Gaëtan Roussel @ Monaco

I was quite happy to find out Mathilde surprised me with some concert tickets this particular Friday night. A kind of French rocker legend - Gaëtan Roussel  - was playing at Monaco.

Before the concert, we decided to have a stroll around nearby Port de Fontvieille, near the football stadium, to find a nice restaurant. We ended up in Amici Miei, a relatively authentic Italian restaurant. Apart from the Monegasque prices (= expensive, in case you didn't guess...), the place was  rather nice, with tasty enough food and good service.

The concert itself was pretty cool. Gaëtan Roussel was the front man of the rock group Louise Attaque, which had its heyday during the 90's (their debut album is the best-selling Rock album ever in France, and the fifth most sold album ever in France).

The fact that I recognize some of their songs is for sure the ultimate proof for their continuing popularity (Louise Attaque tends to get played during moments of nostalgia at French parties and weddings by people around my age... ;). Gaëtan put up quite an energetic show, mixing up old classics but also stuff from his latest album, which I can even recall hearing on the radio - again the ultimate proof that he still has a following. (put it like this - I am absolutely useless at answering music questions at pub quizzes).

All in all, a fantastic Friday night out in Monaco. Merci ma cherie pour le surprise! ;-)

Grenoble mostly by night

I barely had time to recover from my rather taxing birthday weekend (must be getting old or something?), before it was time to hit the road again, for Grenoble, for work. Getting up early Monday morning, I joined my colleages Jean-Marc, Bruno and David for the journey to the far-away Isere department... After a 5-hour drive, we arrived, surprised to arrive in a sunny Grenoble (I'd been told time after time that Grenoble is always foggy and/or rainy). We actually got quite nice views over the surrounding Alps from our office building, located in a rather grim industrial suburb.

This being a business trip, and us being very serious indeed when it comes to work, I didn't actually see any of Greonoble by day-light, hence the title of this blog entry. However, on our second night in Grenoble, I was treated to a bit of a "Grenoble by night" tour. Things kicked off with a bit of an apero at a nice little bar by Place Victor Hugo with a bunch of colleagues. We then headed off for a rather nice meal at classy La Girole. Pretty sophisticated food for a decent price (one would for sure pay more at the Cote d'Azur...). And to finish things off, Olivier, Adrien and Giovanni took me & Vikas (a colleague from Santa Clara whose spent quite a bit of time in our Sophia office too) out to O'Callaghan's, a nice little Irish pub by the riverside.

All in all, a rather nice trip and a nice introduction to Grenoble (mostly by night).

The Big 4-0

Big 40 coming up... :-( Anyway, I always say, any excuse for a party. So I decided to organize something for dear friends here in France, and overseas. Naturally, due to my disorganized nature, the organization was a bit last-minute. But to cut a long story short, I ended up renting a villa for a weekend, conveniently located in Haut-de-Cagnes (the medieval part of our hometown). And in the end, the turnout was quite good as well - about 20 participants in all.

Things started a bit badly, as somebody rather rudely decided to pirate my credit card just the day before the big party. So I had to make quite a large withdrawal to cover the deposit for the villa, cleaning charges, and not to mention all the grocery shopping. I took Friday afternoon off to get things organized - quite thankful to have some invaluable assistance from Isabelle, who arrived Friday afternoon (Isabelle, if you read this - BIG THANK YOU!). The rather busy afternoon involved picking up the keys from the villa, a visit to the bank to sort out my credit card mess, shopping, a quick visit to my aunt Tutta's place to have coffee and pick up my cousin Maikki and Jarkko, and a ride to the airport to pick up Flore. To make things easy on ourselves, we decided to have pizza for dinner...

On Saturday, things didn't start out brilliantly either. After a couple of weeks of typical sunny Cote d'Azur weather, mother nature decided to curse us with some torrential rainfall... In fact, enough rain to cut off the electricity for the garage (yep, it did indeed mean we were unable to get the car out of the garage - until we managed to get a hold of the owner who helped us with the manual override system)...

Due to the downpour, we rather quickly gave up on the original plan, which was to do some touristy stuff somewhere with our "overseas visitors" - and contented ourselves with lunch at one of the several nice restaurants located in Haut-de-Cagnes - Le Goutte d'Eau. Pretty nice & reasonably priced food, just what the doctor ordered.

No sign of the rain easing off, so the prospects of enjoying the superb garden the villa possessed were looking slimmer and slimmer. Thankfully, the villa was more than big enough to accommodate everybody. We had a great turnup; apart from the overseas visitors (including Nathalie & Patrick, who had arrived Saturday morning), quite a few local friends made it, we ended up with quite a nice mix of locals, Finns, and a couple of odd ones out (an Italian, a German...).

