Riviera tour with Jani

Jani is a good mate of mine from Finland; we’ve been through a lot together (Gymnasiet Grankulla Samskola, the Finnish military service and the enlightenment cruise – in that order of difficulty…). People can still vividly remember his last visit when he came to see me in England (I can’t remember a thing – except that there were a lot of beer cans left in the apartment when he left). So I was really looking forward to his visit ;-).

I picked him up at the airport Saturday morning, and chauffeured him back to our flat. After a welcome beer and lunch at our flat, we decided to quickly hit the road and head out on the tourist tour. We started off with the Most Beautiful Old town on the Riviera, Haut-de-Cagnes. I write that with a slightly ironic tone, but seriously speaking, it IS one of the prettiest old towns in the area. The lack of tourists hordes adds to its charm (in their place there are, however, the pensioner hordes). After a leisurely walk around the cobble-stoned streets (and a coffee downtown), we continued on to Nice, the next stop on our grand tour.

We started off with a walk around the old town, which took in all the famous sights including Cours Saleya, the famous Fenocchio gelateria and the Palais Lascaris (an old restaured fancy townhouse, which has the additional distinction of being free to visitors). We ended up at Place Garibaldi, where we decided to have an afternoon drink. Due to the slow service (we started to wonder whether the waiter was drunk or amnesiac, as he seemed to have some difficulty keeping track of our orders…) and the fact that we quite enjoyed our spot in the sun, our "quick drink" carried on for quite some time, until we suddenly realised it was time for dinner!

We ended up in a real Nice institution – Le Café de Turin. It’s one of the most reputable restaurants in Nice for seafood. Not the sort of grub we eat very often, but it made for a nice change. We had big plates of various sea crawlies, half of which I didn’t recognise the name of… All in all, a pretty nice meal, with good wine (Jani grumbled a bit about the slow service again – it’s true that a bit more patience is required in this part of the world than in Finland…). We finished the day with a couple of pints in that ole’ Irish-Nicoise institution known as Ma Nolan’s, where we met up with Ismael as well.

For the next day, the plan was to head to Italy to one of our favourite restaurants, il Giardino, where one is guaranteed to leave with a more than satiated appetite… We decided to take the scenic route there, which meant taking the Moyenne Corniche instead of the motorway. This rather amazing drive (especially in sunny weather, like we had on this particular day) takes in all the sights between Nice and Italy (Cap Ferrat, Monaco, Eze, Cap Martin etc.). A couple of photo-stops later, we arrived in Vallebuona, were a gargantuan lunch was waiting for us. What followed was three hours of unashamed gluttony (I loved every minute of it, needless to say). The culinary marathon consisted of I don’t know how many antipasti, three plates of pasta, three plates of meat, followed by just one desert (!). And plenty of wine to go with it, of course…

Our stomachs bloating, we squeezed into the car, and headed back towards France. Our next stop was Monaco (what else?). We ticked off all the classic sights, first checking in the Casino with the fancy cars. We then headed down to the port (the preparations for the F1 Grand Prix were well under way), where we stopped for a drink at Stars ‘n Bars (the place to be for motor sports fans in Monaco). From there we hiked up to the rocher (which I supposed got rid of a few calories we had acquired in Italy), where the old town and the royal palace is located. There’s not all that much to see or visit there, to be honest, apart from the Oceanographic museum (which is a lot more interesting than the royal palace), so after the obligatory photos of the port which the rocher overlooks, we headed back towards Monte-Carlo, where our car was parked. We did decide to have one last overpriced coffee at the Café de Paris next to the Casino, though, before hitting the road. (5 euros for a cappuccino…).

We were all a bit nackered by the time we got back home, and scrapped the plan to go and have a drink at “Le 7” (the only pub in Cagnes-sur-Mer, as far as I know, and I haven’t been there yet, can you believe it?). Me and Jani ended up watching “Ichi the killer”, by the rather unique (and some would maybe argue, deepy disturbed) director Takasi Miike. This particular film was unique/disturbing than even by Miike’s high standards…. The beer which was consumed considerably improved the viewing experience…

Monday, we got up bright ‘n early, for the last day of Jani’s visit. The plan was to drive down along the coast to St-Tropez. We managed to leave before 9 AM (pretty good going, I reckon), hitting the A8 motorway, getting off at Mandelieu and driving along the coastline at Massif d’Esterel. It really is a great drive, with the ochre-coloured massif silhouetted against the turquoise Mediterranean… We stopped for a scenic coffee break in one of the small towns, Agay (I think). From there we carried on to Port-Grimaud, a well-known little town I’ve wanted to visit for some time.

