A weekend in Provence

Last year, a bunch of Mathilde's colleagues rented a villa near Montpellier for a week - I joined up for the fun for a couple of days. We decided to redo the same thing this year - only due to various "scheduling issues" we ended up doing a long weekend instead (I joined for a "normal weekend" only). Mathilde had booked a nice-seeming villa in the midst of Provence, near Saint-Remy. And it was indeed quite the ideal Provencal villa. A traditional house, nice garden, a swimming pool - pretty much just what we needed.

So I joined the crowd (made up of Julie, Aurelien, Antoine, Claire, their kids as well as Sarah - the usual CIV crowd, then!) on Friday evening, just in time for aperitif. After a few drinks, and dinner, it was party games time! I'd borrowed a game called Declick from work - just the perfect game for an occasion like this (deceptively simple, yet devilishly difficult after a few drinks - one quite simply has to indicate whether as quickly as possible whether an affirmation written on a card is true or false by hitting down one hand - one with "true" written on it and one with "false" written" on it).

The next day, we got up not too early after a good night's sleep (well, for me anyway, apparently my snoring kept a few individuals awake unfortunately...). After a refreshing swim in the pool, it was time to drop off Sarah in nearby Avignon. We decided to take the opportunity to lunch there and have a walk around. We found a nice pizzeria for lunch - just perfect for a big group like us.

Our appetites sated, we headed off to check out Avignon. Avignon is your typical Provencal old town - picturesque, if a bit touristy. The main sight is, of course, Le Palais des Papes - the papal residence during 6 popes' reign during the 14th century. It's certainly an imposing building seen from the outside - but the interior (which we visited last time we came) is rather bare - all the furniture has been removed. After checking out the other main attraction of Avignon - le Pont d'Avignon (yep, a bridge), we said our good-byes to Sarah and headed on.

Our next stop on our mini-tourist itinerary was Les Baux-de-Provence - one of the oldest populated sites of Provence - today a ridiculously picturesque village, in what must be one of the most beautiful sites in France (sitting on top of its craggy hilltop, surrounded by an almost lunar landscape.

We decided to visit one of the most peculiar tourist sights in Provence -  Carrières de Lumières. It's basically a disused quarry, long abandoned, that was converted into a kind of cultural site by, amongst others, Jean Cocteau (who shot his film Orphee here). It's basically an audio-visual show where some images/video clips are projected on the rocky interior of the quarry. Quite unique - we were treated to some art from Klimt, as well as "invisible cities" - some images depicting some sort of urban utopia ? Very fascinating stuff!

The evening turned out more or less as the Friday night - dinner followed by partying!

The next day, 'twas sadly time to leave the villa, and head back towards the Cote d'Azur. Our departure was not without drama - Aurelien's car had a puncture (which we were eventually able to mend using some "magic puncture-fixing spray" after realizing the spare wheel didn't fit!), Claire & Antoine were stopped by the cops, and we had lunch at McDonald's (the last one was admittedly the least dramatic even of the three!).

Anyway, no big harm was done, and everybody got back home safe, after a great weekend!

Summer on the Cote d'Azur!

With all the travelling back and forth, we've not had much of an opportunity to enjoy the Cote d'Azur, a very nice place indeed during the summer (in spite of the inevitable tourist horde invasions that). So we were quite happy to have a "free weekend" to do just that.

Things kicked off with us meeting up with Aurelien & Julie in Le Cannet for dinner. After an aperitif at Julie & Aurelien's place (with a bottle of Trousepinette, to remind us of the Vendee!), we headed off to a Japanese restaurant for the occasion (now there's a surprise!) - Kashiwa (one of the best Japanese restaurants on the Cote). The food was excellent as always - the place is a bit more sophisticated than our local favourite Yoko (which btw doesn't mean it's better - it's a tight match but I still have a soft spot for Yoko).

