Back in Finland

The ferry from Saint Petersburg pulled into Helsinki harbor early Friday morning. After our buffer breakfast, we made our way back to my parents’ flat on Fredrikinkatu. Since the weather was nice, we decided to head out and explore Helsinki, instead of lazing about in the flat.

We started our visit with the Design Museum, located in Eira. It’s a pretty interesting museum, detailing the rather impressive history of the Finnish design industry, with plenty of exhibits from the big Finnish “design stars”. There were even a few Nokia phones on display – not sure the current youngsters with their iPhones would be convinced they really deserved to be there, but hey… ;-) The surrounding area is pretty nice as well, with its Art Nouveau buildings and Johannes church.

From there, we walked across Kasarmintori down to Esplanaadi, and headed to Kappeli for lunch. Kappeli may be a bit of a historic institution in Helsinki, but I find the food somewhat overpriced, to be honest. Well, at least it’s better than Rosso ;) Our appetites sated, and an ice cream at Kauppatori, we headed up towards Ullanlinnanmaki, where we chilled out for a while. After a bit of shopping, we strolled back to the flat – happy with our day.

For the evening, the plan was to meet up for a few drinks with some friends. We started the soiree in Vapiano, next to the railway station. It’s a place serving some pretty decent Italian food for reasonable prices (a similar concept to Bravuria, where my niece Julia works). We were joined there by Jocke, Jonas and Frank – good to catch up with them (I’ve not seen Jonas, who lives in Norway, for quite a while). After a couple of pints at Valpiano, we made our way to Zetor – a real Helsinki institution. The most famous tractor bar in Finland, enough said I think ;-). One beer more in Belge was enough for us, time to hit the sack after that…

On Saturday, we decided a bit of outdoors action was called for, so we headed off to Nuuksio national park, located just at the fringes of Espoo. It’s a very nice place indeed to spend a few hours during the weekend – one of the things I really miss living abroad is how accessible peace, quiet and nature is even in a big city like Helsinki. Nuuksio natural park is basically protects very typical Finnish nature, with lakes, forest and some nice cliffs. Nothing dramatic, but it’s just a very nice and peaceful place to stroll around. We walked the longest circular trail in the park, “Korpinkierros”, which took us about 2 and a half hours, maybe.

After a refreshing swim at Bodom lake, we decided to visit Riku and Tarita, and their young daughter, at Masala. Very nice to meet the proud parents, and see their new place as well (a bit more adapted for family life than the flat they used to have in Tuomarila, to be sure). We finished our stay in Finland with a family dinner at Muru restaurant, located just beneath my parents’ flat on Fredrikinkatu. It’s a really great place, one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in Finland. Kind of similar to Mami, the place we went to in Turku, the concept is to use local, fresh ingredients to create Finnish cuisine with a modern spin. The wines are mostly from Italy, though ;-). Really good food – and very nice to see Janne and Katja as well, before heading back to France.

So that brought an end to our intensive but really great, two-week holiday. Thanks to everybody for everything, and especially to mum & dad for a great trip to Saint Petersburg!

Across the Baltic Sea to Saint Petersburg

I’ve wanted to visit Saint Petersburg for quite some time – I’ve seen the city when it was called Leningrad, quite some time ago, and was quite looking forward to seeing how it had changed over the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. Normally, visiting Russia is rather complicated due to the difficulty and hassle involved in getting a Visa, but from Helsinki, it’s possible to visit Saint Petersburg for up to 3 days without a Visa, if you go on a Peter Line cruise. So, we were very grateful when my parents gave us this trip as a birthday present!

The ferry trip was very reminiscent of the ferry trips I used to take to Sweden in my youth, except with a Russian touch. The buffet meal was similar as I recall them on the “Sweden boats” – except that they also serve blinis, and a glass of Russian sparkling wine (Le Compliment!) and vodka as well. The singing at the karaoke bar is about as bad as I can remember, the performances in the bars are still pretty tacky and the booze in the tax-free shop still dirt cheap (the best value I found was 1 liter of 70% vodka for 5 euros!). So, in short, it’s still a brilliant trip, one that everybody should experience at least once in their lives ;-).

