Cime de Baudon

Since the weather was pretty much perfect today, we (or more like I, perhaps...) decided it was a perfect day for a hike. We picked a hike near Peille this time, that goes up the Cime de Baudon, at a rather respectable altitude of 1264 meters (not bad, considering it's only about 20 kilometres from the sea.

Before embarking on the hike, we decided to have lunch in the village. Peille is one of our favourite villages on the Cote d'Azur. Perched on its hilltop, it sits on a superb site, with nice views on surrounding peaks and the valley beneath. The village itself is a prototype of what Provencal villages should be like, with narrow cobble-stone streets going up and down, charming stone houses, cool little courtyards sheltered from the sun. And perhaps best of all, very few tourists, surprising considering the proximity to Nice and the coastline (the advantage of living in a region where almost much each town/village has an old town worthy of being a tourist attraction). We lunched in a charming little restaurant, on one of those sheltered little courtyards.

We then set out on the hike, which took us along the valley on a footpath, with nice views back to wards the village. Towards the end, things got a bit sporty and steep, some scrambling was even required from time to time. We even got off the footpath a couple of time (well, there wasn't much of a footpath to speak about, actually... As an added bonus, we came across a herd of sheep at one point, seemingly untended. Time to take out the camera...

After a bit more sweat, blood 'n tears, we reached the summit. We were, unsurprisingly, greeted with some pretty stunning views back towards the sea, but also towards the Mercantour national park (where, thanks to a rather funny year weather-wise, the snow was still well present on the higher peaks - rather unusual for this time of the year). That brought an end to a sweaty, but rewarding afternoon hike! The hike back to the village was pretty easy going...

Glitz 'n glamour in Cannes

It's that time of the year again, as the weather indicates. Yes, it's Cannes film festival time (the weather is always crappy during the Cannes film festival for some odd reason). Due to our busy schedule, we didn't get our Quinzaine des Realisateurs tickets out in advance, but we did decide to make it out to Cannes on this relatively sunny Saturday.

After wandering around the Croisette, overrun as always by wannabe stars and people eager to catch a glimpse of a celebrity, we made our way over to Palais Stefani, to queue up for the screening. Having had some bad experiences on previous years, we started queueing real early, over an hour in advance. And thankfully, we did get in. The screening in question was a little oddball of a movie called "Les garcons et Guillaume, a table", a kind of autobiographical coming of age story by a French comedian called Guillaume Galliene. It puts a wicked twist on the "coming out genre movie", in that this time the guy coming out of the closet turns out to be straight. Absolutely hilarious!

We then headed out back on the Croisette, heading towards the Palais des Festivales. And who did we bump into, if not the famous (or infamous?) Bogdanoff twins (we ran into one of them at exactly the same spot a couple of years back!). These identical twins are a real show-case against plastic surgery (just look at the paparazzi picture I managed to snap), and also a good example of the kind of C-class celebrities the film festival attracts. But hey, at least I managed to snap my first proper paparazzi shots ;-).

After some more crowd-spotting, we headed down to Ma Nolan's where we joined Aurelien (and a huge crowd of football fans watching the Champions League Final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Munich) for a couple of pints. And then it was time to speed down to the train station to catch the last train back home!

With the Old Gang in London

It's been a very long time indeed since our last visit to the UK... So we figured the perfect way to spend our last long weekend in May would be a visit to London, a place we very much miss.

After our cheap and cheerful Easyjet flight, we jumped on the ridiculously over-priced Gatwick Express (a return ticket to London cost us nearly as much as our flight!) to Victoria Station. A short tube ride later, we arrived at Waterloo, where our hotel was located. We went for value for money rather than quality in selecting the Waterloo Travel Lodge as accommodation. Not saying that's a bad choice - but the value for money was quite visible here in many ways (no wardrobe in the room, a rather pathetic piece of soap for washing up, no luggage room, and so forth).

Normally we're not particularly picky when it comes to accommodation - but when you pay over 100 pounds per night, you expect a bit more than this. Well, it is London, on the other hand. Anyways, enough moaning - we put this slight disappointment behind and headed out to explore town. We had a pretty nice time enjoying Southbank and Waterloo by night, and ended the night with a nice meal at Wagamama's (although it has to be said that it compares rather poorly to the food we had in Japan...)

