La Rochelle

Things got back to a very nice normal, once back at Puilboreau. Great food, scrabble, hanging, just hanging out. And the weather was seriously pleasant now as well. There were plenty of people in the house, as Etienette's daughter was visiting with her family. So even more people to share the great food with ;-)

The next day, we decided to make our way into La Rochelle. Now, La Rochelle is for sure one of the nicer cities in France. It's just about the right size, big enough to be happening, have good restaurants, cinemas and so forth, without being too big either. 

The focal point of La Rochelle is the old harbour, guarded by its three towers (the Tour de la Lantene, the Tour de la Chaîne and the Tour Saint-Nicolas), always busy with people, street entertainers and so forth. The pleasant old city, with its shady arcades lining the streets, is a really pleasant place to walk around.

The plan for us was to catch a movie, but before then, we had a nice stroll around La Rochelle, very much enjoying the summer weather. For some reason there were a lot less tourists this time around compared to when we visited La Rochelle last year, a good thing in my book.

The movie, Islas Minimas, was a pretty interesting Spanish film, a kind of Hispanic version of True Detectives, set in Andalucia. Warmly recommended.

The next day, we decided to explore the countryside around Puilboreau for a bit, riding our bikes, of course! (this part of France is very well developed for cycling, Alpes-Maritimes could certainly learn from them, even if they have managed to get a nice seaside cycle route to Nice developed).

Our little cycle trip was all about fortified churches (the objective was to see two of them, one at Marsilly, and one at Esnandes). After a bit of pleasant pedalling, we eventually arrived at Marsilly, a small village dominated by the imposing Eglise de Saint-Pierre. Parts of the church date back all the way to the 12th century, but most of the present-day structure dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries, which is when the church was also fortified (due to the 100 Year's War taking place between France and England). Unfortunately the church was closed, so we couldn't visit the interior.

We then pedalled on to the next town, Esnandes, which also had its fortified church - the  Priory of St. Martin. This church is possibly even more castle-like than the one in Marsilly, a truly imposing building. It dates back all the way to 1029, but it was rebuilt to its present form during the 14th century (again, during the 100 Year's War). This time, we were able to visit the interior as well. Your typical, beautiful French Romanesque church, basically.  

And then, it was time to head back for lunch! The rest of the day, we spent chilling out. Etiennette's daughter and family headed off during the afternoon, to be replaced by Nathalie (Francoise's daughter) and her family, who stopped over for a visit before heading down to the Pyrenees for their holidays. It's very busy in Puilboreau, indeed...  We had a great meal with them, really good to catch up with Nathalie, Herve and the kids.

And that, unfortunately, brought an end to a lovely stay at La Rochelle. Next stop, Nantes!

île de Ré

Our flight from London to La Rochelle was thankfully a lot less eventful than the one to London, no delay this time. Formalities were also rather a lot quicker, La Rochelle must have one of the smallest airports I've ever been to.

We arrived safely at Puilboreau. There's been plenty of renovation done since I came last time, I could hardly recognize the place! Things started into a rather nice routine, with Francoise and Etienette feeding us with their delicious food, us talking walks in the surrounding countryside with Joel, and of course, most importantly, games of Scrabble with Joel! (I even managed to pinch a victory here and there, something I was very proud of!)

The next day, we headed off to the nearby île de Ré, a wonderful little island just off La Rochelle, for a bit of a family outing. Joel and Francoise took the car, and me and Mathilde cycled, taking the big suspension bridge across to the island. We arrived at the island, at the first village, Rivedoux-Plage, after some rather heavy pedalling. From there we headed off to La Flotte, where we had a rendez-vous with Joel and Francoise for lunch.

La Flotte is your typically picturesque île de Ré village, with its tidy, well preserved white houses and little fishing port (well, not so many fishing boats left anymore, it has to be said...). We enjoyed a very tasty the picnic lunch by the seaside, observing the sky with some worry, as it was getting greyer and greyer.

As me and Mathilde jumped on our bikes and continued towards Saint-Martin-de-Ré, our worries were confirmed, as it started raining. And I mean seriously raining, not your minor downpour, more like your cats and dogs variant of rain, unfortunately. So we cycled past the impressive Vauban fort without paying it much notice, and took refuge in the first cafe we came across, where we had an overpriced "fake cappuccino" (coffee with whipped cream - that's not a bloody cappuccino!).

Unfortunately, the rain didn't relent, so we decided to visit the rather prestigious church (the original church on the site dates back to the 11th century, whereas the current incarnation was built during the 17th century). The main draw of the church is a climb up to the bell tower, from where there are quite stunning views over the town. 

The church touristy stuff done, the rain still showed no signs of calming down. Thankfully there are plenty of shops in Saint-Martin, so shopping it was then! I bought a pair of shoes! Eventually, we'd been to all the shops, and yes, you guessed it, the rain kept pouring down. So eventually, after buying some rain capes, we decided to cycle down to Sainte-Marie-de-Ré, where we were planning to stay the night.

