Le Circuit du Loup

The summer’s really arrived, and today looked like another perfect day on the Cote d’Azur. So we figured it was time to pull out the old hiking boots again and get a bit of exercise. After some contemplation and debating, we ended up selecting a walk around Greolieres, Le Circuit du Loup.

We hit the road after an early-ish breakfast, so as to try to finish the walk before the relentless afternoon sunshine. On the way to Greolieres, we heard some interesting talk on the radio about the 2010 Nice Ironman competition (you know, “just” 3.6km of swimming, followed by 180km of cycling, and a marathon to finish off. Easy.). Specifically the bit about the biking leg going through Greolieres. So we were a bit worried about whether we could make our way to Greolieres or not. Not to worry, thanks to some pretty good organization, we made it to Greolieres, without overrunning a single cyclist. We watched the action for a few minutes, as the iron (mad?) men cycled through the village. Gotta admit it, these guys deserve respect… I also spared a thought of my colleagues Ari and Jean-Luc, who were apparently participating…

Our hike then took us out of the village, down towards the Loup river (hence the name of the walk. We were a bit worried about the heat, since it the sun was already pretty overbearing. Thankfully the walk took us through some pretty thick forest, though, so it was all pretty easy going (we were, of course, going downhill as well!). After crossing the Loup river, it was time to make our way up towards the other village on the trek, Cipieres.

Mercifully, the footpath was covered by trees again, so we weren’t too badly exposed to the sun. I had a bit of a heart-stopping moment, as I nearly stepped on a grass snake, obviously as depleted by the heat as us. Apparently the surprised “yelp” I gave out wasn’t the most virile sound Mathilde has heard. After this near-encounter with the local wild-life, we continued our steep ascent towards the village. We eventually arrived, rather nackered, but pleased by the rather fetching views towards Greolieres and the Gorges du Loup, and by the sight of the village of Cipieres (I was already mentally picturing the beer).

After a walk around the typically pretty Provencal village, we eventually found ourselves at the local pizzeria, overlooking the main square. In the end, I went for an ice cream instead of the beer (what’s happening to me?).

The walk back was hard work, as the heat was getting more intensive. Thankfully, we had good tree cover on the way back as well… Still, we were rather out of breath as we found ourselves back at Greolieres. Taking care not to overrun the last struggling Iron Men, we made our way back to Cagnes, very happy with our hike indeed!

Sauna and BBQ time!

Today is a big festivity in Finland, known as Juhannus. Yep, that’s right, midsummer is upon us. For the occasion , Mikko and Marianne had kindly invited us as well as the Vuolles for a BBQ at their lovely house in St-Andre-de-la-Roche, overlooking Nice. The sauna, which Mikko has been working on with Marianne’s dad for quite a few months (apparently finding a suitable “kiuas” proved rather challenging), was also ready. So everything was in place for “proper Finnish soiree”.

We showed up a couple of hours before the meal, to have time to properly enjoy the sauna. The sauna is big enough for two persons (which was enough, since we weren’t able to convince the ladies that it’s perfectly normal to go the sauna even during warm summer days) – although there was some doubt about the bench’s ability to hold the weight of two lads of our stature… We needn’t have worried; the bench held, the löyly (hard word to translate properly, the literal translation is vapour, I suppose) was good, and so was the beer that followed (Budweiser, Czech version…).

We finished the sauna just in time for the apero; and the Vuolle family also eventually showed up (rather resembling overcooked crabs, like Finns on beach holiday should…). The BBQ was great, as it always is at Mikko’s at Marianne (apparently Mikko has been watching Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen, and has obviously picked up a trick or two…). The banoffee pie we’d prepared for a desert was quite a success as well (at least with me, I had a couple of extra helpings – I mean somebody had to do it…).

All in all, great sauna, great company, great food (as proven by the stomach cramps that plagued me all night), great fun! Merci Mikko & Marianne!

Birthday and music party!