We arrived in the morning, and after a surprisingly pain-free border control, took the shuttle bus down to our hotel, Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky, located at Vasilievsky Island (which makes it pretty central). The hotel was very classy indeed – but rather than lingering, we headed out to explore the city. We’d agreed to start with the big kahuna, meaning the Hermitage museum. The stroll over to the museum was a pretty scenic one, following the Neva River, with some splendid views across the river. The Hermitage museum, located in the Winter Palace, is also a sight to see – a truly grandiose building. The queuing was less fun – we spent about an hour and a half in the queue… (so looks like at least that aspect of the “old regime” seems to be alive and well…).

The museum was worth the queuing though. I would say the Hermitage is one of the absolutely best museums in the world – right up there with the Louvre and the British Museum. The size of the place is intimidating, we spent about 4 hours there and only managed to cover the must-see masterpieces (and not even all of those). We were especially impressed with the French Impressionist collection at the top floor, but I also enjoyed the Rembrandt paintings a lot. Some halls of the winter palace have been left the way they were – and are pretty darn impressive as well. So, to summarize then, it’s a real gem of a museum.

We decided to have dinner at the hotel, and even though it’s not the sort of thing I usually enjoy (I find hotel restaurants are quite often overpriced and rather impersonal places) – but in this case it was an excellent choice. We all had a pretty traditional Russian meal, and it was excellent, no complaints at all. I had a borscht, followed by beef stroganoff. Exquisite.

The next day, we decided to visit another must attraction near Saint Petersburg, Peterhof. Peterhof is sometimes known as the Russian Versailles, and with good reason. We decided to do the visit as an organized tour, and I reckon it was a pretty good choice. Our guide, Natasha, was really excellent and knowledgeable. The bus ride to Peterhof itself was quite interesting as well (the palace is located some 20 kilometers outside Saint Petersburg) – taking us past some other palaces (including one presidential residence). In general, we were quite surprised about how tidy and well-maintained the area was in general.

Peterhof was built, like Saint Petersburg, by Peter the Great (apparently he measured 2 meters 10, so he was literally quite great). The palace itself looks rather imposing from the outside, but is in fact quite small (compared to Versailles, anyway). But the interior is, of course, hugely impressive. Actually, the fact that the place isn’t overly large makes the visit somewhat manageable…

The gardens are what Peterhof is famous for – and for good reason. These do rival those of Versailles in grandeur and beauty. We spent a good hour and a half walking around, checking out the various buildings, fountains and so forth. Seems that Peter the Great was a bit of a joker (or, some might say, mad) – he installed plenty of hidden fountains in the gardens, giving him ample opportunities to make fun of pompous nobles and other notables. Good fun for tourists these days as well ;-).

So, I guess you get the grist – a truly magnificent place, well worth visiting.

We spent the evening wandering around Saint Petersburg. The sun even peeked out , which was a nice development after the somewhat dodgy weather we’d had so far. The rather good impression we had of Saint Petersburg got better as we walked around – the place truly is beautiful. There are few cities in Europe that are so harmonious architecturally speaking, and the city is very tidy and well maintained these days. The canals that criss-cross the city also add to its charm – it’s a surprisingly pedestrian-friendly city.

We crossed quite a few of the famous landmarks, including Nevsky Prospect (the main shopping street of Saint Petersburg – which also houses the biggest shopping centre in Saint Petesburg, the Gostinyi dvor, which measures and astounding 53,000 square meters), quite a few of the churches (including the splendid Church of the Saviour on Blood), The Peter and Paul Fortress (which is basically where the city was founded in 1703) and then back to Vasilievsky Island, where we were meeting up for dinner.

For dinner, we had chosen a traditional Russian restaurant from our Guide de Routard, rather unimaginatively called “Restorant”. Not to worry, the food was again rather excellent. The ambience was also very Russian indeed, with somewhat inefficient and not perhaps the most polite service we’ve experienced, and with some guy reciting Russian poetry at the neighboring table. Again, the food was really excellent! I started with some bilinis, and had some excellent game for main course.

