More post-Christmas fun in the west of France

After Christmas eve, things continued more or less as usual… More scrabble, eating delicious meals, opening oysters (one of my favourite Christmas time activities) and just in chilling out with the family, basically.

On boxing day, we were joined by Mathilde’s nephews and nieces. The nephews, Paul and Lucas, stopped to pick up their Christmas presents and then headed on towards Nantes with their grandma, whereas the nieces, Syehm and Alix, stayed over.

Me and Mathilde had a rendez-vous with some friends in Angers in the evening, and we took the rather bold decision to walk to the town center, following the Maine river (it’s actually just 5 kilometers or so…). A nice walk, impressive to see how high the river is – plenty of fields flooded as well.

We met up with Anne, Oliver and their two lovely children, as well as Sandra (unfortunately, Sebastien and Marie had to cancel last-minute). Since it was getting a bit dark, we headed into the nearest coffee shop for some coffee and hot chocolate (and beer, in the case of me and Oliver).

All in all, we spent a very nice evening together, catching up on the latest, as they say.

The next day, the plan was to head out into the Mayenne department with Joel and Alix, to have lunch with Mathilde’s three uncles. The Mayenne is what I would call authentic, real French country-side. So I quite enjoyed driving through the back roads and small villages, until we eventually found Didier’s little farm, located, almost literally, in the middle of nowhere!

All the brothers – Didier, Jacques Gerard and Joel of course, were present for the happy family reunion. Didier had prepared a real feast for us, with things kicking off with foie gras toasts with some proper free-range chicken for a main course. And to top it all off, a buche de Noel we had picked up in one of the villages on the way. This was followed by a rather interesting tour of his farm.

Our stomachs filled, we hit the road and made our way back to Angers. For the evening, we’d been invited over to Delphine and Christophe’s place for dinner & drinks. It was a bit of a university reunion for Mathilde; with Flore, Christian, Aude, Magaye, Servane and Stephane all present. Once again, we had great food, loads to drink, and a lot of fun! Great to catch up with everybody, a real pity Marion and Corinne had to cancel, though (a lot of flue going around, it seems...). Next time!

That brought an end to our wonderful Christmas break in Angers. As always, it was great, even if at least I had picked up a kilo or two, I reckon… A big thank you to Francoise and Joel, and everybody else who fed and lodged us.

Time to hit the road then... After stopping at the rather non-descript town of Vierzon for a lunch (which we have no complaints whatsoever about!), we drove to Issoire in Auvergne, where we were staying the night. We arrived during the afternoon, so decided to have a walk around town before having dinner. Issoire is mostly known for Église Saint-Austremoine d'Issoire – an exceptional example of Auvergne Romanesque church architecture. And indeed it is rather sublime, especially the cloister that is attached to the church. There wasn’t much else to see in the town, and the restaurants we saw in the town centre didn’t really tempt us, so we sadly enough ended up having dinner at the Courtepaille chain restaurant next to our Ibis hotel. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t too bad, actually!

The next day, we hit the road early, crossing the beautiful Auvergne landscapes as we headed southwards. We decided to stop over for lunch at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. This small village, stunningly located in the Herault valley. I can honestly say it’s one of the most picturesque villages I’ve visited in France (and that’s saying a lot!). The site really is magnificent, and the village has really succeeded in keeping its medieval character, with its stone-paved streets and rustic houses. Oddly, in spite of the numerous tourist shops and restaurants the place doesn’t have the feel of a tourist trap (probably due to the time of the year – I’m sure the situation is quiet different in summer!). We found a very nice little restaurant for lunch.

The village is a very famous pilgrimage site, and its medieval abbey, a really stunning work of art. After visiting this Benedictine abbey, which was founded all the  way back in 804 AD, it was time to hit the road. We did take the opportunity to visit the UNESCO world heritage rated Pont du Diable, which is located just a few kilometers down the road from the village. Apparently these bridges were built either with the help of the devil, or against his wishes, depending on which legend you believe. Anyways, a most impressive bridge it was!

