An afternoon in Paris

After a few rather emotional days in Finland, I was kind of happy to make my way back to France, to get a new perspective on things.

I actually flew to Paris, rather than Nice, from where the plan was to travel down to Auvergne with Philippe, Aniko and little Elize, where we were spending new year together with a bunch of friends.

My flight arrived rather early, so I had quite a few hours to kill in Paris before making my way to Versailles, where Philippe and Aniko live. My bus arrived at Montparnasse, which was pretty much perfect, as it's one of the best places in Paris for eating (well, pretty much any area in Paris is good when it comes to food, I suppose...).

After rambling about a bit in this rather picturesque part of Paris (taking in views of the imposing Tour de Montparnasse, and crossing the famous cemetery). I ended up in a nice little bistrot called Le Parc des Cerfs. Perfect little place for a quiet solo lunch - I was treated to excellent service, and most importantly, the food was excellent.

The plan was to meet up with Philippe at Gare de Lyon, which is near to where he works, and head back to Versailles with him. The area around Gare de Lyon is a part of Paris I don't know very well, so I decided to jump on the bus and head that way straight away to explore a bit. After dropping off my bag in a luggage locker, I headed off to have a walk around the area. I ended up in Bastille (yes, the very same place where the French revolution sort of started), a nice and rather lively area, perfect for a stroll around (I realize I'm repeating myself, but pretty much anywhere in Paris is perfect for strolling about, of course).

I then made my way down to the Seine river, and since I still had a bit of time before my rendez-vous with Philippe, I decided to walk up towards Ile-de-Paris and Notre-Dame. It was a rather stunning walk esthetically speaking, with the sun setting over the Seine and the silhouette of Notre Dame looming ahead of me. There definitely is something magical about Paris - every time I visit I sort of fall in love with the place all over again.

And then, before I knew it, it was time for me to head back to Gare de Lyon, from where me and Philippe took the train back to Versaille. We spent rather a nice night chatting away in Aniko and Philippe's flat, enjoying some nice food and wine. And of course I got to meet the lovely Elize again, whose rather grown up since the last time we met ;)

And then, the next morning, Auvergne here we come!

A rather sad Christmas...

After my wild night out @ Guildford it was time to catch my flight to Finland. It was all a bit hard going since not only did I have a bit of a headache, I'd also been foolish enough to do a fitness trail two days ago during lunch time, which meant all the muscles in my body were aching. Thankfully, I was able to haul my luggage into the plane and board in spite of these inconveniences...

Dad was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, from where we sped off to spend Christmas eve at my brother Tomi's place. I was quite happy to see that Helsinki was snow-covered for once (the last couple of Christmases have been depressingly snowless), and the air was refreshingly cold as well... We had a very nice Christmas eve indeed at Tomi's place, with his kids and grand-kids (wow, we sure are getting old) livening things up. And of course great food - including a proper bûche de Noël to give proceedings a bit of a French touch.

After making our way back home, I got all crazy and decided to head out into the Helsinki night to do a bit of night-time photography. Helsinki is, after all, rather beautiful when covered by snow, even at night-time. Sort of strange thing to be doing on Christmas eve, I suppose, but there you go...

The next day, I headed over to Parainen with my dad, the plan was to try out the new fireplace and then have another Christmas meal at Estrid's place. Now, if a snow-covered Helsinki looks beautiful, then our summer house (which these days is habitable also during winter) at Parainen covered with snow looks absolutely magical. And what's best, the sun was out as well. This is what the Finnish winter should be like!

We were enjoying a very nice meal at Essi's place with Gunnveig, Berit, Maria and her kids when we got the call. My dear cousin Maikki, who has been very ill for quite some time, had been taken to hospital. So we jumped in the car and made our way back to Helsinki, where we spent two days with her, which turned out to be the last ones in her life... Some Christmas present. Possibly the two hardest days in my life. I do my best to keep the tone of this blog upbeat, so I will write no more about that. 

Our plan had actually been to have a kind of family lunch at Mei Lin (one of Maikki's favourite restaurants) on Saturday, and in the end we decided to go, in spite of the terrible news the day before. And I think in the end, it was a good idea to enjoy some fantastic food, all together. Mei Lin is definitely the best Chinese restaurant I've been to in Finland - possibly in Europe. Real authentic Chinese cuisine is not easy to find, but Mei Lin serves it up. 

I spent the afternoon walking around Helsinki, taking in the beautiful snow-covered views. I walked through Eira past a snow-covered Johanneksen kirkko down to Merisatama, from where I crossed through a beautifully white Kaivopoistu park, making my way up to the observatory, from where I enjoyed the panorama. I then made my way down to Kauppatori, where the Christmas market was in full swing. 