We were staying at a friend of Francoise's house, a charming little place right near the main square of the village. After settling in, and having a warm shower, we headed off for dinner. Francoise had scouted out a nice little restaurant called Le Bistrot du Bar A Quai, located just down the road, for the occasion.
We had a very nice meal there, the food was good and the company even better!

The next day, we god up, surprised to find the sky was blue! Keen to make the best of the good weather, we jumped on our bikes and headed off to explore. We made a stop at La Couarde-sur-Mer, a nice little village (again, a very harmonious place, with its nice church, and white, well-maintained houses). We stopped for a coffee and some cakes, and explored the village for a bit, after which we headed on, keen to continue our exploration of the island.

The next section of our bike ride took us through some marches, which were  historically (and still, it would seem?) used for sea salt production. Very picturesque little place, reminds me of what we saw in the Vendee last year. Perfect for cycling as well, as is the whole island.

The main objective of our bike ride was the Phare des Baleines lighthouse, located right at the far end of the island. We arrived early afternoon, a bit earlier than expected. I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed by the place - I was expecting a windswept lighthouse in rugged terrain. It is probably windswept, but all the touristy shops along the road leading up the lighthouse (and the tourist crowds that went with it all) was a bit disappointing. So rather than going up to the top of the lighthouse, we decided to head off back towards La Rochelle instead.

On the way back, we stopped by yet another pretty village, Ars-en-Ré. All the village on the island are actually pretty similar - all very picturesque, well maintained and well preserved. We had a quick tour around the village, and then carried on. We cycled back towards the bridge, cycling by the southern coastline this time, taking in some pretty splendid views across windswept beaches.

After cycling across the bridge, we eventually arrived at Puilboreau, rather tired but very happy after a couple of great days on the island!

Weekend in Haslemere

We rarely make it over across the channel to the UK these days, which is a shame. I kind of miss the place. So we were very happy to accept the invitation to Chie and Geoff's housewarming party/BBQ in Haslemere, Surrey. They decided to trade their London appartment for a 16th century country house in Surrey. Given Haslemere's proximity to London (about 1 hour on the train to Waterloo), not a bad deal I would say.

We flew in with Easyjet to London Gatwick, expecting to arrive around 7 o'clock, jump on the train, and arrive in Haslemere comfortably around 8-9 o'clock. Wishful thinking. Easyjet had us sitting in the plane for about 2 hours before takeoff - at least they gave us free drinks and snack! (non-alcoholic, though, for the drinks). There's a first time for everything, eh !? Well, to cut a long story short, we eventually arrived at Chie's and Geoff's house around 11 PM.

The next day, we got up bright 'n early, as there was plenty of work to be done before the party could start. Actually, Chie and Geoff moved in quite recently, so there were plenty of tables, parasols, grills and things to mount (not to mention preparing all the food!). The weather looked a bit menacing at the beginning, so I was a bit afraid at one point it might all be for nothing, but thankfully, the sky cleared up progressively. I even managed to get the fire going in a grill, in spite of most of the firewood being wet after the rain from the previous day. I was rather proud!

People started arriving around 2-3 o'clock, and amazingly everything was ready by then. Loads of booze, more beer than you could shake a rather huge stick at (Japanese beer, local beer from the Hogsback brewery, exotic beers you name it), and of coure huge amounts of food as well. Thankfully, BBQ meister Sinhung arrived to help out on the grill (it rather quickly became obvious he has much more experience than me with that sort of thing).

Most guests were colleagues of Chie and Geoff, but there were a few folks from the old gang present as well - Sinhung, Nick and Philippe. Nick arrived, of course, rather late (he came straight from work, so we'll forgive him), and Philippe as well (he came all the way form Paris, so we'll forgive him as well). But great to meet a bunch of new people as well, from loads of countries (that's something I really miss in France - the cosmopolitan aspect of life that I so enjoyed in the UK).

Needless to say, we had a fabulous time. Great food, loads of beer (too much?), tennis, playing pool inside the house, the guided tour (yes, a historic house like this surely deserves a guided tour given by a professional architect, Geoff was happy to oblige). We went to sleep ridiculously late, well and truly nackered.

The next  day, we got up a bit less bright 'n early than the day before. But well in time for the main activity of the day - pub lunch! We went to a place called The Dog and Pheasant (now that's a proper name for a pub). It's a proper pub in every sense of the world, the interior decoration is just perfect. Me, being a big fan of traditional English pubs, obviously loved it.

