Cycling & Ice hockey!

It's been quite a fantastic autumn so far (one would believe the summer is still here, even though October is approaching fast...), and we've made the best of it after a busy summer (going to the beach, swimming, doing sports, having drawn-out aperitifs, that sort of thing ;-).

Luckily, the trend continued this Saturday, and this time we decided it would be a good occasion to head to Italy - it's been a while since we've gone! We decided to head off to Sanremo, and do a bit of cycling. We'd read on the internet about a cycle path that follows the coastline, so decided it was pretty much the perfect day for it. And it was indeed! We rented a couple of bikes by the seafront, and headed eastwards towards Arma di Taggia.

I can warmly recommend this cycle path to anybody wanting to explore this beautiful stretch of Italian coastline. It's quite easy going, but the views are occasionally stunning. And what's great, there are plenty of beaches to stop on for a bit of a refreshing swim or a rest, and plenty of places to have a bit to eat or drink. The perfect way to spend an afternoon. I'd say this was the perfect time of the year to do the cycle route - when the sun is still out and about yet not scathingly hot. We cycled a bit past Arma di Taggia, to the end of the cycle route, and then headed back to Sanremo (where we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream at Grom, our favourite chain of gelaterias...).




For the evening, I had a rendez-vous to see some ice hockey with Mikko and my dad - Mathilde was kind enough to drop me off at the  hockey arena in Nice before heading back home (seems that ice hockey isn't her cup of tea, as they say....). Nice were playing against Bordeaux this time around - a touch team (top of the league just now).   

 

Not a very good game from Nice - in fact they played really poorly and thoroughly deserved their 3-1 loss. Thankfully the goalie had a good game, otherwise it could've gotten even uglier. Especially their performance at powerplay was just, well, rubbish. Our fellow Finns  Räikkönen (not Kimi ;-) also had a decent game, scoring a goal and getting in a couple of good tackles.

But anyway, it was good fun to hang out at the stadium with the Finnish fans!

Mountain biking in the Valmasque

I don't know what's happening to me, but it seems like I'm getting infected by my colleagues sportiness - if you can believe it. Not only do I get up 6:30 at least twice a week to have a swim in the sea before heading into the office, I've also started some serious mountain biking. Well, semi-serious, based on my colleagues opinion.... (they reckon I'm still a bit of an amateur...)

We head off to the nearby Valmasque park on lunch time to cycle - pretty much the perfect spot to start off for a newbie like me. Not to steep runs (well, steep enough for me!), and the trees provide some very welcome shade on sunny days.

On this particular day, I headed out with Philippe, Julien and Michel - and our company's GoPro! Unfortunately, Julien had to call it quits early off in the run due to a broken bike suspension. As for the rest of the ride, it was good fun as always - and VERY good exercise... And I had a mere 9000 GoPro pictures as documentary evidence of the trip! (I really do need to learn how to best operate the GoPro, unless I want to spend half of my time sorting through pictures....)

AS Monaco vs. Bayer Leverkusen

I've wanted to go to a football game for quite some time now, but just haven't gotten around to it. Last year, thanks to a rather impressive lineup (which included James Rodriguez and Falcao, who sadly both left them team after last season though), AS Monaco made it to the Champions League. So I sort of randomly noticed on their web page that they were playing Bayer Leverkusen today, so I decided to go for it, and got three tickets (for me, my colleague Ilario and dad).

We headed off to Monaco well and early, 2 1/2 hours before the match, to give us enough to time to have dinner before the big game. No problems with traffic, nor parking (parking is never a problem at Monaco!), so we arrived with some time to spare to have dinner in the port near the stadium. We had nice salads at an Italian restaurant (finding it rather amusing that they're not allowed to serve alcohol since it's a game night - that's Monaco for you!).

For the game then. First disappointment - there wasn't much of an atmosphere. The stadium is big enough to host 18,000 people (which is about half of Monaco's population) - so apparently the stadium is pretty deserted on most match nights. This time wasn't an exception - I reckon a third of the seats at most were occupied. Mind you, the AS Monaco fans did actually make quite a lot of noise relative to their meagre numbers...

The game itself wasn't much of a classic either. Bayer dominated the first half, without being able to create many scoring chances, with Monaco playing very passively (unfortunately we were also at the wrong end of the pitch). So it was a goalless draw at half-time. Monaco were a bit more active in the second half, and indeed managed to clinch the game winner in the 61st minute after a well-taken shot by Moutinho, which took the goalie by surprise after a deflection off a Bayer defender. Pretty efficient finishing from Monaco - one scoring opportunity, one goal.

So not a great classic of a game then, but still, an experience! Next time I'll probably go see Nice place though - the atmosphere should be a bit better at their new stadium.

Teppenyaki time!

We felt an urge for some Japanese food this weekend (!?). So we decided to book a table at Saison for dinner, one of our favourite Japanese restaurants on the Cote d'Azur, together with Julie and Aurelien.

Before heading into Nice, we decided to bring some old stuff to Emmaus - a charity organization that sells second hand stuff to the needy.


It's actually a pretty cool place, located at the outskirts of Nice. It has a very old-fashioned feel to it, with mechanical cash registers, the staff smoking whilst working, not to mention the fact that most of the stuff they sell classifies as retro/vintage. Like going back 20 years in time or something ;-). We ended up buying a guide book for Japan.