We still until late afternoon to explore the city on Thursday, before it was time to get back on the boat, so we headed out early for our promenade. We really enjoyed the walk, following along canals again, and were happy about the continued sunny weather as well. After criss-crossing the city for a few hours in the morning, we finally arrived at the Fontanka canal (well, actually it’s a river branching off the Neva), the most famous of the cities canals. From there, we took the famous Saint Petersburg canal boat tour, another of the city’s many “must do” experiences. I’m not always a fan of these canal rides, but in our case, there were few people on the boat, and Saint Petersburg is just really beautiful seen from the canals.

After our canal ride, we still had time to visit the magnificent Church of the Saviour on Blood – which looks a bit like a more impressive version of the Uspenski cathedral in Helsinki. The interior of the church, which was built to commemorate the life of Alexander the Second, is as impressive as the exterior – nearly over-the-top. Good to see the Russians have managed to restore this church to its former glory – it saw use as a potato warehouse during Communist times and was probably in quite a sad state when the restoration works started….

We were quite sad to catch the ferry back to Helsinki, since it felt there was so much more to see in Saint Petersburg. Oh well, next time I suppose. That is the mark of a truly world-class city, I suppose, when you get the feeling of having only scratched the surface of the place during the first visit… Say what you will about Russian society, politics and their president (who comes from Saint Petersburg), but Saint Petersburg is a world-class tourist destination that everybody should visit!

A few days in Finland!

After our intensive exploration of Hungary, we were rather looking forward to spending a few relaxing days in Finland. We landed in Helsinki in the evening, and jumped on the bus, heading westward towards Parainen, where our family summer house is located. Our arrival was celebrated with pomp and flair, as my parents opened a bottle of Madeira wine dating back all the way to ’45 (it was the 60th birthday present of my mum – the wine having the same age as her!). The wine was surely good, but I am not sure my palate is developed enough to fully appreciate this venerable wine…

Unfortunately, our dreams of lazing about were rapidly squashed, as my parents had a “talkoot” planned for Friday (“talkoot” basically means a bunch of people getting together and doing some work together – today’s task was to clear the area behind the main house of fallen trees and leaves). All the family was present, as well as our good cousin Tomppi, who came along with his chainsaw. Hard work it was, but I really enjoy these days of hard work every once in a while (I guess us office rats at least feel we don’t do enough “proper work”…), so no complaints from me! And the area behind the house did look rather more tidy after the day’s hard work, and we did a good job at replenishing the firewood stock as well! The sauna we had afterwards was very well deserved indeed, I should say!

On Saturday, ‘twas time for some tourism, as we made our way towards Turku, the old capital of Finland. We were joined by my nieces Julia and Sofia. We started the day with a visit to Logomo, a kind of cultural venue/exhibition space located in an old warehouse building (it was actually the main venue when Turku was European Capital of Culture in 2011). There were two pretty interesting exhibitions on – one showing photographs of Turku from the early 20th century (at a risk of sounding controversial, I reckon Turku was a prettier place then than it is now), and one discussing the various aspects of Fire (the link to Turku is that there was a great fire in 1827, which nearly completely destroyed Turku).

After this boost of culture, it was time for lunch. After some brief debate, we ended up in Mami, a very well rated restaurant on tripadvisor. An excellent choice, I must say! I think it embodies everything that’s good about modern cuisine – it’s a small, intimate place, offering traditional local dishes made from local ingredients, but with a modern touch. Really in the spirit of the times – and the set menu was very reasonably priced (especially considering we’re in Finland…) at 25 euros for three dishes. Highly recommended!

After lunch, we walked around a bit in the newly, very successfully reinvigorated Aura river area, making our way to Papa Joe, one of the “beer boats” located on the river. The beer boats are another Turku institution that must be experienced – so off we went. We were also joined by Jocke and Tomppi, who stayed on for a couple of beers.

For the evening, we were persuaded by our nieces to join them in the mad night life of Parainen. Off it was to Friends, the local hot spot for the youngsters of Parainen. Youngsters indeed, I have to admit we (Mathilde, Janne, Katja and me) raised the average age of the place by a couple of years, just the four of us… ;-) But, we had fun (especially Julia and Sofia) – I was even dragged out to the dance floor.

On Sunday, we took it quite easy, relaxing at the summer house, and slowly preparing to head to Helsinki. We stopped over at Parainen for lunch at the guest harbor – we enjoyed rather decent fish fare there.

