Touring northern Brittany

Our next destination was Brittany. It’s a part of France I’m not very familiar with – although I have seen the famous menhirs at Carnac, and the rather charming city of Vannes already. So I was quite looking forward to exploring this part of France, with its wild landscapes, old towns, and ancient legends. And let’s not forget about the crepes and the cider, either ;-).

We started by heading up towards Cap Fréhel, to explore some of those famous wild landscapes (undeterred by the decidedly ominous-looking clouds in the sky). We stopped for lunch at Saint-Cast-le-Guildo, a nice seaside town, very sleepy this time of the year (but apparently overrun by tourists during summer). We found a charming little creperie, where we had a VERY reasonably priced crepes lunch (10 Euros for three crepes – you would get about 1 crepes for 10 euros on the Cote d’Azur). Our stomachs filled, we headed down to Cap Fréhel – in spite of the lack of improvement on the weather front.

Cap Fréhel is quite a good introduction to Brittany landscapes. It’s a barren, wind-swept, rocky piece of land sticking out into the Atlantic, covered with broom (a yellow flower, in case like me you didn’t know that ;-) ) – which is apparently the symbolic flower of Brittany. The walk was very nice indeed – the fresh air and landscapes did their trick on us. The weather was pretty much OK for the 1st half of the walk, which took us up to the light house at the end of the cape. From there on, things got worse, as the mist got thicker and it started raining. That’s Brittany for ye, I suppose ;-).

The walk finished at the Fort-la-Latte – a castle impressively located on a piece of land sticking into the sea. This castle, dating back to the 13th century was used as a setting for several films, including The Vikings (the 1958 film starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis). It’s a pretty cool place, a proper medieval castle this one (I prefer those to the fancy renaissance castles that you find quite a lot in France). A perfect ending for a nice hike – and best of all the rain even stopped…

The next stop on our tour was Dinard, where we decided to do a short stop since we still had an hour or so of daylight. Dinard is all about the Belle Epoque. The place was made a fashionable seaside resort by British and American aristocrats at the end of the 19th century, and was the most popular European seaside resort until the 1930’s (when the Cote d’Azur took over ;-) ). The Belle Epoque can definitely be seen in the architecture, especially on the two “capes” which flank the beachside. We didn’t have much time to explore the town, as it was getting dark…

This time we were staying the night at Anne and Olivier’s place, who live in a small village (with an typically impossible-to-remember name) located between Dinan and Dinard. Anne and Olivier are globetrotting friends of Mathilde, who used to live in Paris (where I met them), but have since migrated to the wild west of France… Great to hang out with them again – and to meet the youngest family member! And the dinner Anne had prepared for us was top as well.

The next day, we decided to explore nearby Dinan (not to be confused with Dinard, which we visited last night). Dinan is one of the more famous historic towns in Brittany, and I absolutely adored the place, with its cobble-stone streets, half-timber houses and medieval feel. I would possible even go as far as to say it’s my favorite medieval town in France so far (I’m sure the population of Dinan would be so proud to hear that…). We spent a couple of hours in the morning walking around in the old town centre, and then took Le Jerzual (the steep and very picturesque street which connects the old town with the port – the height difference is an impressive 75 meters) down to the river where the port is located.

For lunch, we found a very charming looking creperie (what else!?). The crepes and cider were predictably tasty, yummie – and again we noted the very reasonable bill… After lunch, we continued our walk, this time along the city walls – which are very well preserved and the longest ones in Brittany. The city walls offered us great views over the river, the port, and the old town. After doing the tour of the city walls, we still had time to check out the medieval cathedral. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the impressively well-preserved castle. Next time, I suppose ;-).

Since it was still kind of early, we decided to catch a movie – and decided upon Biutiful, which was showing at Dinard. So, off we headed to Dinard again. This time we had a little bit more time to explore the faded Belle Epoque glamour of this place, which sort or reminded me of Brighton a bit. The sun came out as well, for the first time during our stay, which was a positive surprise. We were also treated to some rather splendid views towards Saint-Malo, with the sun setting… Magnifique !