Today, the 21st of June, is Mathilde’s big day. I decided to take a big risk by cooking a proper festive dinner in her honor (me in the kitchen = risk). After some deliberation, I ended up with the following birthday menu: a cucumber/tomato/fromage blanc verrine for starters, a filet mignon as a main course, and a strawberry tiramisu to finish off the dinner. Having left the office relatively early, and not having wasted too much time on the shopping (which occasionally happens, supermarkets not being my "natural habitat"), I actually much to my surprise managed to prepare the meal well on schedule.

The meal itself didn’t being very well, however. My verrine was remarkably tasteless, considering the ingredients involved. Everything (apart from maybe the presentation) was a bit of a disaster: the taste, the texture… (I suspect I didn’t put enough spices, and also I left out the chives - teaches me not to take short cuts in the future). Not to be put down by this bad start, I confidently served the main course, a filet mignon with fresh pasta and pesto sauce (fait a la maison, naturellement). That went down a lot better, in fact Mathilde, kind as she is, went so far as to call it “delicious”.

Well encouraged by this success, for the climax of the evening, I pulled out my trump card, the strawberry tiramisu. I had even dared to improvise a bit here – I replaced the normal biscuits with that Belgian delicacy known as speculos. Much to my amazement, the desert was an absolute delight, if I may say so... Well, anyways, I reckon you can’t really go wrong with those ingredients…

Rather happy with my “kitchen performance” (perhaps there is hope for me yet), and having given my birthday pressie to Mathilde (a rather cool, futuristic-looking alarm clock cum LED lighting system – turns out it’s more cool-looking than practical, unfortunately…), we decided to hit town to enjoy La Fête de la Musique.

La Fête de la Musique is a French tradition (which has since spread to other countries), which marks the start of summer. It’s a pretty cool event, with lots of small bands playing in the streets etc. Cagnes-sur-Mer isn’t what one would call the capital of cool, so our expectations weren’t that high. But we were positively surprised by the band playing on la Place de Charles de Gaulle. The young lads did a pretty good job of playing classics from my youth (Deep Purple, Guns n’ Roses and the like) and some French stuff I’d obviously never heard of ;-) Gotta hand it out to these guys, never have I seen Cagnes rock like this… (mind you, that’s not perhaps saying a whole lot!). Having said that, it wasn’t an all night orgy either – the festivities ended at 10 o’clock.

"Raiding Antibes" and Ismael's birthday do

Today marks the end of the sailing season, for my club. So the plan was to finish by the traditional "raid" which means sailing all the way to the îles de Lérins (located outside Cannes), have a picnic there and then head back. Kind if challenging, since the trip is 4 hours one way, and that’s assuming the winds are good! I’d prepared a carrot cake for the occasion (last minute as always, due to the Cranberries concert the previous night, thankfully Mathilde helped me out a bit…).

I arrived on the dot, 8:30, as planned. And, found myself all alone… So I initially thought I was there on the wrong day or something. Thankfully, other people showed up eventually, so we quickly prepared the boats and got ready to set off. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t look very favourable, with weak winds forecast for the morning, and storms for the afternoon (apparently not very compatible weather for our catamarans). So, we had to reduce our ambitions somewhat, and decided to have our picnic in Antibes instead.

I ended up with my buddy Norbert, like last time. Not sure we make ideal partners, since he has about the same body mass as me. Meaning we tend to move with less speed than the others (well, that’s the excuse we use anyway). So, as on other days, we made up the rearguard of our group. In the end, the winds were just too weak, and Marie decided to take 1 person off each boat. That seemed to make all the difference, as I much to my surprise overtook pretty much everybody (even the experts with their “race boats”). I was rather pleased with myself, I tell ya…

We arrived in Antibes just in time for lunch. And it was a very nice lunch indeed, with everything from aperitif cake, BBQ’d chicken, melons and pizza on offer. Accompanied by a fair few bottles of wine, and followed by a rather tasty collection of deserts (including my carrot cake, which was actually quite a success!).