The next day, the plan was to meet up with our good friend Naim, whom we've not seen for quite a while in spite of his frequent visits to the Cote (Naim is a bit of a world citizen, currently splitting his time between London, Nice and god knows where else). The plan was to meet up with him and Sarah (whom we REALLY haven't seen for ages!) for lunch. What better place for lunch on a sunny summer day than Pass'Port in the Vieux Port. Great, unpretentious local specialities - that ratatouille of theirs is just fantastic. But most importantly, it was great to catch up with Naim and Sarah again!

We then cycled over towards Place de la Liberation, just by the train station (but a place we've never actually been to!) - our objective being to try the supposedly best ice cream in Nice at Arlequin Gelati. And for sure the ice creams were good - well worth the bike ride - but I have to say I still prefer Amorino's on Rue Massena. Liberation is a pretty nice place to walk around as well - there's also the historic & impressive Chemin de Fer de Provcence train station there (a library these days, though).

Before cycling back home to Cagnes, we met up with Aki for a coffee - it's been a while since our last meetup after all. Great to see him and little Eemil - too bad Henna couldn't make it.

And then, 'twas time to make our way back to Nice - after pretty much a perfect day in the appropriately nick-named Nissa la Bella!

Back home via the Vendee and Ariege

We arrived at Xavier's house in Brem-sur-Mer towards the late afternoon. It's a pretty nice place, located by the Vendee seaside, just  10 km away from the biggest seaside resort in the department. The Vendee is one of the biggest most popular places in the West of France for a beach vacation - and why not ? The sand beaches are very nice indeed, and there are good tourist facilities (we came here for a week of camping a couple of years ago and had a great time).

We weren't particularly energetic on the day of our arrival, we just hang out at the house and had an absolutely delicious shellfish pasta. Bravo, Xavier! In the evening I had a go at playing Palets with Xavier (it's a traditional game from the Vendee - a bit like petanque except that it's played by throwing small metal "pellets" on an iron board). It was all good fun, even if I did loose miserably (we also lost quite a few playing pieces in the garden!). I continued making a fool of myself with Xavier's Playstation 3, playing some "very sophisticated" first-person shooter.

The next day, we decided to get all sporty and headed off to the Brem-sur-Mer seaside with Joel and Francoise for a hike (Xavier decided to have a lie-in). It was fantastic, actually, with a rocky seaside reminiscent of Brittany. Not at all like the long stretches of sandy beaches we'd seen during our last visit to the Vendee. We had a great time walking along the cliffs - thankfully the sun also made an appearance.

In the afternoon, me and Mathilde decided to continue being all sporty, and cycle down to Les Sables-d'Olonne. After a bit of mechanical problems, involving changing the inner tube on one of the bikes, off we went. Our delight with the Vendee continued, the footpatch between Brem-sur-Mer and Les Sables really is a lot of fun, especially that part that cuts through Les Salines - salt marches where salt was commercially extracted. A very picturesque area, and just perfect for cycling! The coastline between the salines and Les Sables is very pretty too.

We arrived in Les Sables in the later afternoon, after our energetic & scenic bike ride. Locking up our bikes, we had a short walk around. Not really my favourite stop on the trip. It's got all the characteristics that I don't like about touristy seaside towns. There are some pretty historic bits to the town, but what stuck foremost in our minds was the ultra-developed seaside with its tourist trap restaurants and the ridiculously packed beaches. Not my kind of place this time of year - probably a nice enough place off-season though.

We took the same route back to Brem - enjoying the same fantastic landscapes - but this time in the nice evening sun - even prettier, I daresay. Unfortunately, I had a puncture a few kilometres from Brem (the tire we'd changed earlier, how unlucky is that, or how heavy am I?)! So it took us a bit longer than planned getting back (even if Francoise kindly picked us up in the end!

In the evening some friends of Xavier came over for dinner - it all lasted well into the small hours again I'm afraid. I had way too much Trousepinette (the local apertif - which apparently only the tourists drink), beer, wine, and some rather tasty digestifs. That did not bode well for the next day - when we had a rather long drive ahead of us.