Port-Grimaud is what one could call a “small, modern-day Venice”. It’s the dream project of an architect called François Spoerry, built in 1964. It’s quite an interesting little place, and certainly one of the most successful “housing projects” from the 60’s. But whether it merits the hordes of tourists who apparently decend on this little port during the summer months, I’m less sure about… After a very nice lunch consisting of fish and white wine, we carried on towards St-Trop’…

Half an hour or so later, we arrived. Unfortunately, by now Jani’s stomach was getting rather upset (not sure whether it was the Italian meal or the beer from yesterday, or the fish...), so our visit ended up being quite short… We did have the time to have another ridiculously expensive cappuccino in the port, buy a couple of tartes tropeziennes for dinner, and have a quick walk around to take in the main sights (not that there’s much to see as such in St-Tropez, pretty though it is…).

That brought an end to Jani’s visit, which turned out to be as enjoyable as last time, and considerably more “civilised”… ;-).

Corsica - suite et fin

For Wednesday, the plan was to head out to what is probably the most famous town in Corsica, Bonifacio, located right on the Southern tip of the Island. The drive down to Bonifacio is pretty stunning, going past Sartene, and taking in some beautiful mountain and coastal scenery. A few photo stops later, we finally arrived.

Actually, we drove past Bonifacio to take in the view of the city from the east. And what a sight for sore eyes Bonifacio is, with its old town precariously perched on the cliff, overlooking the turquoise Mediterranean. I would say that it’s without doubt the most stunningly sited city in France. Having spent a while wandering around the cliffs and enjoying the view, we headed down to explore the town itself.

We started off with a decent enough lunch, considering we had it in one of the tourist trap restaurants on the main drag. Actually, one of the clichés about Corsica I find somewhat unwarranted is that it would be more expensive than mainland France. To me it seems cheaper at least than the Cote d’Azur (maybe not the best reference, though…). Our stomachs filled, we headed off to explore the old town. The town itself perhaps failed to live up to the promise of the stunning first impression one gets when seeing the town from afar, but it’s still well worth a visit. It does somewhat suffer from its popularity – I can only imagine what a nightmare it must be during the summer months… Our brisk walk took in the main sights (Napoleons house, the citadel, the sailor’s cemetery, a couple of nice churches), but I think what impressed us the most were again the stunning views over the coastline and the sheer audaciousness which must’ve been involved in constructing the town.

After our visit, we sped up towards the North, where we had a rendez-vous with Youcef and Warda at Santa Giulia beach (located just south of one of Portovecchio). We spent a pleasant hour or so on the beach, enjoying the sunshine (and in my case, a beer) and chatting away. I felt tempted to jump in the sea for a swim, but alas had not brought my swimming trunks. Eventually, as the sun started to set, we set off back home, very pleased indeed with the day…

The next day, we decided it was finally time for a proper trek. After all, Corsica is supposed to be one of the best places on the planet for that kind of thing (one of the most famous hiking trails in France, the GR20, is located here). We decided upon something a bit less ambitious than the GR20; a walk around the Capu Muru peninsula (the same peninsula where our apartment complex was located, so just down the road).And what a fantastic day of hiking we had. The weather was perfect; the sky was blue, and there was a light breeze to keep us refreshed. The hike initially took us to one of the famous Genovan watchtowers which dot the Corsican coastline (they formed a kind of signalling system in the olden days, to warn about approaching invaders).

After taking in the beautiful views from there, we carried on to the tip of Capu Muru, taking in some more stunning coastal scenery on the way… After a quick visit to the chapel we found there, we made the trek back to our starting point. All in all, a very pleasant way to spend 6 hours. I washed off the sweat with a dip in the sea at our local beach – VERY refreshing (= cold). Mathilde took the wise choice, I think, and read a book on the beach. We finished off the day watching the sunset from our balcony, drinking some Corsican wine, and with a nice dinner…

We got up on Friday, full of energy. Our week in Corsica was nearing its end, as we were taking the ferry back to Nice the next day. So wanting to waste no time, we checked out, and hit the road. For our last day, we wanted to acquaint ourselves with the Corsican mountains a bit. The mountains are where Corsicans have traditionally lived, to protect themselves from foreign invaders, I suppose.