After a good nights sleep and a proper English breakfast (oh, how I miss those fry-ups...), we headed out to explore London, unfortunately under a bit of a cloudy sky. Mathilde headed off for a bit of shopping, whilst I headed out towards the city to find the elusive Temple Church. This venerable building (dating back to the 12th century, it's one of the oldest buildings standing in London) used to be the English headquarters of the Knights of the Templar - it's a place I've wanted to visit for ages.

It's rather well hidden away in the middle Temple courts (some court buildings) - very well indeed, I really struggled to gain entrance (eventually I found a guarded side alley where the guard grudgingly let me pass). I did find it eventually, only to find it was shut... Anyway, the whole mystery-shrouded exercise was kind of good fun, and the City is a pretty nice place to walk around anyways...

By then it was time to head back to Waterloo where we were meeting up with the old gang. Sinhung, Flore (who also travelled from France) and Adrian all made it (Phil and Nick joined us later). We started the day with a Dim Sum in Chinatown - one of those London things to do that we really miss. After that we spent some time walking around Covent Garden and West End - straight down memory lane as well...

The touristy stuff out of the way, it was time to get down to business - time to start the pub crawl. We got through a rather respectable number of drinking establishments (most of us are, after all, reaching a respectable age) - six in total. We started off in De Heims (another old classic - a Dutch pub in Chinatown), followed by the Clarence and the Old Shades in Westminster (I especially liked the second one, with its opulent interior). We then carried on, crossing Trafalgar square to cross off The Ship & Shovell as well as the Sherlock Holmes off the list (I liked both places - especially Sherlock Holmes, an old favourite with its Sherlock Holmes memorabilia room!). We finished off the night with a proper curry at the Delhi Brasserie - as we have done so many nights before in London. Ah, what a day, eh ?

What to do in England on a Sunday ? A Sunday pub lunch, of course! And what better place to do that than in the town where we used to live, Guildford, out amongst the gentle hills of Surrey. Especially since we were blessed with some unexpected sunlight. So after checking out a very interesting Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, we jumped on the train to Guildford. Pretty much the same group joined up, with Adrian and Nick being replaced by Celine, Sinhung's mysterious lady friend whom we finally got to meet "officially" ;-). We picked the Red Lion in Shamley Green for the occasion - pretty much the perfect choice. Pretty much the perfect English country pub, with a good selection of ales, decent food, nice garden, idyllically located next to the village green (where they were, naturally, playing cricket). Ah, these blissful moments almost make me consider moving back to England ;-) (until those thoughts are blown away by a rain cloud or something).

Our stomachs full, we made our way back to Guildford, where we spent a couple of very pleasant hours walking around town, coming to the realization that nothing much has changed since we left in 2006. We popped into the Guildford Tup for a pint, and also paid Nick a visit (these days a rather smartly dressed menswear sales manager). We then headed caught the train back to London, happy with another very pleasant day... We finished off the day with a tasty burger near Waterloo...

Monday was sadly our last day in London, and we had a pretty busy agenda. We split up again, Mathilde checking out the Tate Britain, and me heading out to check out another tourist attraction I've wanted to see for a long time - the Cabinet War Rooms. This underground complex, located near Whitehall, was from where Mr. Churchill directed the British War Effort during World War II, including during those tough days known as the Battle of Britain. In spite of rather steep entry fee of nearly 20 pounds, I can warmly recommend this site for those having the slightest interest in history or Mr. Churchill. The place does a pretty good place of showing what life must've been during those tough years, and the exhibition about Churchill is very interesting as well.

I then sped across to Old Street, where I rejoined with Mathilde and Ed for a rather nice lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant. Our stomachs filled, we spent the last couple of hours of our trip kind of randomly walking around the East End of London. It's a pretty cool, kind of grungy place to walk around, with a very different feel to the fancy West End. We tried to visit the Geffrye Museum, but it was unfortunately closed.

That brought an end to a fantastic Long weekend. No getting around it, I definitely miss old Blighty...

Back home via Tallinn and Stockholm

Time to head to Tallinn, then, one of the favourite travel destinations of my dear countrymen. There are plenty of reasons to visit Tallinn - one could imagine the main one being the fact that it's a very nice city with a superbly well-preserved medieval old town, reasonable prices, friendly people and an interesting history. But alas, the reason most (or at least many) of my fellow Finns go is cheap booze. Not that I want to patronize anybody - I have been on a couple of those booze cruises as well in my "wild youth"...