Everybody seemed to have a nice time, including (of course me!). I was treated to some pressies that can only be described as super: a Suunto sports watch (hint hint: somebody needs to do more sports?), quite a few bottles of alcohol (don't know where people got that idea from?), a wine "subscription" where I get 2 bottles of wine per month (everybody knows, of course, how sensitive my taste buds are to a fine bottle of wine) as well as three laps around a race track in a Ferrari (midlife crisis approaching, anyone !?). I was truly moved by the generosity of everybody (both people present and those who couldn't make it) - THANK YOU to those who happen to be reading... And thanks to Sarah, Aurelien and Antoine as well for the delicious cakes they prepared!

So as you've probably guessed, I at least had a brilliant time! The party carried on well into the morning hours (comforting to know that I'm still able to last past midnight! ;-) ), and a rather insistent headache (and quite a few empty bottles) reminded me that it must've been a good party!

The next day was rather chilled out, with most people heading off pretty early. We hanged out at the villa for a few hours more with Flore, Isabelle and Vincent (who had a rather long sleep, waking up around noon...), finally getting to enjoy a bit of sunshine.

All in all, a super weekend, makes it easier entering middle age...! A huge thanks to everybody who helped with organizing the party, for the present, and for your presence!

Night out in Nice

Our good friend Olivier, who hails from the beautiful village of Greolieres - a please we've visited several times with great pleasure - was on the Cote d'Azur. After some juggling with schedules, we finally managed to fix a rendez-vous for Saturday. Unfortunately, we couldn't meet in Greolieres, since the Paris-Nice cycle race was on, and today's section was around Greolieres.

So we decided to meet up in Nice too - which required rather careful coordination since we had a theatre to attend that night. So we decided to meet up for a drink and quick dinner before the theatre. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on whether one enjoys theatre or not), our ambitious plan fell to pieces rather quickly, since both us and Olivier were late for the rendez-vous. So, to cut a long story short, we decided to join Mathilde's CIV colleages, have a proper dinner and more than one drink, and skip the theatre instead (an excellent decision, if you ask me - I guess we'll just have to see Death of a Salesman another time).

So, after a few drinks at Checkpoint (one of the numerous British pubs in the old town of Nice, one I haven't been to for quite a few years actually), and another quick apero at Le Bar de Degustation (a Nice classic), we ended up having dinner at Attimi. Quite appropriately festive since after all, there were three occasions to celebrate (my birthday, Ollie's birthday, and as we were happy to find out, the upcoming birth of Ollie's and Raphaelle's second child!).

All in all, a great night out, and great to see everybody again!

Birthday bash in Oslo

Jonas is a good friend of mine from my years in high scool, so I was very happy to receive a message from her sister Lotta, some time ago, inviting us to meet up in Oslo to surprise Jonas for his 40th birthday. Why Oslo ? Since Jonas lives near Ålesund, in western Norway... After a smooth flight with Norwegian, and an equally smooth train ride into town centre, I met up with Mathilde at our hotel (a surprisingly economical affair - considering this was Oslo - in a reception-less hotel just a couple of blocks away from the train station), who was joining me after a few days spent in Angers with her dad and Francoise.

After a good nights' sleep, we got up, eager to explore Oslo (a city I've not been to before). Since the weather was rather rainy (unsurprisingly - this is Norway after all!), we decided to start with a museum - the National Gallery.  A rather enjoyable museum. Apart from the mandatory paintings from Munch (including his master piece, the scream) there was plenty of other interesting art.  On the whole, it reminded me quite a lot of Finnish art from the same period. 

After this dose of culture, we made our way to a nice little self-service restaurant for lunch. We were a bit scared about the legendary high prices of Oslo, hence the choice of a self-service restaurant (the meal put as back by about 20 Euros in all, not completely unreasonable...). Our stomachs filled, we continued our tour of Oslo by heading to Bygdøy, a little peninsula located just outside Oslo centre. Our first stop was a Musem dedicated to the legendary ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl -  named after the raft this mad Norwegian constructed from balsa wood, and used to travel from Peru to Polynesia. Quite an adventure indeed, lasting 101 days, especially considering him and his equally mad crewmembers basically had no experience of sailing... One of the other ships he'd constructed, the Ra 2 (a boat built from papyrus he used to cross the Atlantic...). Quite a guy, this Thor!

Our next stop was the Fram museum, which was dedicated to another bunch of crazy Norwegian explorers, namely Roald Amundsen, the man who named the north pole. The museum is basically constructed around Fram, the ship Amundsen used when he discovered the South Pole. A very interesting museum too - paying homage to a pretty impressive bunch of guys, who put their lives on the line to increase our knowledge about the world around us. I was particularly impressed with Fridtjof Nansen - a true renaissance man (polar explorer, humanitarian, politician, champion skier & skater, scientist, Nobel laureate).

Before leaving Bygdøy, we had a quick walk around the Norwegian Folk museum, a very nice little place, quite similar to Seurasaari in Helsinki. The concept is to basically show various countryside houses from different parts of Norway - including one of the famous Norwegian wooden churches. 