Our stomachs filled, we headed out of our little cozy beach, and made way back for Cagnes. We had very good winds on the way back actually (but less sun, on the other hand), so we had great fun. There was also a big regatta of big sail yachts outside the port of Antibes, which was pretty cool. We eventually pulled into Cagnes about 3:30, more than happy with a great day of sailing! Great way to end the sailing season, even if we didn’t make it all the way to the Lérins…

For the evening, we’d been invited to celebrate Ismael’s birthday in Nice. Time flies, young Ismael is already pushing 30 (it seems almost like yesterday when I met him on the shuttle bus to work, when he was starting his career). ;-) The part was great fun. What I really liked about it was that it was a nice mixture of locals and foreign folks (quite a few Irish, since Ismael’s girlfriend Sarah is from the Emerald Isle…). Kind of brings back memories from life back in the UK (where in my experience the social life is a bit more cosmopolitan and “international” than here on the Cote d’Azur, something I miss).

A Spanish friend of Ismael’s even put up a very impressive magic show. No matter how hard we looked, we weren’t able to figure out his tricks… As always, we were forced to leave just as the party was getting good, since we had our last train to catch. We really have to find a solution for this rather annoying dilemma…

Rock on the Riviera

Those of you who know me well, are aware, perhaps, of the fact that I’m not into music big time. Movies is more my thing. But, in my days of youth (which was absolute ages ago, it’s starting to feel…) I did go to a fair few concerts and music festivals back in my native Finland, and even bought the odd CD.

But when I read AC/DC were coming to play to Nice, I realized I just had to act. An opportunity to see these living legends simply couldn’t be missed. And it just so turned out that Mikko had a spare ticket for the concert.

So, this cloudy Tuesday, the day was upon us. We realized we’d have to head out to Nikaia pretty early, since we both absolutely wanted to see Slash, who was the supporting act. So I left the office way early, before 4, and headed from Nice (yet I already hit bad traffic!). A bus ride later, we arrived at Nikaia. After a nutritious dinner of beer, merguez and frites, as well as a fair bit of queuing, we very ready to rock.

After the first supporting act (have to admit I’ve forgotten the name of the band), Slash was on. This was pretty cool for both me and Mikko, me having been into Guns n’ Roses big time. And he didn’t disappoint. Same hat, same hair, same guitar, still cool as ever.

After a futile attempt to buy ourselves beer (it was harder work than getting a round in a pub on Leicester square on a Saturday evening; for f***s sake!), we could hear (hard to miss it with the volume they were playing at) the Aussies were on! AC / DC were every bit as good (or maybe even better) than I expected.

Brian and especially Angus were well on form (not sure which was my favourite moment, I suppose I can’t really say it was Angus’ striptease can I?). Great to hear some of the old classics live as well. Unbelievable the show they put up, and the amount of energy these guys have! We hardly noticed that it was absolutely p***ing it down for most of the concert (this was the same day when this happened not too far away). Well, I did notice it later at home when I took off my shoes (I think they took two days to dry…).

Great concert, although the arrangements and organization left a lot to be desired (especially the slow beer service – what an absolute disgrace that was!). It was pretty loud apparently, as friends as far as in Antibes could hear the old-yet-young-at-heart geezers playing away!



That wasn’t it for me music-wise this week, as Mikko actually had a spare ticket for the Cranberries as well. So we were back at Nikaia on Friday, this time joined by Ismael and Sarah, who also had tickets for the concert. This gig was indoors, which made it all a bit less spectacular, but more intimate. Great concert as well, although the music is maybe less to my taste than the Aussie lads’ one… On a positive note, it was a lot easier to get beer this time ;-)

The Vuolle family is back

Hannu, my trusty colleague of more than three years, left the sunny Cote d’Azur for the somewhat less sunny Tampere, a few months ago. Apparently, the return to the homeland has not been easy for him and his family. The fact that the Finnish winter was the coldest one for a looong time probably didn’t help (going from +15 degrees with glorious sunshine, to -20 and near-constant darkness must indeed be rather tough…).

So, anyway, obviously they miss France, since they decided to come and spend four weeks of their holidays here. Naturally, that called for a reunion with the other Finns on the Cote d’Azur. Mikko and Marianne decided to join as well, but unfortunately Pete and Anne were unable to come along this time.