After our goodbyes to Xavier, Joel & Francoise (well, Xavier was actually sleeping when we left), and many thanks for the fantastic stay we'd had in La Rochelle and Brem-sur-Mer, it was time to hit the road. We drove towards our destination with few interruptions - only stopping near Bordeaux for a nice lunch - and arrived at our hotel in the early evening - located near the town of Mirepoix in the Ariege department (near the Pyrenees).

The hotel was certainly fantastically located, with a great view towards the Pyrenees - a most charming place ran by a very friendly English chap (who, somewhat unusually, spoke an excellent French). We didn't linger long at the hotel, but rather headed off to explore Mirepoix. Turned out Mirepoix is pretty much the perfect destination for an evening's stay - it's a very cute little medieval town, compact enough to be comfortably explored in a couple of hours, but big enough to have a nice selection of restaurants.

It was a touristy place, but nothing like Les Sables from yesterday - the tourism here is more geared towards mountaineering, hiking and other outdoors activities, which changes the aspect of the place totally. We dined at a nice little restaurant at the main square, very much enjoying it. (I had duck again!)

The next day, after a solid English breakfast (ah, what memories it brought back...), it was time to hit the last stretch of road back home. We did decide to have a short walk around the hotel before hitting the road - would've been a shame not to, since a hiking path passes just by the hotel. Very nice views from up there, across fields of sunflowers, towards the Pyrenees. I could well imaging making another stopover here, and maybe do a bit more hiking.

That brought an end to a very eventful roadtrip across France. It just goes to show what a diverse and interesting country France is, there's just something to see, eat or explore in just about every corner of this country that I have "adopted".

Relaxing in La Rochelle

So finally, we arrived at our main destination for our holidays, at La Rochelle (or to be more precise, the nearby village Puilboreau. So as I already mentioned, Joel and Francoise recently moved here from Angers, they bought a big house together with Franoice's sister Ethienette and her husband Jean-Claude.

A very nice place it is - the stone  house is big enough for everybody, as well as nice, traditional & very French. There's a big garden, and even a swimming pool!

When we arrived, there were plenty of visitors: Francoise's son Xavier, some friend of Xavier's, Mathilde's niece Alix, Ethiennette & Jean-Claude's daughter. So plenty of people in the house - so we ended up on the sofa bed (no problem with that!). The weather wasn't great - but we still decided to head off for a bit of a walk to explore the surroundings with Joel & Alix. The surrounding area is pretty nice - typical French countryside, rather heavily farmed it seems (a fact one can not only see, but also smell!).

The evening meal turned into a rather drawn-out affair (as they often do in France!), as we chatted away and enjoyed the food, excellent as always. We finished off with a bit of Calva (the local Eau de Vie variant in this part of France) with Xavier and his friends. Apart from that, there was of course the mandatory scrabble session (I'm sure it does wonders to my French vocabulary!)

The next day followed the same leisurely pace - excellent meals (Francoise's cooking is traditional French cuisine as it should be!), scrabble, enjoying the swimming pool and just lazying about. We did head of to La Rochelle, as we unfortunately had to drop off Alix at the train station. So we had a quick walk around the Vieux Port - it was as nice I could remember from my last visits, but considerably busier! (the dodgy weather had brought the tourist hordes to La Rochelle, it would seem). We also tried what is apparently the best ice cream in La Rochelle - and it was indeed most tasty! (almost worth the half hour or so we queued).

The next day, we were heading a bit further out a field, to visit our good friend Aude and Magaye in Nantes. Well, Aude, Magaye and Olympe, to be more precise! (little Olympe was born just a few weeks ago). After a nice meal and some catching up at their lovely house (and trying to locate the rabbit Oishii who was away hiding somewhere!), we headed off to enjoy the sunny weather a bit in Nantes.

As the weather was good, we decided to go to the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden. A pretty nice place to walk around - there was also a kind of themed exhibition of flower-covered sculptures inspired by works from Claude Ponti, an author who writes for children. A pretty nice & imaginative "exhibition" (not sure that's the right way to describe it...).

