstoke (of all places – that’s just down the road from where I used to work in the UK!). It was a blast; I ended up finishing the night with the Swedes, and learning much about hang-gliding no doubt (it was all wiped out of memory by the next morning)…

In spite of feeling somewhat worse for wear, I amazingly managed to get out of bed at a reasonably early hour, and we managed to hit the ski slopes more or less on schedule. The weather was great for skiing, with sunshine and a blue sky, but it does have to be said the ski slopes were in worse shape than last time me and Mathilde came (two weekends ago). It was all a bit icy and slippery. But what was great was the fact that hardly anybody was there, so we pretty much had the slopes to ourselves. And the slopes got a bit softer and easier later on during the day… After a “light” lunch (tartiflette & beer), we carried on in the afternoon – but were somewhat less motivated due to the blistering wind that made even staying upright a downright challenge. So we decided to call it a day relatively early. After a coffee at Marc’s place (who lives in Greolieres-les-Neiges), we said our tearful goodbyes, and hit the road.

Teemu's (and Paddy's) big day

That time of the year again, when I have the privildge to feel yet one year older… Birthdays used to be so much fun; less so these days…. Oh well, at least I get to share mine with Saint-Patrick ;-).

The original plan was to have a get-together with some friends in Nice, on the big day itself (17th of March). But alas, ‘twas not to be, due to cancellations and unforeseen circuimstances. So we ended up having a cozy and romatntic dinner, just myself and Mathilde. Which in the end was pretty much the perfect way to celebrate it, of course;-) (especially since the meal Mathilde cooked for me was a true delight; a bit of Maigret de Canard followed by a delicious lemon cake). And no hangover to worry about in the office on the day after, either… ;-)

We did decide to meet up with the "Riviera Finns" on Friday, though. Things kicked off with Pete picking us up with his Volvo convertible, and driving us down to Cours Saleya. We immediately went to pay our respects to mr. Paddy, by having a Guinness in Ma Nolan’s for an aperitif.

The proceedings then continued in a true Nice old town institution, Le Bistrot du Vieux Nice, where we were joined by Mikko and Marianne. We spent a typically pleaseant evening with the gregarious Finns (not an expression often used when talking about Finns…). Pete entertained us with stories from their 3-week visit to Singapore and South-East Asia; and we then got chatting about the others’ plan for two weeks of hockey (Mikko and Pete?) / shopping (Marianne and Anne?) in California… All in all, a very nice evening then!

Sailing, dining, Wii-ing and skiing...

It’s not been a particularly sunny winter on the Cote d’Azur so far… But this weekend, the sun was back with a vengeance! Which boded very well for my sailing session – the second one for 2010. Quite a few members of our group were apparently still in ski-mode, so there were only three of us to brave the might winds of the med. Wishful thinking, that… Unfortunately the winds were nowhere to be seen today, so it was a rather tame sailing session this time. But with the sun shining the way it did, who can complain? And I got to sail solo, which is always a good learning experience.

For the evening, we’d been invited for dinner at Mikko’s at Marianne’s place in Saint-André-de-la-Roche, overlooking beautiful Nice. It was good to catch up with them again, it’s been a few weeks since the last time. After a nice aperitif, we devoured the delicious veal piccata Marianne had prepared for us… Me and Mathilde contributed with the dessert – a Carambar cake (Carambar are French Caramel candy bars, who in addition to being very tasty are also well known for the bad jokes printed on the wrapping paper. Believe me, they really are very bad…).

After this not very light dinner, we decided it was time for a bit of sport – so Mikko and Marianne took out the Nintendo Wii. Believe it or not, but me and Mathilde had actually not played on the Wii before, so it was all a bit of a discovery for us! What followed was a very energetic session of Rayman Raving Rabbids. Not sure what the highlight was – for me it was Mikko and Marianne dancing to “Wake me up before you go-go” by Wham. But apparently my and Mikko’s dance number was even more fun… A good way to get rid of those extra calories; I ought to get myself one of those…!

The weather forecast for Sunday promised more sunshine, so we decided to make the best of it and head to Greolieres for a bit of skiing. We managed to get ourselves out of bed at 7:30 as planned, which meant we were ready to hit the slopes just after 9. We had a beautiful session, enjoying the sun-bather ski slopes. The snow was good, if a bit hard for my taste (but not icy). And since we were there early enough, there weren’t even that many people on the slopes. So we enjoyed ourselves to the utmost, before having an early lunch (hoping to still be able to hit the slopes before the arrival of the afternoon crowds…). The slopes got pretty busy in the afternoon, but we still made the best of it. We finished by about 3 o’clock, very happy with a full day of skiing, in perfect conditions! What a great way to end a weekend…