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!).