To finish of our last night in La Rochelle, we decided to have a go Mölkky. I'd not actually ever tried this Finnish game, invented in my home country 1996 (I guess I left Finland before it became a big hit!), and actually pretty popular in France (possibly since it's rather similar to the even more popular petanque).  It's all good fun, even if I took a pretty bad  beating by Xavier and Francoise...

The next day, the plan was to head off to Xavier's place in the Vendee. But before hitting the road, we decided to have  a short walk near La Rochelle. Following recommendations from the locals, I tagged along to the Chef de Baie, a little bay just a couple of kilometres from La Rochelle, a lovely little place with a nice beach, and some nice cliffs, just perfect for a morning walk. We walked along the coastline all the way to the outskirts of La Rochelle, where we had an overpriced cafe at a bar (even more expensive than the Cote d'Azur!).

A couple of days in the Perigord

Out next stop on "da Road Trip" was Perigord. It's a region of France we visited a couple of years ago, and at the time we told ourselves: "we've got to come back to this amazingly beautiful part of France", so 'bout time for a second visit I'd say...

Perigord really is the culmination of what's beautiful about the French countryside: beautiful, rolling hills, medieval villages with stone houses that look like they haven't changed for a century, picturesque farmhouses, imposing castles, and a rather characteristic regional cuisine (think duck - foie gras, magret de canard, confit de canard - it really is all about duck here!). We were staying in a pretty little village called Coux-et-Bigaroque, at one of those French country houses I was talking about earlier, called le Chambellan, located just next to the village church.

Having settled in, it was time to prepare for the critical activity called dinner. We decided to dine in Sarlat-la-Canéda - a stunningly beautiful medieval town we really adored during our last visit in the Perigord. We were happy to get a table at the nr. 2 restaurant at Sarlat! Sarlat was certainly as pretty as we remembered - with its cobble-stoned streets and cozy little stone houses - amazing for a town of that size to have managed to keep it's medieval architecture so intact. 

The restaurant was nothing to write home about - I was quite surprised about the high tripadvisor rating. It was all about duck, which I'm more than fine with, but their cuisine just lacked, I don't know, that little bit of extra you would expect from one of the best restaurants in town (if Tripadvisor is a good measure for that sort of thing, that is...). But we were still happy to reacquaint ourselves with this beautiful little town.

The next day, we decided to get sporty and go on a hike. It was all a bit improvised, as we didn't even have a map (we just picked a foot trail at an information billboard in the village centre. To make matters worse, some menacing clouds appeared in the sky, so in the end we decided to abort the hike after about an hour or so and head back to the village. 

Since the skies cleared up again, we decided to head down to the nearby Dordogne river for a swim. Great fun and pretty sporty too - not easy swimming against the current of a river (we were rather grateful for the nets which protected us from being swept downriver!). 

In the afternoon, we decided to do a bit of a roadtrip. Our first stop was Belvès, another stunning medieval town, where there was actually a fete medieval going on today (hence the tourist hordes...). After a bite and a walk around the atmospheric cobble-stone streets, and checking out the street entertainers, we carried on our mini-road trip.

The next stop was Montpazier - which is apparently "the ideal bastide". So, obviously, we had to check out the local attraction, which was the bastide museum, which does a pretty good job at describing what bastides are all about. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, bastides are highly regimented & planned towns that were created during the 13th and 14th centuries, as an attempt by the king to control the unruly south west of France. The bastides were built in a strict grid pattern, each house having exactly the same dimensions. Kind of egaliterian, really. It's true that Montpazier showcases this grid pattern very well. Interesting place. 

Our next stop was Beaumont-du-Périgord, another stunning example of a bastide. It was perhaps less harmonious than Montpazier, but I think I preferred it since the place was just as picturesque, but considerably less touristy. The main square was particularly enchanting, dominated by its fortified church.