That brought an end to our trip, as we arrived back in Cagnes!

Christmas in Angers!

Time for that special time of the year again – yes, that would be Christmas! This time, the plan was to spend it with Mathilde’s dad and Francoise in Angers.

We hit the road on Friday evening, with me picking up Mathilde from her school. The plan was to spend the night in Lyon, staying with our friends Karine and Joann (and young Lucas). Apart from some rather heavy traffic (which we expected) on entering Lyon, the trip was thankfully uneventful. Karine and Joann welcomed us with a delicious dinner, followed by “a couple” of drinks (mostly consumed by me and Joann) – especially that Calva from the Sarthe was absolutely lethal. All in all then, we had a very pleasant short stay in Lyon!

We hit the road relatively early on Saturday, with me at the steering wheel (surprisingly, without excessive adverse after-effects after the Calvados from last night). We arrived in Angers just in time for dinner, excellent timing if I may say so! After a game of scrabble and some catching up with Joel and Francoise (and Marcelle, of course, who was also there), we hit the sack, tired but happy.

The next day, apart from the usual activities we get up to in Angers (eating extremely well, jogging, playing scrabble and just lazying about in general), we also decided to jump in the car and head out for some touristy action. Angers (and even more so the area East from Angers – the Loire valley) is famous for its castles, so we decided to visit one of them – Plessis-Macé. This castle was transformed into its current Gothic Flamboyant style during the 15^th century. The castle, still to this day privately owned, is a bit more military in style than a lot of the other castles in the area (which seem more built for pleasure and showing off, than war). Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the castle, but there is a nice footpath and a big park around the castle, which we took advantage of.

On the way back to Angers, we stopped off at another castle – Plessis-Bourré. This castle is one of the more important ones in the region, and apparently a very popular setting for movies, since it is one of the few castles in the regions that hasn’t had its exterior altered since it was built more than five centuries ago. It looks very impressive indeed from the outside – unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to visit this castle either (it was too late). Another time!

And that brings us to Monday, yep that’s right, Christmas eve! The plan was to spend it over at Nathalie and Herve’s place (Nathalie is Francoise’s daughter) in Angers. Xavier and Aude also made it for the occasion. Xavier had the brilliant idea to make the celebration a fancy dress party; a first one for me as far as Xmas is concerned! Thankfully, Francoise had a bunch of costumes at the house, so we all found something suitable. I was dressed as some sort of Egyptian ruler from the time of the Pharaohs. I think Xavier probably deserved the price as Zorro though, or perhaps Colin as Superman (or Super-Colin?) or Titouan as Spiderman?

The meal was, as always in France, absolutely delicious, from starter (scallops), to main course (somewhat unexpectedly, kangaroo!) to dessert (buche de noel, what else?). And naturally, rather large quantities of wine and other alcoholic beverages were also consumed (including some very nice and smooth Irish whisky, the name of which I cannot remember, unfortunately). And of course the highlight of the evening was the distribution of the pressies (which is still to me a magic moment even though I’m as they say getting on a bit…). No, sorry, correction – the hightlight was the fact that we had a super time in great company!

Christmas spirit in Nice!

Christmas is approaching! Which unfortunately means some inevitable Christmas shopping. So we decided to head down to Nice, taking the velo bleu, naturally (since the weather was rather nice). We cycled down to the port of Nice, taking in the nice views along the Promenade des Anglais, as always (including a rather big hybrid snowman/Santa Claus). Once arrived at the port, we purchased some Anna’s pepparkakor (Swedish gingerbread cookies, yummie) at our favourite (and only?) Nordic food shop on the Cote d’Azur, Fjord.

From there we headed up to Place Garibaldi, where we checked out the rather pretty Christmas decoration. Then we joined the fray for a bit of shopping, not too bad actually, I expected worse, considering we are 10 days from Christmas. We didn’t have much time for shopping though, since we had a cinema to catch.