Then it was time to catch the train to Kauniainen, where I met up with Jani and Jonas for dinner at the rather aptly named MOMS (which means Value Added Tax!) - I say aptly since Kauniainen has a bit of a reputation as a town for rich kids (to call it the Beverley Hills of Finland would perhaps be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture...). I finished off a rather busy day at Angleterre, a rather excellent English pub near my dad's flat, where I met up with Jani, Sari, Janne and Katja. Cheers!

I started the next day, my last one in Finland for this trip, by having a rather ungastronomic lunch at McDonald's with Aki and his two sons. Oh well, I make a point of going  to McDonald's at least once a year, just to check whether the quality has improved (it hasn't). But anyway, it was great to catch up with Aki!

Aki then dropped me off at Janne and Katja's place over in Pitäjänmäki, where we enjoyed our customary board games session - Rasse also came over with Yang and little Filip. It was all good fun as usual - even if I didn't win. 

Now, the climax of my trip was supposed to be the early "Vain elämää" concert.
Vain elämää is a Finnish reality TV show, where a bunch of famous musicians get together and sing each others songs. So the concert is a kind of farewell party they throw at the end of the year to mark the end of the season. It's actually a pretty cool concept. For me it's also a great way to get a bit of an idea about what's going on at the Finnish music scene...

Now, the thing about the concert is that my cousin Maikki organized it, so given the recent events, we didn't really know how to feel about the whole thing. But Maikki wanted us to attend the concert, so we did. And I think in the end it was good that we did. It gave us all the chance to spend a bit of time together in a, let's say, uplifting setting. Actually, "Vain elämää" means "Just life" in English, sort of appropriate in a way I guess.

So that brought an end to a rather sad Christmas... But in the end, I'm glad I was there in Finland during those difficult days.

Quick stopover at Guildford

Time to head for Finland for a bit of Santa Claus and proper winter then (yes, it had actually snowed in Finland, which is a nice change after a rather dreary snow-less Christmas last year). Getting a flight to Finland turned out to be rather tricky this time around, all the flight options leaving on the 23rd were ridiculously expensive. Except one - a BA deal which meant an overnight stay at Heathrow.

Instead of slumming it at Heathrow, I decided to take up Nick on his offer and crash at his place in Guildford, my dear old hometown from my years in Old Blighty. And well, since I didn't arrive too late, we to meet up with Phil for a couple of pints before hitting bed.

We started off with what used to be one of my local pubs, the Drummond on Woodbridge Road. Pretty much unchanged from the last time I'd been there, the beer was still good. From there we carried on to the town centre, hopeful for an open place. Alas, 'twas not to be, even the usually reliable Fahrenhait 55 didn't want to let us in (too busy, apparently). The next challenge - where to get some food !? Mission impossible - we couldn't even get a kebab.

Thankfully, my second local pub, the Stoke, which we passed on the way back to Nick's place, was still open. So time for one last pint there then, as well as a  nutritious peanuts & crisps "dinner"...  (obviously they had stopped serving food).

Ah, it was a short but such sweet visit to my old home town - seems to still be pretty much as I remember it, at least by night ;-)

A weekend in Lyon

Christmas is approaching! Sadly, me and Mathilde are once again spending Christmas apart, me in Finland and Mathilde with her dad and Francoise in La Rochelle. Turns out that the easiest way for Mathilde to get to La Rochelle was to fly from Lyon - so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to spend a romantic weekend in Lyon together before going our separate ways for the festive season.

We'd booked a nice hotel in the Presqu'île part of town, nicely and centrally located between the Rhône and Saône rivers. As we arrived rather late, we decided to head off for a bite to eat right after checking in. We ended up in a cozy little bistros called Le Comptoir d'Ainay, which was recommended by our hotel. Bistros are very much in fashion at the moment in France, and I do rather like the concept. What characterizes these places nowadays is often a rather short menu (which suggest that they actually cook their food, rather than use a microwave oven), the use of in-season ingredients, a modern interior and friendly/informal service. This place was a rather typical example of one, in a good way. Tasty food, excellent service, a nice interior design - basically the perfect setting for an intimate meal after a long drive.

The next day, the plan was to meet up with our friends Ollie and Raphaelle (as well as their little ones, Lucas and Louis) for lunch, and then with Karine and Johan (as well as their young ones) for dinner. After a bit of a lie-in followed by breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to the Confluence shopping complex, a new "shopping heaven" located not too far from our hotel. Much to our amazement, the place was not overrun by last-minute Christmas shoppers like us - thanks god for that! So we managed to get our present acquisitions done rather efficiently.

As far as lunch was concerned, we ended up (after some rather last-minute planning) meeting up with Ollie, Raphaelle, her sister and their little ones at a place called Le Morgon, located near the main train station. Le Morgon is a bouchon, a type of restaurant that can really only be found in Lyon. Traditionally it's a rather simple, no-nonsense place serving up traditional Lyonnaise cuisine (which basically means offal in its various forms!) with some local red wine.