Anyway, for us this trip was a bit of a family reunion - happily my parents and both of my brothers (with better halves) could all make it. The ship left Helsinki harbour in the evening, and arrived the next morning (well, actually, it arrived in the night, but the disembarkation took place in the morning). We spent our time on the boat more or less like everybody else - had a big buffet meal (an absolute must), shopping, and naturally beer and karaoke in the bar (well, we decided to just observe the karaoke...).

We arrived bright and early in the morning then, and headed off to explore Tallinn. Well, actually, we started off with a buffer breakfast at a hotel in the port of Tallinn. Our stomachs filled, we started our exploration of Tallinn with the KGB museum at Hotel Viru. Hotel Viru was constructed (by Finns, actually) during the communist years - it was the only place foreigners were allowed to stay. Naturally, all the rooms were bugged - the surveillance took place on the "secret 23rd floor", where the KGB museum is rather appropriately located. There isn't much to the museum actually, but it's definitely a quirky sight not to be missed. We had a very entertaining guide who really brought the past alive, so to speak with her lively anecdotes from the "good old days". There were also some stunning sights over old Tallinn from the hotel rooftop.

The rest of my family seemed more keen on shopping than sightseeing, so we decided to go our separate ways and meet up for lunch in the old town later on, so off I went on my own to explore old Tallinn. And what a fascinating place it is - it's an even prettier place than I can remember. Tallinn is certainly a place with a rich history - there are traces of inhabitants dating back 5000 years. What remains today dates back to the 13th century, when Tallinn was part of the Hanseatic league. The old town is remarkably well preserved and very spread out. It has become pretty touristy since I came here last time, no doubt thanks to Easyjet and RyanAir, but it's still a very charming place to walk around.

After taking in the cobble-stoned streets around the town hall square, I made my way up to Toompea Hill. Toompea Hill is, as the name suggests, a hill overlooking the old town. It's where the castle of Tallinn is located, it is also where the seat of the Estonian government can be found. It's a pretty nice area to walk around as well, with a couple of interesting churches to visit. The most impressive one was the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, similar to the Uspenski cathedral in Helsinki. These days it's the main church of the Estonian orthodox church. The views up from Toompea over the old town are another good reason to hike up to the hill.

I continued my tour by heading back to the old town, and eventually found myself at St Olaf's Church, with its imposing spire (believe it or not, it was apparently the highest building in the world between 1549 and 1625!). I had my lunch rendez-vous coming up, but couldn't resist the temptation of climbing up to the top along the narrow, creaking staircase... Naturally, the views from the rather cramped rooftop were rather stunning...

For lunch, we relied on some quick research on Tripadvisor, and ended up in Rataskaevu16, a charming little place tucked a way a bit outside the most touristy bits of the old town. What a gem this place was. Smiling, genuinely friendly (or at least so it seemed to us ;-) service, very decent prices, a modern and tasteful interior decoration (including some archeological diggings underneath the floor of the toilet!) and most importantly, some excellent food. We spent a very relaxing couple of hours here enjoying good food, and chatting away...

Due to our rather long lunch, we didn't have much more time left in Tallinn, before catching our boat. We did have time to briefly explore Rothermanni Kvartal near the port area - a rather tastefully redeveloped warehouse district with some pretty interesting architecture. After a bit of last-minute shopping, it was time to board the boat and head back to Helsinki...

The next day, it was time to head back to France. But actually, I had quite a long stopover in Stockholm (7 hours!), so I decided to make the best of it and head into Stockholm and pay a visit to our dear friends Robert and Doan (Robert used to study with me back in Edinburgh a bunch of year ago, and thankfully we've kept in touch since...). We enjoyed a rather nice BBQ in the garden of their most impressive villa, located in a very nice, leafy suburb of Stockholm. Nice to see their little girls growing up as well! A very nice and relaxing way to end a rather hectic few days around the Baltic Sea!

Springtime in Helsinki

Since I've recently changed jobs, I've had fewer excuses for going to my dear homeland, Finland. May being the blessed month of public holidays in France (no less than four to take), I decided to take the opportunity to head back to Helsinki for a few days. Not bad timing either, as the weather was surprisingly good for this time of the year.