The film was pretty good, but rather depressing. It’s a bit like taking all the bad things that happen in life (cancer, domestic violence, crime, illegal immigration, police corruption – I’m sure I forgot something) and putting them all in a film. Good acting, good film, but a bit too heavy for a holiday cinema session…

After another great evening and night spent at Anne and Olivier’s, it was time to bid them farewell, and carry on our Odyssey. The plan for our last day in Brittany was to start with a hike around Cancale. We selected a nice-seeming walk going to the Pointe de Grouin. Actually; since it was a six-hour walk, we only decided to do part of it. Cancale is, as you may or may not know, famous for its oysters. Ands it is actually a very charming little town as well. The seaside is pretty much spot on as I have imagined a port in Brittany, with its pretty little houses, and fishing boats stranded on the beach during low tide. The rows of restaurants on the seafront only slightly disrupt the picture of harmony.

The walk we did was great, again evoking the landscapes one expects to see in this part of the world, with the mighty waves crashing against the high cliffs. The walk took us along the sentier douanier (the custom officers footpath ??) up to the end of the cape- the Pointe de Grouin. What made the walk especially great was that we were actually treated to glorious sunshine for the duration of the hike. So pretty much the perfect way to spend an autumn afternoon in Brittany, I’d say!

The plan was to spend the night in one of the most famous towns in Brittany, Saint-Malo. Thankfully we arrived early enough to be able to explore the town for a bit before it got dark. So after checking in to our hotel, we headed off towards the walled old town. The harbor was extremely busy, since the Route de Rhum was about to kick off. It’s basically the biggest sailing event in Brittany (and in France, perhaps?), taking place once every four years (the race starts in Saint-Malo and ends in Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe). After checking out the cool sailing boats, we headed into the old town.

It’s a very different place from the other historic town we’d seen, Dinan. At first glance, I didn’t actually find it that charming. Saint-Malo is all about big, austere, granite buildings, and feels less warm and cozy than Dinan But once you get a feel of the place, the austere harmony of the place gets to you. And a walk along the city walls is pretty amazing, especially with the late afternoon sun we were treated to. The old town was mostly destroyed in World War II; so very good restoration work has been carried out there, as well.

After an aperitif in a cozy bar we found, we headed out for dinner, to a small nice restaurant by the old city walls. We were kind of surprised to find the city relatively calm at night, actually… The meal was great, and the perfect way to end our stay in Brittany!

To Anjou and beyond

All Saints Day and Halloween is coming up rapidly, which means school holidays ;-). This time we decided to head to the west of France, to visit Francoise and Joel, and visit a bit of Brittany as well. Angers is a bit tricky to get to from this part of the world, so once more we decided to drive down there. As it’s a bit of a long trek to do in one day (it’s about 9 hours of driving altogether…), we decided to do a stopover in Vienne. After a good 4 hour drive (including a stop for dinner at Hippopotamus – yippii), we arrived in Vienne, just in time to hit the sack at our less-than-glamorous Etap hotel.

Vienne (not Vienna :-) ) is located just south of Lyon, located in the Isère department. Vienne has some of the most well-known Roman sites (or at least some of the most impressive ones) in all of France. After a quick brekkie at out hotel (which was actually quite decent, considering Etap isn’t exactly a high-class hotel), we headed out to explore the Roman treasures of the town. We started by checking out the Roman theatre, the most impressive of the Roman remains. It certainly is the most impressive Roman theatre I’ve seen in France (certainly much more so than the one in Arles), although I’ve not been to Orange. It makes good use of the local scenery, being built onto the slope of the hills overlooking Vienne. Apparently it could welcome 13,000 spectators in its heyday – and the place is still being put to good use, as this is where the Vienne jazz festival is held each summer.

