The summer is usually, unsurprisingly, a pretty busy time on the Cote d’Azur. With the nice weather ‘n all, there are a lot of dinner parties and other “evening events” to attend to… This particular week turned out to be a rather busy one socially speaking.
On Tuesday, we were invited to Naim’s place for dinner. He had prepared quite a feast for us – in traditional Pakistanese style, apparently. Naim’s flat is rather ideally located one street up from Place Magenta, the rather happening little square on Nice’s pedestrianized Rue Massena. His balcony, where we enjoyed the apero, is pretty much the perfect place to watch the world walk by in this rather busy part of Nice…. The meal itself was quite a revelation , ‘twas composed of some very tender chicken meat, some succulent spices, and just the right amount of chilli. After the meal, I was quite happy to raid Naim’s DVD collection for a few cool movies I’ve never had the opportunity to see…
The next evening, it was time for a bit of a Finnish reunion. Hannu, my colleague who’d left back for Finland about a year back, was back on the Riviera with his family, enjoying their holidays. As a matter of coincidence, another Finnish friend of ours, Pete (whose flat is these days occupied my auntie Tutta), was also there, visiting us from faraway, exotic Singapore with his daughter. We were also joined by Mikko and Marianne. So pretty much the whole “old gang” (apart from Sami, who’s currently working in Dublin) was present. We ended up meeting up at a place on Cours Saleya which we hadn’t tried before. And turns out it was a pretty good choice, the food was pretty decent. Great to catch up with our old friends again as well, and nice for me to practice my Finnish a bit!
On Thursday, it was “French teacher party night”. We had been invited over to Anne-Sophie’s villa at Roquefort-Les-Pins, a nice little village located not far from Grasse. It was a bit of a leaving do, since Anne-Sophie is moving to Toulouse to follow her husband, who moved there a year ago. Impressive Villa, I must say, with swimming pool and all! It was a pretty good night out as well, with a nice mix of strangers and people I know – nice to see that Stephane made it as well as Gilles and Valerie (who are, happily for them, but sadly for us their friends, relocating to San Francisco).
The socially rather busy week ended up with a soiree at Maite’s place near Valbonne, to celebrate the end of the school year (I suppose). All the usual suspects (Aurelien, Julie, Marie, JJ, Antoine, Claire, Gilles, Valerie and children) were all present. I suppose the night could be considered yet another leaving do for Gilles and Valerie, who as I said are off to America soon. All in all, we had a great time – Aurelien and Antoine (the artistic souls…) had even composed a couple of nice songs for Gilles and Valerie as a kind of “leaving present”.
Quite a busy week then, all in all!
On Tuesday, we were invited to Naim’s place for dinner. He had prepared quite a feast for us – in traditional Pakistanese style, apparently. Naim’s flat is rather ideally located one street up from Place Magenta, the rather happening little square on Nice’s pedestrianized Rue Massena. His balcony, where we enjoyed the apero, is pretty much the perfect place to watch the world walk by in this rather busy part of Nice…. The meal itself was quite a revelation , ‘twas composed of some very tender chicken meat, some succulent spices, and just the right amount of chilli. After the meal, I was quite happy to raid Naim’s DVD collection for a few cool movies I’ve never had the opportunity to see…
The next evening, it was time for a bit of a Finnish reunion. Hannu, my colleague who’d left back for Finland about a year back, was back on the Riviera with his family, enjoying their holidays. As a matter of coincidence, another Finnish friend of ours, Pete (whose flat is these days occupied my auntie Tutta), was also there, visiting us from faraway, exotic Singapore with his daughter. We were also joined by Mikko and Marianne. So pretty much the whole “old gang” (apart from Sami, who’s currently working in Dublin) was present. We ended up meeting up at a place on Cours Saleya which we hadn’t tried before. And turns out it was a pretty good choice, the food was pretty decent. Great to catch up with our old friends again as well, and nice for me to practice my Finnish a bit!
On Thursday, it was “French teacher party night”. We had been invited over to Anne-Sophie’s villa at Roquefort-Les-Pins, a nice little village located not far from Grasse. It was a bit of a leaving do, since Anne-Sophie is moving to Toulouse to follow her husband, who moved there a year ago. Impressive Villa, I must say, with swimming pool and all! It was a pretty good night out as well, with a nice mix of strangers and people I know – nice to see that Stephane made it as well as Gilles and Valerie (who are, happily for them, but sadly for us their friends, relocating to San Francisco). 
The socially rather busy week ended up with a soiree at Maite’s place near Valbonne, to celebrate the end of the school year (I suppose). All the usual suspects (Aurelien, Julie, Marie, JJ, Antoine, Claire, Gilles, Valerie and children) were all present. I suppose the night could be considered yet another leaving do for Gilles and Valerie, who as I said are off to America soon. All in all, we had a great time – Aurelien and Antoine (the artistic souls…) had even composed a couple of nice songs for Gilles and Valerie as a kind of “leaving present”. Quite a busy week then, all in all!
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