After the movie, we were meeting up with Mikko and Marianne for dinner, after a quick vin chaud at Place Massena. We’d picked a rather well reputed place called Les Deux Canailles for the occasion. The chef, Tsumoru Takano, used to work his magic at the Michelin-starred Keiusuke Matsushima. And we ate very well indeed at Les Deux Canailles as well, I suspect it won’t be too long until they get their first star either… The nice thing is that you get the excellent food and service without the “stiffness” (for lack of a better word) that you sometimes get at Michelin-starred establishments.

All in all, a great soiree, good to catch up with Mikko and Marianne as well!

A few days of REAL winter

After all the sun on the Cote d'Azur, it was time for me to confront the real winter. Yes, I was going to Finland...

After the usual lost luggage problems flying in (this time, my bag got lost in Amsterdam), I got a lift from dad into Helsinki. The weather was as it was to be for the rest of my – cold, dark, with snow everywhere. I don't think I saw the sun once during my stay! Once we arrived, I headed out to have lunch with mum and dad – we ended up in Rivoletto, a rather decent Italian restaurant with pretty authentic Italian fare (but the prices were decidedly Finnish though!)

In the evening, the plan was to meet up with the lads for a few beers. We ended up going to the rather oddly named English pub – Angleterre. Strange name or not – nothing wrong with the beer selection. The usual suspects showed up – Aki (who recently became a dad), Jani and Janne. Micke even showed up later on, much to our surprise. Several beers later, I stumbled back home, rather happy about this nostalgic gathering.

Next day was actually the Finnish National day. My initial ambitious plan had been to go and take some pictures of one of the ceremonies no doubt taking place, but alas, I was way too ambitious. I got up rather late (getting too old for all-night beer sessions, it would appear...), and just didn't have the energy to do much. Anyways, this afternoon, it was time for our family gathering, so I helped mum and dad in the meal preparations. Pretty much everybody showed up: Janne, Katja, Tomi, Leena, Sofia, Mick and his two children. Julia also showed up later on. We passed a very nice afternoon and evening together: eating, chatting away, catching up, and watching the amusingly appropriate movie “En enkel till Antibes” (my parents live in Antibes). Once the gathering was over, I took the opportunity to watch the latest Bond film with my dad - Skyfall. Not a bad effort from Mr. Mendes and Mr. Craig, I have to say, definitely better than Quantum Solace! (about on par with Casino Royale, I would say)

On Friday, I wandered around town, doing a bit of shopping, and just enjoying Helsinki. For lunch, I met up with Sakari, a former colleague from Nokia (and one of many ex-Nokans who have thrown in their lot with Intel), at Karljohan's. A pretty decent place for a quick lunch, I had some quite good reindeer stew. Later on, in the evening, it was time to grab a few beers again. This time I met up with Frank and Rasse in Bruuveri, a German-style brew-pub located in Kamppi. It was all good fun, we ended up doing a bit of a mini pub-crawl, checking out first O'Malleys, then Aussi Bar, and finally Teerenpeli. Considering the number of venues we had visited, my head was in a surprisingly good shape the next day.

I continued doing the social circuit the next day by heading into “Kaunis Grani” for lunch. Kaunis means beautiful in Finnish, but given the “post World War II lesson in how not to make a charming town center” that Grani town center is, I don't know who came up with that nick-name (well, there are actually plenty of nice houses in Grani, it is after all the richest commune in Finland). Anyway, I didn't come here to enjoy the architecture, I was there to have lunch with Jani and Jocke. We lunched in the rather oddly named MOMS (or perhaps appropriately named, MOMS means Value Added Tax in Swedish – and Grani is after all the “tax heaven” of Finland). After a decent steak and a nice catching up session, I jumped on the train and made my way back to Helsinki.