I arrived Tuesday night, quite happy to have my parents pick me up at the airport. I started off Wednesday by meeting up with Jose and Ulla. Jose was part of my "Virtual team" in Ulm in my previous job, and we had quite a few beers together over the months we worked together (and more than a few last time we met, when we went to Octoberfest!). Great to see him and Ulla again (over a beer naturally!), as well as the new family member, Matilda.

I then headed out to explore Helsinki - quite lovely this time of the year. At Kiasma (the museum of modern art), I was treated to a rather odd spectacle - a horde of rather drunken football fans from the Åland Islands visiting the capital, no doubt to play against the local team, HJK. After some joyful singing, they marched on towards the football stadium. Quite an entertaining and unexpected sight, I must say!

I followed the crazy football fans for a bit, since my plan was to walk around Töölö Bay. It's a very nice walk, taking in some of the most famous works of modern architecture (the Finlandia House, the Opera, Kiasma) as well as some nice traditional wooden mansions. I popped into the winter garden as well. The way back to my parents flat took in some other classic Helsinki sights as well, such as the Senate square. All in all, pretty much the perfect way to spend a sunny spring afternoon in Helsinki!

In the evening, I met up with Jocke for a few beers, and some ice hockey! The world championships were actually taking place in Finland (OK, and Sweden, also...) this year. After a good first period, we lost against USA unfortunately...

The next day, the plan was to meet up with a bunch of friends and relatives at Mei Lin, a Chinese restaurant. An odd choice, one might think - my brother chose the place based on a recommendation from Yang, my cousin Rasse's wife, who also came along. And what an excellent choice it was - I have to admit I was extremely surprised to find such authentic Chinese food in Finland! (well, I've never been to China, but I have been to a fair few bad Chinese restaurants...). A side effect of this was that the food was extremely hot (as in containing loads of chilly). Anyhow, I very much enjoyed my meal (I shared a hot pot with Janne and Katja).

Great to catch up with everybody as well - I was sharing a table with Janne, Katja as well as Jani, who came along with his new partner, Sari (and announced the happy news - he will be a dad!). And last but not least, Riku and Tarita as with their young daughter. And at the other table, mum and dad, Rasse and Yang, and my cousin Maikki, Jarkko and their children. All in all, a very nice meal. Afterwards, some of us headed out to town for more catching up over a few beers. 

On Friday, my plan was to meet up with my good friend Aki for lunch in Hakaniemen Tori (since he unfortunately couldn't make it to the meal the day before). Being in a sporty mood, I decided to walk all the way there, and snap a few shots of Katajanokka, Kruunuhaka and Kallio while I was at it. Pretty nice parts of Helsinki for an aspiring photographer like me (I especially like the urban grit of Kallio). We had a nice lunch at Aki's lunch cafeteria, great to catch up with him as well.

After a walk back to my parents flat, it was time to pack my back as we had a boat to Tallinn to catch! 

Circuit de la Forna

1st of May is quite a special holiday in Finland - it's an excuse for everybody to dress up in funny ways and get totally hammered during 2 days... Alas, France being a civilized country, we decided to get up to some more healthy stuff and go hiking. After all, the weather was simply brilliant today (a nice change after a decidedly un-Cote d'Azurish winter and spring...), and we've been a bit lazy on the hiking front lately...

After consulting our hiking guides, we decided upon the Circuit de la Forna, a nice and easy little coastal hike near Le Turbie (a pretty little village located west of Nice, overlooking Monaco). We started off after parking near the village, climbing up for a bit and then following a footpath that was more or less following the A8 motorway, with some rather nice views towards the Mercantour national park.

We then got onto a road which took us up towards Fort de la Revere, a military fortress constructed in the 19th century. From there, we were more or less following the coastline back towards La Turbie. The culminating point of the hike was the Simboula, at a rather respectable altitude of 675 meters. The views from there towards Eze and Cap Ferrat were simply stunning - classic Cote d'Azur landscapes. The sea, the mountains and a pretty little mountain village - some of the elements that make life on the Cote d'Azur great, were there in perfect harmony (along with quite a few swimming pools and fancy villas...). As a nice bonus, we checked out some cows on the way back...

Pretty much a perfect way to get back to reality after our wonderful holiday to Japan, one could say...