We wound up our road trip with a quick stop at Cadouin, another pretty medieval village, known for its Cistercian Abbey. It is, apparently, a rather important religious institution, so much in fact that it's a UNESCO world heritage site. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the place, we contented ourselves with admiring it from afar, from a panoramic viewpoint a bit up the valley overlooking the village. We finished a rather tirking but most rewarding  day with yet another duck-themed dinner at our hotel.

The next day, it was unfortunately time to check out of our hotel, and continue our trip towards La Rochelle. Kind of sad to leave the idyllic countryside behind us, and be greeted by supermarkets, traffic lights and other signs of "civilization"... We decided to stop and have a walk around Perigeux, it is after all the captital of Perigord. It's quite a nice little provincial town, dominated by its impressive cathedral (which is quite atypical for France - it looks almost greek in style, a bit like Saint-Marc's in Venice). After a quick visit of the impressive cathedral and a walk around the old town, we jumped back in the car and carried on towards La Rochelle.

Aigues-Mortes, Montauban and the Quercy

Time for our French roadtrip for 2014 then. Our destination this year was La Rochelle, where Joel and Francoise relocated to from Angers this spring. I was quite looking forward to visit - form what I've seen so far, La Rochelle seems to be a pretty cool place!

We did plan quite a few stop overs along the way - La Rochelle is, after all, rather far away from Nice. Our first one was Aigues Mortes (which means stagnated waters in Occitan). I've seen plenty of evocative photos of Aigues Mortes and its imposing medieval city walls, and have wanted to visit the place for quite some time. So I was quite keen to explore the place first-hand.

Our hotel was located outside the city walls, by a peaceful canal, next to a rather eccentric-seeming automobile museum. After dropping of our stuff at our room, we headed into town - we had a bit of time before dinner to walk around the place. The town walls were as impressive as the photos suggest, but alas, apart from that, the place was a little bit disappointing. It just didn't have a particularly medieval feel to it - could be partly due to the tourist hordes besieging the place...

Thankfully, we found a rather nice gastronomic restaurant called Le Particulier, just off the main square (which was filled with eating establishment feeding the tourists hordes). Everything was pretty much spot on - great service, tasty & inventive food and an atmospheric location. After a bit of Aigues Mortes by night (the city walls looked particularly enchanting after dark...), we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep to prepare for our long drive the next day (not easy, considering the dodgy mattress...).

We headed off early the next morning, hoping to avoid the inevitable traffic jams around Montpellier (plenty of Parisians pass by Montpellier to get to Spain...). We didn't entirely succeed, being stuck in pretty bad traffic for an hour or so, but thankfully once we got off the A7 and struck westwards towards Toulouse, things got considerably calmer...

We made a rather random lunch stop at Montauban, south of Toulouse. An excellent random choice! The first impression of the place is impressive (and that positive impression was confirmed later) - the view of the bastide, sat on its plateau, overlooking the Tarn river is quite stunning (the medieval bridge in the foreground adds to the effect)...

The town, built mostly in red brick (reminiscent of Toulouse), is actually the second oldest bastide in France (bastides were constructed on the order of the king during the 13th and 14th centuries in the south west of France, as a means to strengthen his hold of that part of France). We really enjoyed walking around the harmonious, well-preserved town centre - such a contrast compared to Aigues-Mortes (Montauban has managed to stick to its historic heritage, but seems at the same time to be a vibrant, modern place). We found a nice little cafe/restaurant, where we had Reuben sandwiches followed by some nice cake for desert. Pretty much the perfect lunch stop, I would say!

Our next stop was in the Quercy - a region we visited and very much liked a couple of years ago. It's very similar to the Perigord, where we are heading next, but perhaps just slightly less picturesque, and also less touristy. It's kind of how one imagines idyllic French country side - a bit to France what Tuscany is to Italy, or the Cotswolds to England, if you will.


We stopped at a ridiculously picturesque village called Lauzerte, a medieval village located on the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage trail. It's the picture-perfect French medieval village - if it wasn't for the odd car and tourist, one could almost imagine having been transported back in time...