This place certainly qualifies as a proper Bouchon - the interior decor is traditional and simple (no mis-placed efforts to look "rustic" as some of the more famous bouchons in the old town resort to). And the food is indeed mostly of the offal variety (with a couple of "normal dishes" like magret de canard on the menu for the less adventurous-minded). So what's the verdict ? I'm not normally into offal, but the tablier de sapeur I had here did make me re-evaluate my opinion about this type of food - I wouldn't say I've been converted but I'll certainly be less reluctant to try this type of food in the future. But what I liked most was the no-nonsense, authentic atmosphere of the place. Thankfully places like this, which proudly keep up old traditions, still exist in this globalized world we live in. So, the verdict is: I loved the place.

After a rather long and filling lunch (in proper French tradition), we had coffee at Olivier's and Raphaelle's flat, after which Ollie took us out on a bit of a local tour with young Lucas. After checking out the local park, we made our way to a rather unusual tourist attraction called Les Gratte-Ciels, a rather surprising architectural ensemble built in Villeurbaine (the commune which together with Lyon makes up "Greater Lyon"), from 1927 and 1934. It's basically a collection of sky-scrapers, built in modernist styles, which wouldn't look out of place in New York or Chicago. Really cool place - we also liked the theatre and town halls, built in similar style. I also had my first vin chaud based on white wine here - now that's something for the history books ;-)

After saying bye bye to Ollie and Lucas, it was time for us to head off for our next rendez-vous - dinner at Karine and Johan's place. Time for some grilled meat with some excellent wine, followed by a few digestives from Johan's rather extensive collection (I always end up with a headache after dinner with Johan and Karine). Great to catch up with them again!

The next day, we decided to more or less randomly walk around Lyon. It's a rather pedestrian-friendly city, with the  Rhône and Saône rivers cutting the city in three parts (Presqu'île, where our hotel was located, is located between the two rivers). We started off by crossing the Rhone river over to the Eastern part of the city, where we decided to pay a visit to "Les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse". The halls are a revamped version of the traditional Lyon main indoors market, which got its facelift about 10 years ago, and got to use the name of the most famous Lyonnaise chef. It's a place where the well-off Lyonnais come and do their shopping - the prices of the no-doubt excellent products are probably rather off-putting for most ordinary punters. Still, it was good fun to take in all the hustle and bustle, as people stocked up for Christmas.

Our walk then took us back across the river to the opera, from where we made our way up to Croix-Rousse, a nice sort of off-beat part of Lyon we'd rather enjoyed walking around the last time we were in town. Our mission was to find an open restaurant, one which proved nearly impossible. Everything seemed to be closed - we eventually ended up in a micro-brewery called Nikkai, which served decent burgers (and better beer). Our opinion about Croix-Rousse remains unchanged - a very nice part of town to walk around, especially when the sun is out and about, as was the case for us!

To finish our day in Lyon, we walked back to the car park along the Saône river, checking out a second-hand book market whilst enjoying some rather nice views across the river towards the old town (which we didn't actually get around to visiting this time - next time I suppose!).

And then it was sadly time to take Mathilde to the airport and go our separate ways for a few days. All in all, we very much enjoyed Lyon, as we did during our first visit. The place certainly merits further exploration (maybe next time I'll try the tête de veau - another Lyonnaise culinary "delicacy"), so we will no doubt be back before long!

Busy day in Nice

My good Portuguese colleague Gilbert has been talking about taking us to a Portuguese restaurant for some time, so we figured this Saturday would be as good a time as any for a Portuguese lunch. We also invited another Portuguese colleague, Martine, for the occasion.

Mathilde and I decided to cycle into Nice, using the excellent Velo Bleu service. We arrived "a bit late" (hmm, 30 minutes) due to some rather optimistic scheduling on my part (the restaurant, Cok Bafa, is located a bit further away compared to where we normally cycle, near Place de la Liberation). Gilbert,  Martine, her boyfriend Xavier and their little baby girl were already having aperitifs...

Anyway, I instantly took a liking to the place. It's by no means a fancy place, rather the opposite in fact (more like the sort of place where you get served "home cooking" type fare), which was just fine for us. The place was jam-packed with mostly portuguese and Cap Verdian people, another very good sign. And the waitress took her orders in Portuguese rather than French by default. So, all very good signs. And what's most important - the food was excellent. What I call honest food - I had some sucking-pig - just excellent.

After this introduction to Portuguese cuisine (a first one for me!), we said our farewells to our Portuguese friends, and headed into the town centre, where we had a rendez-vous with our good friend Marie, whom we see sadly rarely these days. Since we'd had a rather light lunch (I'm being ironic there, in case you didn't realize...), we decided to head off for some coffee and cake to an ominously named Pink Cofee (indeed, everything is very pink there...). I trust Marie when it comes to coffee and cakes ;-). Anyway, the coffee was good and so were the cakes, and it was great fun to catch up with Marie again!