For the evening, the plan was to meet up with Jarkko and Maikki in Atelje Finne – Janne, Katja and my parents also showed up. Atelje Finne is quite a cozy little eatery, I liked the interior decoration. The food is maybe more style than substance, unfortunately. The dishes are quite well presented, and I enjoyed the starter and the dessert, but the main course was a bit of a letdown. And the place is rather expensive, too... Still, we had a really nice evening, catching up with Maikki and Jarkko, first at the restaurant, and then at my parents' place.

On Sunday, I was invited over to my brother's Janne's place for a late lunch and a bit of gaming. I passed a very nice afternoon at Sockenbacka, first getting hammered by Janne at Magic the Gathering (ah, MTG, what memories my brief moment of humiliation brought from my nerdish youth...), then eating way too much of Katja's delicious lasagne, followed by a short board game session. All in all, a very nice way to spend an afternoon! Then made my way into central Helsinki where I met up with Jose for a couple of beers, first at Vltava, and then at Praha. Good to see Jose again – last time would've been after our trip to Octoberfest.

That brought and end to my all-too-short Helsinki visit – time to take the train to Tampere, for what is, I suppose, my last business trip for Nokia.

After a day of meetings, I hit town. Tampere is a nice city, but I rushed past the sights, as it was pitch dark and bloody cold (that's Finnish winter for you – and Helsinki felt positively Cote d'Azurish in comparison to wintery Tampere!). I met up with my colleagues at one of my favourite drinking establishments in Tampere – Plevna (it's a micro-brewery located in the old Finnlayson factories). Pentti and Frank also joined – good fun to catch up with them. I rounded off the night with a beer with my old Riviera-colleague Hannu – very nice to see him as well (seems that he still misses the Cote d'Azur – not a hard thing to imagine especially this time of the year...). The next day, after some more meetings in the morning and some tearful goodbyes (well, I'm kidding about the tear-filled bit – this is after all Finland!), it was time to catch the flight back to Nice.

I have to say, in spite of a great few days spent seeing friends and family, I was rather happy to head back to the warmth. I guess I'm getting too used to the southern climate to enjoy the Finnish winters... ;)

Another beautiful weekend on the Cote d'Azur...

We started this sunny Saturday by going running. I have to say, this was one of those days when one really feels lucky to be living on the Cote d'Azur. To be able to have a jog by the seaside, in shorts and teeshirt, in December. Not bad!

I then jumped on the train and headed into Nice for a lunch appointment. Our good friend Naim, who is working in Brussels at the moment, was visiting for the weekend. So the perfect opportunity for a long overdue business lunch, then! We met up at Cours Salyea, and then tried to find a restaurant big enough to accommodate all of us (10 persons or so), not an easy task on a Saturday!

We eventually ended up in Brasserie l'Opera, unsurprisingly located across the street from the Opera. The place was kind of like a typical tourist trap, so the food wasn't really anything to write home about. But I had a nice time, chatting away with Naim and the others.

After the rather long lunch, I headed towards Avenue Jean Medecin, where I was meeting Mathilde. The plan was to head to the movies – we saw a rather good Italian movie called Piazza Fontana (it talks about a bombing at a bank in 1969 in Milan, putting forward an interesting theory about who was actually responsible for the bombing, and the cover-up that followed...). After the film, we met up with Naim for a coffee near Place Massena, for some proper catching-up.

We finished off a rather busy day at Antoine and Claire's place up in the far-away mountains, in Carros. We met up with the usual suspects (Julie and Aurelien) for a bit of pizza and intellectual socializing. It was all good fun, as always!

The next day, I continued taking advantage of the rather excellent weather, and went scuba diving. I recently completed my CMAS level 2 dive certificate – so time to take advantage of my training with my first autonomous dive. We headed out to my favourite Riviera dive site so far – Caussiniére – located at the point of Cap Ferrat. In spite of the rather mediocre visibility (a lot of storms and rain lately on the Cote d'Azur...), the dive was pretty good. Saw plenty of groupers and quite a few barracudas.

In the afternoon, we made the most of the sunshine by walking along the seaside, pretty much a perfect way to end a great weekend!