Our next stop was Château de Bonaguil. This part of France, apart from having amazing medieval villages, also has amazing medieval castles, and Bonaguil castle is a prime example of one. Perched on its hilltop, it could be considered to be the culmination of medieval military architecture in France (according to Wikipedia!). Not that I'm an expert in the matter - but during our visit, it was certainly easy to imagine what a daunting task storming that castle must've been. Now that's what I call a proper castle!

Nick @ the Cote d'Azur

Our good friend Nick came over to visit us this weekend (the confirmation finally came after a few ifs and buts - there were a few complications along the way, as there sometimes are when it comes to Nick ;-).

After picking up Nick at the airport, we decided to have dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant, Yoko. The food, service, everything in fact, was perfect as usual.

The next day, after some deliberation, we decided to head off to Marseille for a day. We'd booked a table for lunch at La Marine des Goudes, a place specializing in Bouillabaisse. Before that, we had a couple of hours to walk around Marseille. We started off by visiting the revamped port area (it was redone for when Marseille was European capital of culture in 2013) - a pretty successful facelift I'd say (the Ombiere, by Normal Foster - a kind of mirror structure, is particularly striking).

Having checked out the old port, we walked up the main street of Marseille, Le Cannebiere (actually comes from the word Cannabis - a lot of hemp went through Marseille, since Marseille was one of the biggest traders of ropes and baskets in the olden days...), from where we headed off to some of the atmospheric side streets that to me make Marseille such a nice place to walk around (some areas make Marseille seem more like a Souk in Egypt than a major French city).

And then 'twas time for some Bouillabaisse. The restaurant of our choice (recommended by our dear friend Julie) was located in a fishing port at the outskirts of Marseille called Goudes. So pretty much the perfect spot for a bit of Bouillabaisse, especially as the restaurant had a perfect view across the harbour. And no complaints about the food either - the bouillabaisse was pretty much spot on (and cheaper than the last one we had too, at the Ruhl hotel).

Our appetites more than sated (a bouillabaisse does that to you!), we headed bac to Marseille for a bit more tourism. We decided to check out the MuCEM (Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée). It's built on the site of the Fort Saint-Jean - the old fort can be visited for free (pretty nice place to stroll around, with nice views over Marseille). The museum itself, a rather interesting modern structure, is where the museum is located. We decided to visit it. I have to say the museum itself was quite a disappointment.

A museum dedicated to the Mediterranean is potentially pretty interesting, but the whole place has a rather incoherent feel to it. Normally when I visit a museum, I hope to learn something - it's not the feeling I got from visiting this museum. And how on earth can a museum created in a modern European city in this day and age not have proper signs / explanations in English - that's just ridiculous. So, my advice is to check out the Port Saint-Jean and the museum from the outside, and spend your money & time on another museum...

After a brief walk in the Panier, the old town of Marseille, it was time to head back homewards. We decided to stop over at Cannes for a pint with Julie and Aurelien - good opportunity to thank Julie for a good Bouillabaisse tip!

The next day, time for something else completely. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, our friends Gilles & Valerie had a bit of a problematic wall to deal with - so we decided to help them out with it. (I'm sure Nick didn't imagine he'd be used as cheap labour when he came over for "holidays"!). So the project - rebuild a wall to prevent Gilles & Valerie's garden from collapsing into the Var valley down the slope... So that was our day sorted out then, as we sweated in the Mediterranean sun, first removing the debris from the old dismantled wall, and then putting up the new one. We were also helped out by a Corsican archeologist also named Gilles, and Valerie's brother. It was all good fun actually, and I supposed I learnt something about walls, at least !? And of course, one is always well provisioned at Gilles and Valerie's place!

Thankfully, we still had time for a swim in Cagnes to wash off all that dirt and sweat afterwards! We finished off a rather tiring but rewarding day with a bit of board playing...

Good fun, this weekend then, as it tends to be when Nick is around. I hope he didn't mind being used as cheap labour ;-)