After that, it was time for some more traditional shopping in Nice. We did enjoy a stroll around some of our favourite parts of Nice as well - Place Garibaldi, the old town, Place Massena and so forth. Pretty much the perfect day for it, with a clear blue sky lit up by the Mediterranean sun.

After meeting up with Julie and Aurelien at Galleries Lafayette, we headed off towards Saison. Alas, much to our disappointment, the place has actually changed into a sea food restaurant called Poseidon! The place is ran by the same crew, and it is apparently very good, but, well, we wanted Japanese...

So we ended up going to a Teppanyaki place called Jun instead, not far from Saison. Not a bad choice, but not quite at the same level of sophistication as Saison. But we had a good time, and the teppanyaki chef seemed to know his stuff. So all in all, the perfect way to end a very nice day in Nice!

Snorkeling with Jukkis and Gilbert

Snorking time again! My cousin Jukkis is visiting, and is quite a keen diver. So I figured I'd take him out for a bit of snorkling to Cap d'Antibes, where I occasionally go with my colleague Gilbert (who's a real pro snorkler, unlike me...).

I've taken my employer's GoPro camera out once when going snorkling, and decided to do so again (a GoPro Hero 3+ this time). I was happy to find out Cyril also had a proper underwater camera to lend me - a waterproof Olympus compact. It only goes down to 10 meters, which isn't really a problem for me when snorkeling... ;-)

After picking up Jukkis at my dad's place and managing to get slightly lost in Antibes, I eventually fond the beach where Gilbert was already waiting for us - so off we went, keen to get some snorkeling in before sunset. The sea was quite rough compared to my previous visits, which unfortunately meant a rather sub-optimal visibility. So not ideal conditions.

Nonetheless, as far as underwater fauna was concerned, it was my best session so far. Not only did I manage to see the small Moray eel Gilbert pointed out to me, but I also saw a scorpion fish. Gilbert spotted one of the local residents, a grouper, which is unfortunately a bit too deep for my skills...

All in all, a pretty good session, then! Jukkis at least insisted he had a good time, in spite of the less-than ideal conditions. And I got some pretty decent shots done with the Olympus as well... (although Jukkis reckons the best pictures we got were of the Lamborghini and Ferrari we saw driving past the parking lot... ;-) ).

Dinner with dad and Jukkis

My dad has been touring around Europe with my cousin Jukkis, and have finally arrived in Nice. Their two adventurous weeks have taken them through the Baltic countries, Poland, German, western France (with a stopover at Joel and Francoise's at La Rochelle) to Bilbao, where they cheered on the Finnish "wolf pack" at the Basketball world championship (which turned out to be, as often in sports for my country these days, "an honourable failure"). And now back in Nice after a short stopover in Barcelona.

After an aperitif at our house, where they recounted their adventures, we headed off Haut-de-Cagnes, the wonderful medieval old town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, for dinner. Since our old favourite eating establishment, Entre Cours et Jardin, as shut down, we chose our new favourite, called Les Baux, located just off the picturesque old town square, just across a cobble-stoned street from the castle.

Before dinner, we wandered around the atmospheric streets of the old town, just to work up an appetite. The place is just as pretty as always - sort of a pity we rarely make it up here anymore... (I suppose it sort of goes to say that we've really become proper Cagnes locals - and only do the touristy stuff when we have visitors!). 

The food @ Les Baux was really excellent, as we've come to expect, and the setting of the place is just spot on, especially on a nice end of summer evening like this. Interesting to hear more about their European adventures as well.

Welcome back, dad!

Myriam's birthday

September is probably the best time of the year to enjoy the Cote d'Azur. The weather is still fantastic, but not too hot, and most of the tourists have left (not that I have anything against tourists - I'm quite frequently an active tourist myself!). And today was pretty much a perfect September day - the sun was shining, the skies were blue and so forth.

So, obviously, we decided to grab a pair of Velo Bleus and go to Cap 3000 for some shopping (??). The shopping bit done, we made our way back towards Cagnes-sur-Mer, walking by the seaside. Our walked happened just so happened to take us past one of our favourite restaurants - Le Dame Nature, so we decided to have lunch there. And we were not disappointed - the food was just as delicious as we could remember from our previous visit. Good, local (often organic) ingredients, excellent fish, good service, everything was just spot on. Should you ever find yourselves in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, this is the place to go!

After that, we decided to just lie down on the beach - something we've not been doing too much this year. Just the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon this time of the year, yes indeed...

For the evening, 'twas off to Sophia Antipolis to celebrate Myriam's (Mathilde's ex-colleague) birthday. The venue indeed measured up to the occasion - Fabian organized the party at Air France's (where he works) party facilities. Pretty much everything needed for a good part was at our disposal - loads of food & booze, great people, music and even a table football!

I was quite a sight - our attire was supposed to include a "chic" or "chock" detail - since chic isn't really my style, I decided to wear my "charming" Jimmy hat (put it like this - last time I wore it was during Halloween!). I'm sure it made an impression on people (I shan't specify what kind of impression). Anyways, we really had a blast - merci Fabien et Myriam pour une super fete!