We then crossed town, and the Rhone river, into the Rhone department, where the other main Roman site of the city is located, Saint-Roman-en-Gal. In Roman days, this was a big residential quarter in what was then the biggest city in Gaul. Only the foundations of most buildings remain, but the place is still well worth a visit. The relative vastness of the place gives a pretty good idea of the layout of the city, and there are enough foundations remaining of some of the bigger villas to imagine how splendid the place must’ve been in its day. The archaeological museum located next to the site was pretty interesting too – especially the mosaics on display were really impressive.

We still had time for a walk in the old town – where we came across the 3rd famous Roman site of the city – the Temple of Augustus and Livia, located on one of the main squares in Vienne. Quite unusual to see a temple preserved in the middle of the heart of a city like that – Nimes is the only other example of it in France which comes to mind. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit the place since it was under renovation. We did pay a quick visit to the rather impressive Romanesque cathedral. Then, after a quick Moroccan snack lunch at the local market, it was time to carry on…

We arrived in Anger just in time for dinner – I’m pretty good at timing sometimes ;-). We were quite happy to see the sun out gloriously on Sunday, after the rather chilly and overcast weather we had experienced in Vienne. So after a delicious Sunday lunch, we decided to go for a walk around the lac de Maine – no reason not to, really. It gave me a good opportunity to put my new zoom lens to good use – plenty of birds to snap shots of. The lake was very beautiful indeed, surrounded by trees with autumn coloured leaves – it very much reminded me of the Finnish Ruska actually.

All in all, we spent a couple of very chilled out days in Angers, chatting away with Joel and Francoise, playing Hanafuda and other games, eating as well as always, you know, family stuff. As we often do in Angers, we checked out a film at the excellent 400 Coups cinema – Social Network (very good actually, as one can expect from David Fincher). And of course we did our traditional jogging tour around the lake. And I spent a couple of energetic hours sawing up some old furniture as firewood for Francoise (ah, reminds me of my youth in Finland…)

On Monday (after a tasty lunch, of course) it was then time to make our way to the next destination on our trip – Nantes. No touristy visit this time, rather we had a rather busy social schedule to adhere to. First, we paid a visit to Herquise, who had moved into her own flat recently. After a quick coffee and apple pie there (yummie), ‘twas time to make our way across Nantes to Aude’s and Magaye’s place for an aperitif (unfortunately they couldn’t join us for dinner, since Aude’s dad was visiting.



Great to catch up with them – I’ve not seen them for absolute ages… Looking very much forward to visiting the house they just bought… And then it was time to head into the centre of Nantes, where we were meeting up with Patrick and Nathalie for dinner. They have also moved recently, into a house they are in the process of building, so probably appreciated a break from the « building site ». We opted for a restaurant with some local cuisine (well Angevine – not sure that counts as local in Nantes ?) – a good choice indeed. Good food, good wine, good company, what else does one need ?



We then made our way back to their house just north of Nantes. We were very impressed indeed with their building project. It’s a « nearly passive » house, so basically doesn’t require any heating or aircon. And I can testify it works pretty well – the temperature outside was pretty close to zero overnight, but we certainly didn’t freeze that night. Very impressive stuff indeed. After a brief but sweet visit, it was time for us to carry on towards Brittany. A pity I wasn’t able to meet up with my godson Florian this time – oh well, next time then !

Back to the 70s...

Today, a colleague of Mathilde’s, Maite, was celebrating her birthday. So in honour of that, Marie and some other friends of hers had organized a 70’s party, to remind her of her youth I suppose ;-). So, it meant me and Mathilde needed some 70’s gear to join the fun. Turned out to be rather challenging, actually, especially for me. The only stuff I’ve got that could possible qualify are some Marimekko shirts, but those are no good, apparently ;-). My trip to Finland didn’t yield anything either, in spite of us going through my parents’ wardrobe. We even tried a fancy dress shop in Haut-de-Cagnes we found on the yellow pages, but turned out it was more of a costume making workshop than anything else. We did find some well dodgy glasses from one of the maxi bazaar shops in town.