Our drive initially took us to Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano, yet another pretty Corsican mountain village, famous for its olive oil. After getting a sandwich done, we carried on to one of the main sights in this part of Corsica; Cuccuruzzu. It’s actually a rather large archeological site, with the castle for which Cuccuruzzu is famous for dating back to the Bronze Age. The site is actually setup as a two hour hike with audio guide, so it makes for a nice combination of outdoors activity and history lesson. It was all good fun, even if the audio guide did take the Corsican clichés a bit far; with the omni-present Corsican chant, and thick Corsican accents (or so Mathilde told me, obviously being a bit more familiar with Corsican clichés than me ;-).

A couple of pretty mountain villages later, we reached the other top sight in the region; the Col de Bavella, from where there are some nice views towards the Aiguilles (= needles) de Bavella. It was a great scenic spot, just a pity about the clouds blocking the view. (having said that, they also created a bit of an atmosphere…).

By then, we were thirsting for a drink, so decided to follow the advice of our trusty Guide de Routard, which recommended having a drink or two at the Hotel de la Poste in Aullène. We rather quickly found the hotel, only to find the place closed, much to our disappointment. As were all the other bars in town, unfortunately. However, on our way back to our car, a crafty-looking old geezer stopped us, starting to ask us strange questions (like where we were from, how we liked his village etc.). Turned out quickly that the chap was none other than the owner of the Hotel de la Poste, and that he was more than happy for us to have a drink on his terrace. Clearly glad to have some company, he then proceeded to tell us his life’s story (including how he had walked the GR20 in 5 days – a feat that normally takes more like 15 days, I might add) and that of his old hotel (an old coaching inn, the oldest one in Corsica, apparently). Most of this was translated to me by Mathilde, by the way, since I only understood about one word in three, so thick was his accent. He also enthusiastically showed us his self-authored local tourist guide – “the most accurate guide there is”, apparently. All in all, a truly authentic Corsican experience, then, to end our trip ;-). He even gave us a bottle of Rose as a souvenir (and naturally refused payments for our drinks). A heart-warming encounter, one could say. Should you ever find yourself in Corsica, I can honestly recommend a visit!

An hour’s drive later, we were back in the town of our arrival, Ajaccio, at the same hotel. We finished the evening, and Corsican holiday, with a great dinner in a nice restaurant in the old town.

So, how to sum up Corsica, then? As you may have guessed, we really loved the place. It’s certainly one of the prettiest places in Europe, and as of yet, relatively undeveloped. It also has an undeniably Corsican character (just look at all the traffic signs with the French names crossed over), to me it had a different feel to mainland Europe. We didn’t find it expensive either, nor unfriendly (especially in light of our encounter in Aullène). So, I can definitely recommend a visit – just don’t go in the summer. I can only imagine the traffic jams and crowds…

Discovering Corsica

We’ve spent over three years on the Cote d’Azur now, and have managed to see quite lot of this very beautiful part of the world. One place we’ve not had the opportunity to visit yet, though, is Corsica. Corsica has a reputation of being a very beautiful place indeed (the French like to call l it “L'Île de Beauté”). Some people also have less positive things to say about Corsica – some members of the nationalist movement give the island a bit of a bad name with their bombings etc. Some even say that Corsicans, on the whole, are not the friendliest lot around… So, for this year’s eastern holidays, we decided it was time for us to find out for ourselves whether the clichés hold true…

After a rather hectic morning of packing and cleaning up the house, we embarked on our journey on a very sunny Saturday afternoon, taking the ferry from Nice to Ajaccio (the capital of Corsica). The sea voyager was a rather pleasant one, since the weather really looked promising. We arrived very late, so didn’t really have time to explore Ajaccio that evening. We spent Sunday morning exploring the place, starting with the Napoleon monument, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. Napoleon is, I suppose, the most famous Corsican around (I suppose some fanatical Tino Rossi fans might disagree…); and he was born in Ajaccio. We then headed down to the town centre for a quick walk around. Turns out there isn’t that much to see in Ajaccio, actually. The old town is pleasant enough, but just covers a few blocks. An there is, of course, the imposing citadel, guarding the port of Ajaccio. After a visit to the local market in the port, where we stocked up on supplies for our trip, we headed out into the Ajaccian hinterland, into the Gravona valley.