On Monday, the plan was to take the ferry over to Saint Petersburg in the evening – but we did have a few sunny hours to enjoy Helsinki first. We spent the morning randomly walking around Helsinki; checking out an interesting photo expo on the Baltic, the new chapel they built in Simonkentta, and doing a bit of shopping.

We then wandered over to Kallio, where we were planning to meet Aki for lunch. The walk over there is pretty nice as well, taking in Senaatin Tori and Kruunuhaka (one of the prettiest part of Helsinki). We met Aki at one of the “jewels of Finnish cuisine”, Rosso (I’m being kind of ironic here). Good to catch up with Aki as well – who has recently become a dad (unfortunately no time to meet young Kalliomaki this time around)! After lunch, we took the oppurtunity to check out Hakaniemen Kauppahalli - my favourite covered market in Helsinki.

Then it was time to head back to my parents flat on Freda, and pack our bags for Saint Petersburg!

Hungarian Road Trip

After a couple of days spent exploring Budapest, it was time to see what else Hungary had to offer. We’d booked a rather cheap car for the purpose – a Skoda that had seen better days, but did the job for us perfectly.

After leaving Budapest, we headed south, direction Lake Balaton. Lake Balaton is the biggest lake in Hungary, and one of the biggest ones in Europe – and a favourite summer holiday destination for Hungarians (and a fair few Austrian and German as well). Before arriving at the lake, we made a stop at Veszprem, one of the more historic and picturesque towns in Hungary. The old town is rather picturesquely located on a hilltop, with its cobblestone streets and historic buildings, dating back to the 18th and 19th century. Our walk took us through the old part of town, into the more modern part of town. We found a nice enough eatery, where we had lunch (more goulash soup, yippee!).

Our next stop was Tihany, on Lake Balaton. Tihany is a peninsula jutting out into the lake, classified as a historic district. Tihany is also the name of the village that sits on the peninsula, which is famous for its Benedictine abbey, founded all the way back in 1055. The current baroque church dates back to the 18th century. I and Philippe decided to pay the entry fee and check out the church and the museum, which is kind of interesting from a historical point of view. The views from the church over the lake are pretty cool too. Having checked out the church, and visited the nearby tourist shops (and let’s not forget the marzipan museum either – I liked the miniature marzipan version of the abbey), we made our way down to the lake.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a good beach for swimming (the lido, which would’ve done the job, was closed for some unknown reason). But the stroll around the lake was still pretty nice. For dinner, we decided to go for some real traditional Hungarian food, in Ferenc Pince Csárda. It was a very good choice indeed – everything was pretty much perfect (the wine, cuisine, the views over the lake, and the company of course!). Should you ever find yourself at Lake Balaton, dear reader, I seriously recommend this place!

We started the next day with a very refreshing swim in the lake – I mean we couldn’t very well visit Lake Balaton without having a swim in the lake, could we? We then made our ways northwards, direction Pannonhalma. We had planned to visit the famous monastery, but decided to abort our visit due to our somewhat busy schedule (we did have a nice walk around the monastery though).


We arrived at our final destination for the day, Esztergom, late afternoon. After checking in at our hotel, we started visiting the place, whilst we still had some daylight to enjoy. Esztergom is one of the famous “Danube bend towns”, located just north of Budapest, on the right-hand side of the Danube (which forms the border with Slovakia here). The main sight at Esztergom is the famous cathedral, the biggest in Hungary, and the seat of the catholic church of Hungary.

So naturally, we started out visit by checking out this impressive building, rather dramatically situated on a hill, overlooking the Danube and the town. The church is a truly impressive sight, especially when seen from the Danube. We started by gaping at the impressive interior, and then walked up to the top of the church. The views from up there over the town & the Danube were truly astounding. We finished our visit by checking out the big bell, and actually heard it strike as well.

After a brief walk in the old parts of Esztergom, we decided to cross the Danube into Slovakia – why not have our apero in another country? The walk across the bridge was well worth the effort, as we had some pretty amazing views of the cathedral and the old town. The town on the Slovakian side of the border, Sturovo, isn’t very interesting from a tourist’s point of view, but well, at least we can say we’ve been to Slovakia now (and no complaints about the beer we had there, either!)

