Janne and Katja visiting

My dear brother Janne and his better half Katja were coming over for a couple of days. They had a rather ambitious project - to drive mum and dad's car from Antibes all the way across Europe to Finland. Happily, they decided to spend a couple of days with us here in Cagnes before heading off.

They arrived bright 'n early at Nice airport. Not to be deterred by a long flight and little sleep, they were happy to head off straight for some tourist action (well, we did have a chicken for lunch first!). After deliberating various options, we finally decided to head off to Cap Ferrat - the home of the rich and famous. That being the case, what better place to visit than Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild ? The villa was constructed between 1905 and 1912 by the ridiculously rich Béatrice de Rothschild (a member of the famous Rothschild banking family). It took a while, since she had the annoying habit of restarting construction from scratch when she decided the works in progress didn't please her.

The end result is a rather impressive pink villa overlooking Cap Ferrat and the Mediterranean - filled with antique furniture. Even if the interior is pretty interesting, the main reason to come here are the impressive gardens (the place is classed as a "Notable Garden of France" - whatever that means!). The gardens are very nice, it has to be said - showing various types of gardens, and littered with antique statues.

All that tourist action made us a bit hungry - so we decided to head off to Villefranche-sur-Mer for dinner. After strolling around the charming old town and taking in the nice views over the Bay of Villefranche, we ended up dining in a nice place called L'Aparte, cozily located in the Rue Obscure (a street of sorts built underneath the harbour houses - dating back all the way to the 13th century). They had pretty original stuff on the menu - I especially liked their desert - a Toblerone tiramisu (the thing was actually shaped like a Toblerone!). Excellent, creative cuisine, if a bit on the pricy side. Recommended!

The next day, we had the sad task of going through stuff at mum's and dad's place to see what to bring back to Finland. It very sad to imagine that mum, who's had a big hand in decorating the place, won't be coming back there...Life must go on, I suppose.

We ended a rather tiring day with a couple of games of Carcassone. Great fun actually, as a 4 player game. We've played it a lot just the two us, me and Mathilde, but it's certainly a lot more fun with more players.

Then it was time to say bye bye to Janne and Katja, as they started their long trip towards Finland...