In the end, I ended up putting my bright red Che Guevara t-shirt, Mathilde’s dad’s leather jacket (a few sizes too small), and Mathilde’s jeans! (a LOT of sizes too small). I have to say that walking with those pants was a bit of a struggle, but that was nothing compared to sitting down or getting up from a chair ;-). Mathilde’s outfit was a bit more in the hippie style, with a South American touch (she put on a poncho purchased from Peru). So, I think both of us were definitely presentable for the party. After making a detour to Nice to pick up Marie and Jay Jay, we headed down to Maite’s place near Grasse.

It turned out to be a real hoot of a party. And that in spite of the fact that I was the designated driver for the evening. In fact, I can’t recall when I had so much fun the last time. I started off the evening being bartender, preparing Mojitos and Caipirinhas for people (we had some rum and Cachaça to finish off). The rest of the party I mostly spent munching away, sipping away at the two beers I had during the evening, and taking a rather remarkable amount of photos. It was the perfect occasion for it, given the rather flamboyant way people had showed up! Especially Gilles and Valerie were pretty damn cool, I think, in their outfits (they looked like they were straight out of the Avengers, Gilles with his bowler hat, and Valerie in her black leather outfit).


The party carried on into the little hours of the evening, with a rather long but very entertaining “gift offering session”, and finishing with three young ladies doing a photo shoot for us, showing “various emotional states” in very expressive ways. And no, don’t worry, there was no nudity involved. Eventually we got home about four AM, after a most excellent night out. Which gave us an excellent excuse to do a proper "grasse matinee" the next day...

Saunailta Nizzassa

Saunailta, unless you guessed it, is Finnish. It means “sauna evening”. Sauna, as I’m sure everybody knows is a Finnish invention (no, it’s not Turkish!). It is also probably the only Finnish word that is known by foreigners (unless you want to count Salmiakki among those words?). So the sauna evening, then, is basically a very important social institution in Finland, where adult men get together in the sauna, swear, drink beer and talk (the sauna is the only place where Finnish men REALLY talk to each other). So, end of short presentation about Finnish culture.

So as you may have guessed, Mikko and Marianne had invited us for a sauna evening on this particular Friday. Although we weren’t actually able to talk Marianne and Mathilde into joining us in the sauna. It was very nice, all in all. We were able to get some perfectly respectable “löyly” in the sauna (löyly – an untranslatable word basically describes the heat you get when you throw water on the hot stones on the “oven” which heats the sauna). And the swimming pool was put into good use as well.

After the sauna we were treated to a delicious dinner (as always, when we visit). Apparently Mikko has become a bit of a Gordon Ramsey fan, and has gotten into cooking big time. Great to see little Alexis, the new family member, growing up as well!

Autumnal visit to Finland

It’s been a while since my last visit to Finland. The occasion for my visit was festive – my friend Aki was getting married (one of those 10/10/10 weddings). Me and Aki go way back (our paths crossed not only in Finland, we also lived in Ireland and England at the same time) – so it felt very important for me to attend.

My usual Lufthansa flight via Munich took me into Helsinki about noon. Aki had planned a late lunch with some foreign visitors at Suomenlinna, which I was just able to make it on time for, having caught a bus from the airport into Helsinki town centre, dropped off my bags at my parents’ place, and sped down to Kauppatori from where I took the ferry to the famous island fortress. It was a nice boat trip, with the ruska (a Finnish word which describes the time during the autumn when the leaves are at their most colorful) livening up the Helsinki archipelago, in spite of the rather grey sky.

Quite an international group Aki had assembled, with people of at least the following nationalities: Swiss, Swedish, French, Irish, Philippine, German and American. And a couple of Finns. After a quick stroll around Suomenlinna, with excellent commentary from Aki (he actually used to work as a guide here), we headed down for our late lunch at the Suomenlinna brewery. Rather good food, really, to go with the excellent locally brewer beer. A really nice bunch of people – and it was great seeing David again after all these years (he also used to live in Ireland and London, where we ran into each others quite a few times).