For dinner, we decided to go for yet another traditional Hungarian restaurant, the Csulok Csarda. Like the night before, we ate well, and in very cozy surroundings. But still, I have to say, I preferred the restaurant at Tihany.

The next day, it was time to head back to Budapest – as Philippe and Aniko had a train to catch to the west of Hungary. We did have time to make a brief stop at Szentendre, another one of the Danube bend towns. Szentendre for its artist connections – and for good reason. It’s a truly picturesque town, with its cobble-stoned streets, numerous churches (including a few Serbian Orthodox ones – the seat of the Hungarian orthodox church is located here). It’s a pity we didn’t have a lot of time to spend here, but well, unfortunately we were in a bit of a hurry.

We arrived in Budapest, and had time to drop off our rental car and have a coffee, before Philippe and Aniko had to catch their train. After saying our good-byes, I and Mathilde continued our exploration of Budapest on our own. We decided to spend the afternoon exploring Memento Park – a rather interesting little place dedicated to the communist past of Budapest. Basically it’s a park outside Budapest, where they have put some of the “grandiose” statues from the communist era. There was also a rather entertaining ÁVH (the Hungarian secret police during the communist years) training film for secret agents.

Thursday was sadly our last day in Hungary. We decided to go for a bit of more communist nostalgia, and visit the house of Terror – a kind of museum dedicated to the victims of the communist regime – rather fittingly located in the former ÁVH headquarters. It was a pretty good museum, a bit more serious than Memento Park, and interestingly also draws parallels between the activities of the fascists before and during World War II and the communist regime that followed. Not a very uplifting way to end our visit to Hungary, perhaps, but I think a needed reminder of a rather dark period of Easter European history… (although I think sometimes the message was rubbed in rather un-subtly…).

All in all, it was a fantastic nostalgia trip for me, and I believe Mathilde also enjoyed our short escapade very much. A huge thanks to Aniko for showing us around her country (and to Philippe for posing for all my silly photos)!

Back in Budapest!

C’est les vacances! Holiday time! The first destination of this summer’s main holiday was Hungary. I was rather looking forward to this trip, since I haven’t been back to Hungary since the summer I spent working there, in Pecs, all the way back in 1997 (damn, time sure does fly, eh?). I was expecting a few changes to have occurred during the last 15 years…

After a bit of a delay with our connecting flight at Warsaw, we finally arrived in Budapest airport, from where we took a taxi to our flat in Pest (Pest is the new “half” of Budapest, located on the north side of the Danube, Buda being the old half, located on the south side), where we met up with our good friends Philppe and Aniko (Aniko, being Hungarian, was the designated guide for our trip). We arrived pretty late, but there is always time for a drink, so we made our way to a place Philippe and Aniko had scouted for us. It was a brilliant place, a so called ruin pub (basically an old abandoned building converted to a big bar, or rather a bar complex). There was even a nice old Trabant in the yard for decoration (one change I noticed immediately – the Trabants that ruled the streets in ’97 are pretty much completely gone – kind of sad from a nostalgia point of view, but good for the air quality, no doubt).

We started Saturday by checking out some of the classic sights of Budapest. After a brief walk through posh Pest, we crossed the Danube and made our way towards Varhegy, or castle hill. This little hilltop is where the Royal castle, and plenty of other historic buildings, are located. We wandered around there for a bit, and I and Philippe also tried our hand at some archery (I have to admit that Philippe beat me fair and square). After checking out the fisherman’s bastion (from where you get some pretty nice views across the river towards Pest, including of the famous parliament building), we made our way back down from the hill.