For the evening, it was hockey time, as I met up with Mikko for a game between Nice and Dunkerque. Well, I missed all of the first period and most of the second one as well (including two goals from fellow Finn Karri Koivu), but did see all of the third period. Nice pulled off a well-deserved 4-2 win, and Karri was selected man of the match. Go Nice, go Finland!

And then, time to catch the train back home to Cagnes-sur-Mer. My train was delayed, which allowed me to enjoy some rather surprising piano music played by a young chap (they've decided to put pianos in French train stations - an excellent idea if you ask me!).

A cultural weekend in Paris

Paris is one of those places you can just visit over and over again. Always something new to do, a new museum to visit, a new restaurant to try out. So when we read about a Hokusai exhibition at Le Grand Palais, we decided it was the perfect excuse for a autumnal weekend in Paris.

This time, we decided to book a room through Airbnb - Mathilde found a nice little apartment located in a lovely part of Paris called Le Butte aux Cailles. After arriving at Orly airport, we jumped on the Orlybus and headed for Paris. We were a bit worried about traffic, but turns out it wasn't as bad as we feared. We arrived at the apartment earlier than expected, greeted by our lovely host Isabelle.

After checking out the apartment (which was perfect for our needs), we headed off for dinner. I'd booked a restaurant called l'Avant Gout for the occasion - apparently a bit of a local institution (as confirmed by our host). And we were not disappointed - the place was just wonderful - a really cozy little modern Paris-style bistrot. I particularly liked the main dish - some absolutely succulent deer.

After dinner, we decided to have a walk around Buttes Aux Cailles to burn off some calories. It really is a lovely part of Paris - a bit like a little village in the midst of Paris (very chic and Bo-Bo...).

The next morning, we got up to a cold but sunny Parisian day. After a lovely breakfast (fresh baguettes down the road form a boulangerie, yummie...), we headed off for the Grand Palais, for our first exhibition for the weekend - Niki de Saint Phalle's Nanas and other works of art were being shown (we had a combined ticket for the Nana's and Hokusai). I'm not a huge fan of Niki de Saint Phalle (although I find it more accessible than a lot of modern art, that quite often completely eludes me ;-), but the exhibition was quite good actually. Gave a bit of background and context about her art - and plenty of those big nana's on display of course!

The cultural bit for the day done, we had our first rendez-vous for the day - we were meeting up with Isabelle for lunch. After sort of randomly wandering around Paris (Paris is of course one of the greatest places in the world to randomly wander around), we ended up in (surprise surprise) a Japanese restaurant called Aki. We had to queue for quite some time, but the okonomiyakis (kind of Japanese omelets) they served were more than worth the wait. After our lunch, we continued randomly wandering around, ending up around the Louvre and then walking along the Seine river (a perfect sunny day for randomly wandering around).

From there, we headed off for our next rendez-vous, this time near the Canal d'Ourcq in the 19th Arrondisment. We'd been invited over to Youcef and Ouarda's place for tea and cakes. Youcef and Ouarda are good friends of ours whom we've not seen for quite some time (not much since Youcef moved from Nice to Paris a couple of years ago), so it was a happy reunion indeed. And much to our joy, their family has been joined by a little one as well! Great to see them again!

Barely had we finished our teas and cakes, before it was time for our next social gathering (we always seem to spend a lot of time travelling back and forth across Paris meeting various people!) - this time we were meeting Muriel and the kids for Crepes in Montparnasse! And what better place to have crepes than Creperie Josselin - one of the oldest creperies in Paris. The crepes were great, and we had a lot of fun as well (gosh those kids are growing up fast - soon I'll struggle to fight off those wild twins...). After the crepes we ended up in a bar watching Miss France - how cool is that !?

Sunday promised to be just as busy as Saturday. After tidying up our flat and leaving the keys, we headed off to le Grand Palais again - this time to check out the great Japanese master Hokusai's work. Hokusai is most famous (at least in the Western World) for his ukiyo-e (woodblock print painting). What was great about this exhibition is that it really shows the body of work of this amazing artist - this man was amazingly versatile! And modest too - he famously stated that he only started to begin to understand art at the age of 73... Very  interesting exhibition!

The cultural bit for the Sunday done, it was time for some food! We'd been invited over for lunch at Paula and Beppe's place. Paula is an old friend of Mathilde from her exchange student times in Perugia. Milene and Kamel also came over with their kids. Paula had made a paella for us - very tasty indeed! After several helpings, plus some chocolate cake for desert, we reluctantly just had to go - as we had a flight to catch!

All in all, a fantastic weekend then - as weekends always are in Paris!