Aki even managed to talk me into acting as a “night life guide” for our international group – not that I’m sure I’m really qualified for that anymore these days… (the bar scene changes so quickly in Helsinki, I’m definitely not up to date on what’s cool these days). Fortunately a couple of colleagues of mine from Helsinki, Frank and Jerome (adding a bit of Dutch color to the ensemble) joined us, and kind of got me off the hook. We started the evening in a nice wine/beer house by the train station, and then ended up in a night club up in the Kamppi shopping centre. Jeez, it was probably the first time for years since I’ve been to a proper night club… Pretty nice place, with great views over Helsinki. We really made a night of it; I crashed on the bed in my parents’ place at Fredrikinkatu at around 5AM in the morning…

The next day was Aki’s and Maija’s big day. There was a bus transport from the senate square to the wedding, which was handy. Before catching the bus I took the opportunity to walk around Helsinki for a bit, enjoying the beauty of the ruska. After checking out the teddy bear exhibition at Senate square, it was time to jump on the bus. The bus took us through Helsinki, along Länsiväylä to Kirkkonummi, where the wedding was taking place. We crossed a piece of old Russia on the way (Porkkala used to be Russian until 1956 – apparently taking a train across Porkkala was quite a tourist attraction in those post-WW II years – since the Russians covered all the windows of the trains whilst it crossed “Russian territory”). The church where Aki’s and Maija’s blessing took place also has an interesting history – it used to be a movie theatre for Russian soldiers.

After the blessing, we headed down to Majvik, where the reception was taking place. Again, a place with an story to tell – this used to be the main intelligence post of the Russians (since it was the highest point at Porkkala). I was seated together with “the old gang” – Jani, Micke, my brother Janne and Katja (I don’t know why our table was in a separate room from all the other tables – perhaps Aki was afraid we’d disgrace him with our behavior or something ? :-) ). It was all great fun – with great food, witty speeches (I especially liked Jani’s one – “lyhyt ja ytimekäs” as we say in Finnish), nice dancing (I liked the “wedding dance” – Metallica’s Nothing Else matters!), good drink and great company. It was good to catch up with some old mates again, I rarely see Micke these days, for example.

And then there was the great dramatic moment when the bride was stolen from Aki (one of the robbers apparently bore a striking resemblance to me, would you believe it!?). After devouring the wedding cake (my contribution was significant), downing the cognac, the wedding came to a surprisingly early end at about 9 o’clock (this was a Sunday, after all). We did continue the celebrations at Janne’s and Katja’s place, wehere we were also joined by Riku and his lovely lady Tarita. I ducked out early, since I had to get up rather early the next morning to go to Salo.

Yes, I had the brilliant idea of going to the office on Monday, not sure where that one came from… Anyway, after a moderately productive day at the office, I had to speed back to Helsinki to join the Turtiainen clan at Salve for a family dinner. It’s a very nice place located near by the Länsisatama port, where they serve excellent fish dishes. A nice way to finish a rather intensive trip in my home country (Well, I did actually pop into Tampere for a bit of work the next day, but nothing too interesting to write about that…).

Anyway, thanks to Maija and Aki for a great party, and if you read this do enjoy your trip to Italy!

More photos here.

Bouillabaisse time!

I’ve been doing a bit of a side job as a real-estate agent, as my auntie Tutta decided to move into our friends Anne’s and Pete’s apartment in les Hauts de Vaugrenier. Finally, a few days ago, Tutta arrived and moved in.

What was remaining was for me to hand over her keys – so my parents came over with Tutta for this very purpose. The “pick-up-the-keys” turned into an aperitif, and before we knew it, we’d agreed to go out to dinner. Quite appropriate, I suppose, a bit of a “welcome dinner” for Tutta, and a “farewell dinner” for the fold, who were heading back to Finland for a month.

After some deliberation, we decided upon a real Cagnes-sur-Mer institution, the Charlot 1er, located on the seaside at Cros-de-Cagnes (the fishing port of Cagnes, where I used to do sailing). Charlot 1er specializes, appropriately given its location, in seafood. Since we saw Bouillabaisse on the menu, the choice was not hard – just had to go for that (the last one I had in Marseillle really made a good impression on me).