We booked one of the more popular restaurants, Le Safari, in Cours Salyea, for the occasion. Great to catch up with everybody again, it’s really been quite a while. The youngest dinner guests, Sara and Daniel were energetic, as always… (and just wouldn’t believe me when I told them I’m really not ticklish…).

We finished off a very pleasant evening in traditional fashion – with a pint in Ma Nolan’s.

Surprise weekend at Porquerolles!

This particular Saturday morning, I got up rather early, as the plan was to go sailing, for a change (I’ve not been able to much of that this spring, for various reasons). But instead, Mathilde surprised me by telling me I wasn’t going sailing this Saturday either; she had a surprise weekend organized for me! I was a bit doubtful at first, but by the time we’d packed our bags, and hit the motorway, she had me convinced… After a couple of failed guesses, I realized our destination was Porquerolles.

Porquerolles is one of the Isles des Hyeres, not surprisingly located outside Hyeres. We arrived at the port and managed to take a boat pretty early, bringing us into Port-Cros, the main (er, only, actually..) town on the Island. After checking into our classy hotel (only the best is good enough for me, apparently!), we quickly set out to explore the island. We quickly realized that the thing to do on Porquerolles is to hire a bike – makes sense since cars are basically banned on the island. We decided to be rebellious and walk, though (since we had 2 days on Porquerolles, we figured we had enough time to cover most of the island by foot). The other thing to do on Porquerolles is to lie on the beach, so we decided to start off by doing just that, lying down on Plage d’argent. We spent a couple of very restul hours there, enjoying the sun, blue sky, and crystal-clear waters (and were even treated to a bit of an airplane display).

After our restful stay on the beach, we headed back into town to check into our hotel. We took the opportunity to have a walk around and explore Port-Cros as well. It’s quite an usual town, not your typical cute Provencal village, the architecture looks almost colonial instead. And would you believe it, we ran into Antoine (a colleague of Mathilde’s) and Claire in the port. After a promise to meet up later for drinks, we finally checked in, and then decided to head out to do some proper hiking.

Our hike took us to the Northern side of the island, to the Gorges du Loup. It’s a very scenic spot indeed, the steep gorge carving its way inland from the steep and rocky shoreline. From there, we made our way towards the lighthouse of Porquerolles, taking in the stunning coastal views. It truly is a sight for sore eyes, this island. Unfortunately it’s not possible to visit the light house, so we continued our coastal exploration instead, enjoying every minute of it.

On the way back, we even crossed some vineyards (there are three altogether on the island), and also decided to visit the Fort St-Agathe, the fortress overlooking and guarding Port-Cros. The fort itself isn’t all that interesting (not much to see…) but the views over the island and the town are quite stunning.

After our scheduled aperitif with Antoine and Claire (pastis is just a perfect drink for a warm summer eve…), we headed out for dinner. We picked a nice-looking restaurant with an inviting terrace, overlooking the main square. The restaurant wasn’t anything to write home about (with slow service and a pretty mediocre main course). The entertainment on the main square made up for it, though, with a bunch of lads living it up… We finished the evening with a few beers in the bars, getting into a real holiday spirit!

The next day promised more of the same; hiking and beaches, basically. We started off by heading towards the Western part of the island. The hike took in yet more gorgeous landscapes and beautiful beaches. We hiked all the way to the Langoustier, another military fort. After a walk around the well-restored military building, we headed down to the lovely lagoon it overlooks, with its beach. And who did we run into on the way there, if not Antoine and Claire… After an hour or so of catching some rays, swimming in the beautiful waters, it was time to hit the road again.

Our walk took us back to Port-Cros, from where we carried on towards the Eastern side of the island; Les Medes. The hike followed the edge of the long, sandy Plage de Notre-Dame, climbing up towards our destination. Once more, the views were great, the sea blue etc. etc. (I’m running out of superlatives here…). On the way back, we stopped by on the beach of Notre-Dame for a last swim in the inviting waters… Then it was, sadly, time to take the ferry back to the mainland.

What a great weekend it was. Porquerolles, reputed to be one of the prettiest places in our region, manged to surpass out expectations. And it wasn’t even overrun by tourists, as we perhaps feared. A big thanks to Mathilde for a fantastic surprise weekend!