For the afternoon, we made a (as it turned out, misguided) attempt to go to the famous Szechenyi Bath. One of the cool things about Budapest is the spas that litter the town, really nice places with hot & cold swimming pools, saunas, often built with pomp and class. Szechenyi Bath is the most famous of the lot – I was really looking forward to going, since I didn’t make it there during the summer I worked in Hungary. We made the ill-fated decision to take only enough money to pay the entrance fee, and leave the wallets at the flat. Unfortunately, I thought the 500 forint bill I took was actually a 5000 forint one, which meant that we didn't have enough cash to get in… What's even more unfortunately is that we only realized this when we were about to pay the entrance fee (after about 1 hour's worth of waiting...). Well we did at least took in the imposing Heroes square, and walked down the Andrassy utca, “the Champs Elysee of Budapest”. This disappointment called for a stop at Gerbeaud, one of the most prestigious coffee houses in fancy Pest. This “cake and coffee” institution dates back all the way to the 19th century (apparently they have also opened a café in Tokyo). We certainly appreciated the cakes!

We were gutted enough about missing out on the Szechenyi Bath, that we decided to have another go at it on Sunday. And this time, we brought our wallets ;-). And good that we did – it was an absolutely fabulous experience! Hot pools, warm pools, saunas of various temperatures, all built in fabulous neo-baroque architecture (the baths date back to 1913).  Apparently the place is the biggest spa in Europe. As a nice bonus, we did a test to find out our biological age – turns out me and Mathilde are just out of our teens! (Mathilde came out as 21, me at 23).

Feeling all clean and relaxed, it was time for lunch. We chose a nice restaurant by a lake in the park next to the baths (with the very un-Hungarian name Robison’s), where we had a go at some Hungarian specialties (especially the goulash soup was a real delight). We then spent most of the afternoon walking around Pest, checking out the opera, then making our way towards the impressive parliament building. This giant construction took almost 20 years to complete and was, if memory serves me right, the largest parliament building in Europe or something like that, at the time (illusions of grandeur, perhaps, considering the size of Hungary?).

From there, we carried on exploring Pest, heading towards St. Stephen's Basilica. On the way, we came across a rather curious scene – a bunch of Germans were shooting a movie or something. It was pretty cool to follow the proceedings (especially for a movie fanatic such as myself!) – it was quite fascinating to see how much effort and coordination went into shooting what in the film will probably end up being about 20 or 30 seconds of footage (the film looks to be set in the 1^st half of the 20^th century, so a lot of effort went into accurately depicting the period feel).

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Basilica, it was closed for visitors, so we had to content ourselves with observing the impressive exterior. The rest of the day we spent strolling about Pest. After a salad dinner in the flat, we checked out yet another Budapest ruin pub (this one located on the rooftop of a building, with quite nice panoramas over the city).

That brought an end to the first part of our Hungarian visit – as we continued our exploration of the country by car. A very nice couple of days indeed – and a nice shot of nostalgia for myself. I can confirm it, Budapest has for sure changed a lot over the last 15 years, and for the better, as far as I can tell. But I do miss those Trabants ;-)

A week with Alix

Barely had we said goodbye to Joel and Francoise, before we already had our next visitor arriving – this time our guest was Mathilde’s lovely niece, Alix.

We naturally started with the usual activities, meaning swimming pool, beach, ice cream. I may no longer be a spring chicken (as they say), but funnily enough, all those activities appeal to me, so no complaints from me at least ;-). This particular Saturday was also a local Cagnes-sur-Mer festivity, called “Fete de Saint-Pierre”. Saint-Pierre is the protective saint of sailors, and there is a tradition in Cagnes-sur-Mer to light a ship on fire during the fete, in front of the church at Cros-de-Cagnes. So we decided to check it out. After having a look at the festivities and processions around the church, the ship-burning ceremony finally started.

Actually, a friend of ours, Youcef (whose recently emigrated to Paris), was also visiting Nice, and was organizing a night out in Nice this same Saturday. So, unfortunately, I had to head off before they actually burnt the ship, pedaling down the seaside on the Velo Bleu. Great to catch up with Youcef, now happily married and enjoying (not very much?) his new job in Paris. Met a few other familiar faces from TI as well.

On Sunday, we more or less continued as we had started on Saturday, ie. swimming pool, relaxation, the beach and ice cream. We did decide to cycle to Nice, though (and rewarded ourselves with one of those divine Amorino ice creams on Rue Massena). In the evening, we checked out the outdoors cinema in nearby Villeneuve-Loubet, and watched Madagascar 3. I must admit, I quite enjoyed it, in spite of it being dubbed into French (I particularly liked the car chase through Monaco!).