The bouillabaisse we had here was perhaps a little bit less impressive (this is after all not the Vieux port of Marseille), but still one of the best meals I’ve had recently. And the wine we had with it was nothing to frown at either. All in all, we had a very pleasent evening indeed. Good food, good drink, good company, what else can one hope for ? And we got those keys delivered as well ;-).

Back to olde England again...

After seeing off our last visitor, Nick, it was time to hit the road again (or the airways, rather) and head across the channel to England. Yes, time for another week of hard work (and a bit of fun, of course!). I made it to Heathrow without any problems, the flight was even early, would you believe it? After a day of hard work at the office, the plan was to head into London.

So I got on the 6 o’clock train, and actually ran into Gilad, an old colleague, on the shuttle bus. Good to catch up with him. My first stop was at the Fire Station, where I met up with Adrian, who had just had a job interview (Adrian, who changes jobs nearly as often as tee-shirts, has just finished his M.Sc. and was now on the lookout for a job). After a couple of beers, and quick catching up, it was time to make my way across to the city, where I was meeting up with Ed and some of his mates. The venue of choice was the appropriately named The Banker (it’s located off Chancellor’s Lane in The City, where a lot of the banks are located). I actually knew a couple of the people there, including a Swedish guy and his girlfriend. So it was actually a really good night out in the end, and I got to practice my Swedish a bit, which was nice. I also really like the old pubs in this part of London, the expression “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” is quite appropriate for pubs, I reckon… A dodgy fried chicken ‘n chips meal later, I was ready to crash (on Ed’s sofa…).

Getting to work from Ed’s place was a bit of a pain as usual, but I did make it into the office at a reasonable time. The plan was to organize a sort of team meal that evening, but unfortunately no-body showed up from my team in the end – I suppose I should’ve given people a bit more notice than 6 hours or so… Thankfully Nick joined me down to the Prince Arthur in Fleet, where we discussed our company’s problems very passionately (as engineers tend to when they have beers in front of them). Things only got more passionate when Sinhung joined us at the Water sky restaurant, where we had some nice Chinese food. For that night’s accommodation I’d actually booked the Aviator hotel, which is supposedly one of the classier joints in the area. And it certainly beats the places I’ve been to (especially the Holiday Inn across the road) – but it’s not exactly what I’d call budget accommodation (then again, I don’t think that exists in the South-East of England). Quite a futuristic place, and the breakfast was pretty good as well…

Much to my amusement, I was picked up by a taxi driver wearing a Hawaii shirt, shorts and flip-flops (it was raining and the temperature was about 10 degrees) the next morning. I shall not bore you with the details of what I did at the office (also, if I told you I’d have to kill you), but rather move on to the marginally more interesting events of the evening. For tonight, I headed over to Guildford to check out some of the old haunts there. Things kicked off at the White House, where I met up with Nick (yep, the same one I’d been on a train with earlier this week). Simo was supposed to show up as well, but got a bit delayed, and once he headed off and made his way to the White House, we had already headed over to the King’s Head, where we were meeting up with Bruce and his better half and another friend, where we proceeded for the ritual intellectual humiliation, a.k.a. a Pub Quiz. Not even the arrival of Phil, and eventually Simo, helped us – we came last. But well, we had a good time, and that’s the most important thing, right? Great to see Bruce again, it’s been absolute ages… (Turns out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for him ignoring all my SMS’s, apparently he’s changed mobile number). As always, I crashed at Hotel Whitaker… (That would be Phil’s sofa…).

The next day was the last day at the office, so we decided to have a pub lunch at the Crab and Anchor to celebrate the arrival of the weekend. Quite a few of the usual suspects were there: Sinhung, Scrum Master Steve, Samy, Louise, Jon and Pragati. Good way to end a trip to the UK on a traditional note – Fish and Chips and a pint of real ale.

Good to get back to France and get some rest again…