Not far away from Ajaccio, we were met by some very pretty scenery indeed. We quickly noticed that the landscapes are quite different from those found on the Cote d’Azur. The hills just look a lot greener here. The fact that Corsica has (at least up until now) largely been spared of the property development boom which has given a rather ugly concrete façade to parts of the Riviera, also helps… We started off by visiting what is apparently a typical Corsican village, Bocognano. The villages struck as quite different from the Provencal ones we’re used to. The Corsican ones are kind of “less cute”, and can appear a bit run down. But they also seem like “real places”, with a lot of character and local colour. After a quick picnic lunch, we headed off to another charming little village called Vero. After a nice hike in the pretty surrounding hills, we decided to leave the Gravona valley and find our lodgings for the rest of our stay. After a very scenic drive along the Corsican coastline, we finally arrived in Serra di Ferro, where we checked into the apartment we’d rented for the week.

We started Monday by another excursion into the Corsican interior, doing a mini-road trip which took in a couple of more pretty Corsican villages – with the highlight being Olmeto. From there, we drove down to Sartène, which is known as the “most Corsican of Corsican towns”. Its history is filled with stories of vendetta (another well-documented “phenomenon” Corsica is famous for), and traditions hold firm here, apparently… It’s certainly quite an atmospheric place, with a sort of dour medieval feel to it (again, less flowery and pretty than some of the Provencal towns we’ve visited). We decided it would be the perfect place to try some traditional Corsican cuisine. We ended up in a place that was no doubt touristy, but still managed to feel somehow authentic (including the less-than enthusiastic service…). I had Corsican charcuterie as a starter, and wild boar with mashed potatoes as a main course, washed down with some nice local red wine. The cuisine can’t get much more Corsican than that ;-). After the filling meal, we joined Youcef and Warda, friends from the mainland who happened to be in Corsica at the same time, for a coffee on the main square. After a walk around Sartène with them, we headed together down to Propriano. Propriano is one of the more touristy places in Corsica (let’s not forget about that aspect of Corsica, it does get overrun by tourists during the summer…), without much cultural interest. But the port is nice enough for a stroll around, and the crepes we had weren’t bad either ;-).

On Tuesday, we decided to stay local, since the area surrounding our little village is very pretty as well. We started the day with a brisk walk down to the local “resort”, Porto Pollo. I put quotation marks, since Porto Pollo is a pretty sleepy place for a tourist resort – and all the better for it. After a stroll across the nearly deserted beach, we found ourselves in the port, where we decided to have lunch. The place we chose wasn’t the cheapest in town, no doubt, but the freshly caught fish they served was absolutely delicious, and the desert wasn’t bad either… And the white wine we had was a real delight as well, just perfect for the sunny weather we were blessed with. After the rather long lunch, we carried on walking along the stunning coastline, until we found a nice little private beach, where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon, just relaxing. As you may have guessed, we were seriously falling for the beauty of Corsica…

Visitors from Angers

It’s been a while since Joel and Francoise have been able to visit us, so it’s great that they could finally make it to the Cote d’Azur to enjoy a bit of southern sunshine. I and Mathilde had been doing a fair bit of scouting to check for suitable hotels for Joel. After checking out a few options, we ended up with a nice, modern hotel on the seaside, not far from the Cros de Cagnes (where I do my weekly sailing sessions on Saturdays). For us it ticked all the boxes, apart from the missing sea view. Herquise also came along for the visit, and spent the week at our flat.

After a calm Sunday spent checking out Cagnes, we decided to head out to Cannes on Monday. It was a day off for me, so I was also able to join; as where my parents, who were also keen to meet up with Joel and Francoise. We had a bit of a lie-in on in the morning, so only made it into Cannes for lunchtime. We met up with parents in the old port of Cannes, and headed straight to a snack bar to stock up on supplies for our improvised picnic lunch. A few sandwiches and Finnish Easter eggs later, we headed out to explore Cannes. We started at the Palais de Festivales (where else?), and had a look at the famous film star handprints, and then made our way to the Croisette.

The Croisette needs no introduction, of course. It’s the 2km avenue, covering the Cannes seaside, known for the flashy hotels (like the Carlton) and glitzy shops (there’s even a Vertu shop there…). And it was surely a perfect day for a walk on the Croisette –we were blessed with a blue sky and glorious sunshine on this particular occasion. Good fun checking out the “Riviera couples” (normally the male is old, rich and wears dark shades. The female is young, blonde (fake, naturally) and pretty. Without gong into clichés of course!) who had made an appearance in impressive numbers (build-up for the Cannes film festival, I suppose, which is in a few weeks). We even treated ourselves to the first ice cream of the season ;-). A great and relaxing way to spend a nice spring afternoon!