For Monday, it was safari time, sort of. There is a natural reserve near Greolieres, not far from where we live, called Domaine du Haut Torenc. It’s a 700 hectare reserve, dedicated to preserving European flora and fauna. There are bisons, “prehistoric horses”, deer, and even the odd lynx might cross the reserve from time to time. They also organize guided “safaris”, which we took part in. It was a really great experience – we observed a bison herd for a while and then had a look at those famous prehistoric horses (Przewalski's horses). This species of wild horse diverged from the current domestic horse some 160,000 years ago, and only about 1500 of them remain today. Fascinating stuff.

After our safari visit, we had a picnic lunch by a nearby lake, after which we headed back homewards. We stopped off near Greolieres to have a swim at the Loup River – very refreshing indeed, must do that again sometime!

On Tuesday, we decided to head to Italy, a first for Alix. We started off by visiting the Balzi Rossi, just on the Italian side of the border, after Menton. These caves, located in some dolomite cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean are famous since they were inhabited during the Palaeolithic Era, and since. It’s an interesting enough place to visit, although our Italian friends could perhaps consider translating more of the legends and texts in the museums to other languages than Italian…

We then made our way to the old town of Bordighera, where we walked around. It’s a typically picturesque Italian old town, with narrow cobble-stone streets winding up and down, nice stone houses, pretty churches and so forth. The plan was to have lunch there – unfortunately most places were closed, though. We did end up finding a decent eatery where we sated our hunger with some pizza and pasta.

The next stop on our little road-trip was San Remo, where we walked around for some more, until we reached our objective – Grom. Grom is a chain of gelaterias serving rather delicious, naturally flavored ice cream at very reasonable prices. I seriously recommend it to anybody reading this heading to Italy. After a quick swim in the med at the “public beach” of San Remo (the annoying thing in Italy is that almost all the beaches in Italy are private, meaning you have to pay, the public bit we stayed on in San Remo wasn’t really a beach – more like some rocks…), it was time to head back towards France.

We stopped at Antoine and Claire’s place for apero and dinner. We had a fantastic time as usual, with the usual gang (Aurelien, Julie and also our Californian émigrés Gilles, Valerie, Celian and Hector) being present. Alix seemed to get along fine with the other young folks as well, after some initial shyness.

The next day, we made our way out to the Var department. Gilles’ mum has a lovely villa out in the wild Varois countryside, near Mons, where we were invited to spend a rather relaxing day. The surrounding scenery really is amazing, and the calm makes quite a change from the hustle and bustle of the Cote d’Azur. Most of the usual suspects were there (including Marie and also Guillaume), but also a few new faces I’d never seen. It was all great fun – a lot of eating, drinking, socializing, and enjoying the swimming pool. And the kids had a great time playing hide and seek – more places to hide out here in the sticks compared to the crowded Riviera… ;-) Great day out – big thanks to Gilles and Valerie, should you read this!

That brought an end to Alix’ rather intensive visit. I hope (and think) she had as much fun as we did! ;-)

Joel and Francoise visiting

In the middle of a rather busy social calendar (the end of the school year seems to send French teacher into a kind of dinner party/apero frenzy, which lasts for a couple of week, after which most people head off on holidays), we also had Joel and Francoise over for a visit. They had booked a residence in Villeneuve-Loubet for their stay, which was quite handy for us.

Mostly it was a pretty chilled out stay, with lunches usually taking place at their place, followed by some chilling out at the beach. We spent a few very relaxing days that way, mostly doing nothing, which is actually a pretty nice change compared to our normal rather busy/active holidays.

We did agree though that staying all the week in Villeneuve-Loubet would be a bit sad though, so on Wednesday, we decided to head out the Massif d’Esterel. It’s a very scenic little spot, located a bit after Cannes on the border of the Alpes-Maritimes/Var departments. The ochre-colored rock found at the Massif, and the presence of the sea, make the landscapes reminiscent of the Californian coastline.