After a walk around the town centre, some shopping and a nice cappuccino, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. We'd picked a fish restaurant in Aker Brygge, in the port of Oslo. It's a trendy-looking area, with many of the old brick warehouses now housing fancy restaurants, including the place we'd picked. We had a very nice dinner indeed - and weren't even that shocked by the bill. 

Our stomachs filled, it was time to surprise the birthday hero at a bar near his hotel. We were joined by his sister Lotta, his husband as well as his parents, and later by Nicke. We had a very nice night out indeed, finishing the proceedings in a nice little whiskey bar not far from our Hotel. Certainly not the cheapest night out I've had - but the occasion was more than worth it!

The next day, we decided to do a bit more touristy stuff before joining the rest of the folks. Especially since, believe it or not, the sun was out! We decided to make our way to Vigelandsparken, a rather curious park located just outside Oslo town centre. The park houses a collection of statues made by Gustav Vigeland, a Norwegian sculpture. The statues depict rather strong emotions (of all kinds..), as well as portraying the relationships between parents and their children, and between couples. Very powerful stuff, highly recommended. 

Our next stop was the Oslo opera house, a rather fantastic building constructed back in 2007. It truly is a magnificent building, to me it's just as beautiful as the Sydney Opera house. It had a similar impact on us as the Guggenheim museum at Bilbao had, which we visited a couple of years ago. It's pure white shape sits very well in harmony next to the sea. I have to admit I'm no big fan of opera - but this building is well worth the visit for its visionary architecture.

The touristy stuff done for the time being, it was time to join the others, who were having a hike around Aker Brygge. We joined the gang there - I was quite happy to see quite a few old familiar faces (including my good friends Jani & Jocke, and Luther whom I've not seen for years and years). We ended up in a put near their hotel, drinking rather expensive beer and catching up on old times....

We still had a bit of time to kill before the dinner later in the evening, so we decided to have a walk around Akerhus Festning (the fortress of Akerhus). Quite a nice little place to walk around, a bit similar to Suomenlinna in Helsinki (with a somewhat less picturesque setting though).

Then it was time for the big dinner in honour of our good friend Jonas. Lotta had picked a nice fusion food restaurant in Grünerløkka for the occasion (Grünerløkka is an old working-class neighbourhood that's apparently rather trendy these days...). The food was pretty good - and rather reasonably priced actually, again. We spent quite a lot of time chatting to Jonas' mum and dad (Pata, Jonas' dad, actually speaks fluent French, having lived in Paris. We actually learnt that Jonas was born in Paris - a true Parisian then ;) ). 

After the excellent meal, we headed out on town, guided by one of the guests who has lived in Oslo and knows the place pretty well. After a couple of drinks there, we made our way to a Scottish pub in the town centre, where we downed a few more rather pricy pints. But all in all, a fantastic night out, great fun chatting to everybody. 

After getting up, somewhat surprised not to have a headache, we headed off for a bit of final Oslo exploration before catching our flight back to Nice. We decided to walk along the river that crosses Oslo - pretty nice walk actually. We particularly enjoyed an area by the river with some pretty cool graffiti that could hold its own against the best that the Mission District in San Francisco can offer. We ended our walk at the indoor food market, where we had a rather tasty fish lunch. And then, alas, 'twas time to catch the train to the airport.

So a rather intensive long weekend of partying and touristing then. A huge thanks to Lotta and everybody else for a memorably weekend - and in particular a big happy birthday to Jonas! As for Oslo - it was a real revelation to us. Yes - it is undeniably expensive, but on the other hand, I reckon you can easily spend as much money during a weekend in London or Paris... I think I prefer Oslo both to Stockholm and Copenhagen (naturally, it doesn't stand a chance against Helsinki ;-) ). One feels tempted to visit again!

Back in Auron

Thanks to our fantastic day of skiing at Auron last weekend, we were rather keen to get back to it this weekend. Our original plan was to do an overnight trip at Isola 2000 (or some other ski resort within striking distance of the Riviera), but due to a somewhat dodgy weather forecast for the Saturday, we decided to opt for a day trip on Sunday instead.

Our destination changed as well - we ended up going back to Auron, due to the signs saying snow chains were mandatory for accessing Isola 2000 (Isola 2K is a bit higher up than Auron...). To avoid any mishaps in the snow, we decided to park down in Saint-Etienne this time, from where we took the ski cabin up to Auron.

We were up for a treat once again - the skiing was pretty much perfect. Maybe the snow was a bit harder than the weekend before, and there were a bit more folks on the slopes, but overall, fantastic day of skiing again. Not a cloud in the sky... (well, apart from a couple of ones, just to make the photos look a bit nicer!) We lunched at the same place as last weekend, yummie yummie again. So pretty much a perfect way to spend a winter Sunday, then!