I was, unfortunately, working for the rest of the week. But I was able to join the others for the odd afternoon coffee / lunch. That’s what’s great about living in this part of the world, the possibility to have a nice coffee by the seaside after getting out of the office, a real luxury… In the evenings we had good fun with Herquise as well in our flat, mostly playing “Buzz’s pop quiz” on my PS2. I and Herquise didn’t have much of a say against Mathilde’s encyclopaedic music knowledge, so ‘twas a bit of a humiliation for us (personally, I definately prefer the movie quiz... ;-) ). I also had great fun “helping Herquise out” with her PSP game (just an excuse to have a go myself, of course!)




On Wednesday evening my parents had kindly invited us over for dinner to their swishy flat in Antibes. After a typically festive aperitif (champagne, what else?), we dug into the food. My dad had made us some absolutely delicious filet mignon. The meat quite simply melted in my mouth (I even felt oblidged to have some broccoli, which was of course present as a side dish, as always… Not my favourite veg…). And to finish off, a raspberry cake. So we went home with our appetites well sated.

As a grand finale for the week, we met up at Joel’s and Francoise’s hotel on Friday. We first had a somewhat disappointing “aperitif” (for my part, I had what’s probably the worst, but certainly not the cheapest milkshake ever…) at the hotel bar. The Aéva is a good hotel, and we quite enjoy having a coffee on their roof-top balcony, but the outdoors bar was a bit of a disappointment. For dinner, we had a couple (well, 4 or 5 in the end, I think…) of very tasty pizzas from a nearby take-away restaurant.

All in all, we had a really great week. I hope Francoise and Joel can make it again, soon!

Visit from Luxembourg

Jani and Tepe are old friends from my student days at Arcada Polytechnic . Since the good old student days, they have set up house together in Luxembourg, of all places. We had the pleasure of paying them a visit last year, during our “Great European Road Trip”, and meeting their new family members.

This week, they were returning the favor by paying us a visit, during their one-week stay at Saint-Raphael (less than an hour’s drive in the neighboring Var department). Due to our somewhat busy schedules, the best slot for a visit turned out to be Sunday, when they came over for a brunch. It turned out to be quite a hectic brunch, actually, as the young family members (especially big brother Niko) were just as energetic as last time… It was also Anna and Julia’s birthday (who are, as you may have guessed, twins…), so good timing for a bit of a celebration ;-)

All in all, a very pleasant (if somewhat tiring) way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

A taste of Morocco

I’ve always been a big fan of North African cuisine; especially Moroccan and Tunisian (we went to Tunisia for a week’s holiday last year and were absolutely delighted with the cuisine). So we were very happy to accept Ismael’s invitation to come over to his and Sarah’s place for an authentic Moroccan meal.

They live in a very nice flat, in what could possible be one of the best possible spots in Nice, overlooking Place Magenta and the pedestrian Rue Massena (certainly one can’t really be more central – except for maybe where Mikko and Sami used to live, on Place Massena).

Once the other guests arrived (Youcef and his girlfriend), the festivities started off with a very entertaining aperitif indeed – the highlight was surely the videos from Ismael’s and Sarah’s trip to Chamonix (very impressive jumps from Ismael – he is a braver man then me, that’s for sure!).

The meal that followed was, as expected, a real treat. It’s true what they say; home-made traditional food is always the best. And this was the first time I had proper homemade Moroccan cuisine, I reckon (at least I don’t count the tagines I’ve attempted as “proper”… ;-). After a very tasty starter of Moroccan pancakes/bread with a veggie filling to go with it, we dug into the main course – called “Mad Moroccan lamb”. It’s a traditional Moroccan recipe with a “Jamie Oliver twist”. I think the name of the dish is pretty descriptive – it’s basically a case of “throw a lamb and a whole bunch of spices, fruits and vegetables into a dish, and put it in the over for a few hours”. I suppose it’s a bit more complicated that that – but the main thing is that it’s delicious. To finish off the feast, we were treated to some equally tasty home-made Moroccan pastries made by Youcef (I REALLY had to force myself to find some space in my over-filled stomach…).

By then it was time to make our way back to the train station (no mean feat, considering the amount of food I’d devoured), to catch the last train. All in all then, an excellent way to spend a Saturday night – great food and great company!