We made our first stop near Trayas, in the Var department, taking in some rather gorgeous views of the wild coastline (funny how nature, as opposed to concrete, seems to take over when you leave the Alpes-Maritimes and enter the Var department). After that, we headed a bit inland, where we were planning to do a hike, “Les Balcons de Cap Roux”. We stopped on the way for a very tasty picnic lunch (with Joel and Francoise, picnic lunch is the full deal, with starter, main course, desert and coffee – unlike our somewhat improvised affairs). After taking a few wrong turns (the signposting in the Esterel is somewhat lacking in places…) we eventually found the start of the hike. It was a predictably pleasant hike with stunning views over the surrounding landscape and the med.

All in all, a very nice day spent amongst some of the most beautiful scenery to be found on the Cote d’Azur! We should come here more often, really…

On Thursday, we figured it was time for a bit of Cote d’Azur bling bling, and took Joel and Francoise to one of my favourite local restaurants, Dame Nature, located in nearby Saint-Laurent du Var. Well, let’s say responsible bling bling, as Dame Nature’s trademark is their use of local and organic ingredients, where possible. I have to say I enjoyed it even more than during my previous visits (which were lunchtime visits) – my scallops were absolutely delicious, and no complaints about the desert either (I just had to try their own organic vodka as well, naturally!). And the seaside location is a nice bonus, as well.

On Friday, we had a bit of fun cycling up and down the Cagnes-sur-Mer seafront with some 4 seater bicycles (of the double-bench type), oh what fun that was! For the evening, we had Joel and Francoise over for dinner. If memory serves me right, we had some nice fashionable verrines for a starter, followed by a filet mignon. I believe it was a success!

That brought an end for Joel’s and Francoise’s visit. It was great to have them over – and looking forward to seeing them again in the South-West of France end of August!

Summer Cote d'Azur style

The summer has truly arrived on the Cote d’Azur, with some very hot temperatures. The schools are also ending for the year, which means, among other things, that teachers start inviting each other’s over for dinners, aperos, and the like. Which, considering the fact that a rather large proportion of our friends are colleagues of Mathilde, means we were rather busy this week.

Things kicked off with Antoine inviting us over to their house in the hills of Carros. Julie and Aurelien were (naturally) also present. Apart from the usual eating and drinking, the plan was (as most years) to come up with a “farewell song” for some colleagues leaving for retirement. This involved Aurelien and Antoine crooning and playing the guitar mostly, with the ladies coming up with witty support/suggestions. And for me it meant mostly drinking wine and eating – good match for my skillset then ;-)

On Tuesday night, we were invited over to Aurelien and Julie’s place over in Le Cannet (near Cannes). This time, we had some guests all the way from California joining us. Yep, Gilles and Valerie, along with young Celian and Hector were back in France (Gilles and Valerie are ex-colleagues for Mathilde, who moved to California a year ago – we spent a few days with them during our visit in California a couple of months ago). Great catching up with them again! Welcome back ;-)

All this partying means a bit of sport is needed to keep, you know, fit. So I decided to make some proper use of my mountain bike and go for a bit of proper mountain biking. I chose a rather easy trail near Pegomas, near Cannes. The bike ride took me past the Siagne River up towards the Massif of Tanneron. After some (for me at least!) steep climbing for about half an hour, I made it to the highest points, with some great views over the massif and the surrounding country-side. The ride downhill back to Pegomas was quite good fun, heading down some rather bumpy roads through some mimosa plantations. Good fun, must try it again sometimes!

The social calendar continued to be busy – on Monday it was our turn to entertain in our humble abode. All the usual suspect where present this time – Antoine, Claire and their kids, Valerie, Gilles and their clan, Julie, Aurelien, Marie, Vincent and his lady friend, as well as Maite. We sent the kids upstairs to watch Madagascar, and us adults got up to the usual (drinking, eating; discussing the ‘bac – as usual I concentrated more on the eating and drinking since I’ve not even taken the ‘bac ;-) ).

On Tuesday, there was a kind of “leaving party” at the CIV (the school where Mathilde works). Apparently it’s kind of boring (you know, long-winded speeches for the teachers retiring or changing schools), so I didn’t go along for that… I did naturally show up at Maite’s place for the after-leaving do drinks, though. Most of the usual suspects were there, and the discussion subjects pretty much the same as the night before – but hey, there was food and wine, so I was happy ;-).