I had the Sunday roast (obviously!). Now, it seems that my culinary tastes have evolved somewhat (for the better?) since I've moved to France. Let's just say that the English Sunday roast just isn't my thing anymore. Overcooked meat, with equally overcooked vegetables, swimming in thick gravy, with a piece of Yorkshire pudding on the side, it just doesn't do it for me anymore. But, hey, it was a Sunday pub lunch, so still loved it! (and I did love the Eaton Mess I had for desert)

Our appetites sated, we Geoff and Chie took us on a tour of the surrounding countryside in their Range Rover (we normally don't do sightseeing in a car, but given the rainy weather, we quite happily agreed to their suggestion!). Haslemere and the surrounding countryside is really kind of like an idealized version of the English countryside, just like one imagines it. Lovely, well preserved villages, well maintained houses and gardens, narrow, tree-lined country roads. Just perfect. Must say it again made me miss the UK a bit...

The next day, it was sadly time to pack our bags and fly to La Rochelle, where we were continuing our holiday. A great weekend, thanks Chie and Geoff for a great weekend! We'll be back soon!

Pizza on the beach

Our good friends Valerie and Gilles, with their wonderful kids, were visiting France on their yearly tour. They relocated from the sunny South of France to the equally sunny California a few years ago (which has given us the perfect excuse to visit California a couple of times over the last few years).

Their "Tour de France", which lasts several weeks, is always a rather impressive odyssey, and finding a time slot during which to meet them is always a big challenge. Hence, we ended up meeting up for some pizza on the beach on Cagnes-sur-Mer on this Thursday evening - it's about the only common time slot we could find!

Which was quite fine, actually. The weather was certainly perfect for it, with the weather somewhat cooling down for the evening. Hector and Celian love the water, so they kept themselves busy, while us adults caught up with the latest news. And of course, everybody loves pizza ;)

After the pizza, we had some ice cream, and then, for the grand finale, some rather DIY fireworks (apparently the fireworks had been purchased in San Francisco's China Town, which may explain why about 30% of the stuff didn't work at all!)

So, to summarize then, great to catch up with our dear friends again!

Burgers @ Chez Hollandaise!

My cousin Mikko is visiting his aunt Tutta (who lives just down the road from us, in Villeneuve-Loubet - part of a rather sizeable Finnish community on the Cote d'Azur) just now, together with his family. So we were very happy indeed to meet up for a meal.

What better place for a big, nice family meal than Chez Hollandaise's. It's a burger chain here on the Cote d'Azur, where they serve pretty decent burgers - way better than your average McDonald's meal, that's for sure.

All in all, a great meal, and great catching up with Mikko, Anu and the kids as well. The longer one lives abroad, the more one appreciates these family gatherings.

Night out in Nice

Our good friend Sarah is unfortunately leaving Nice, as she's found a job in Paris. Good for her, sad for us! AS the summer holidays are well underway, we decided to meet up in Nice just now, to say our bye byes, in case we don't see her before she leaves Nice.

As a venue, we picked a place we go to quite regularly, Le Café Des Chineurs, conveniently located near Place Garibaldi. The usual suspects were there - that is Sarah, Julie and Aurelien. As expected, we had a very nice evening indeed, and I was more than happy to finish all the dishes my table mates were unable to eat up ;-)

So, all the best to Sarah then, I'm sure we'll meet her rather soon though, either in Paris or Nice! (she already promised to pay us a visit during the Autumn)

Grand finale: Helsinki & Tallinn!

We arrived back in Helsinki just in time for dinner. This time, I decided to take our guests to another Helsinki institution (that I'd heard a lot about, but never tried), Fafa's. Fafa's specialize in falafels - not very traditionally Finnish, I agreed. But the falafels were absolutely delicious, and excellent value for money, too (good quality & excellent value for money - a rare combination in Finland!).

We finished off our soiree at Corona Bar, a classic Helsinki bar (it's owned by the Kaurismäki brothers). Straight out of a Kaurismäki movie: very retro design, only one beer on tap (none of this modern nonsense where you can actually choose a beer you like!), and service that could be called laconic at best ;-). 

The next day, we continued our exploration of Helsinki, which we'd started earlier in the week. We started off by checking out the Finnish design shops along Esplanadi and around Senaatintori (Aurelien was particularly impressed by the Tom of Finland towels sold at the Finnlayson shop). 

In my opinion, the Uspenski cathedral (an Orthodox church) is the most impressive church in Helsinki, so the logical choice was to continue our walk that way (going passed Kauppatori, which is getting awfully touristy these days). The view from up by the Uspenski cathedral towards Kruunuhaka as well as the Senate squares and Kauappatori is pretty awesome. I particularly like the interior of the church, it's rather more ornamental than most Finnish church, which tend to be somewhat austere in that Lutheran way...

We then proceeded to walk around Katajanokka a bit, checking out the impressive Jugend-architecture houses - including the house where my parents used to live, as well as the house that apparently inspired Tove Jansson when she illustrated the Moomin family's house in her books. It's a really nice place to walk around ....

Before heading off for lunch, we stopped by to check out a military parade that was being prepared at Päävartio - the main guard post (a building designed by Engel again). These days it's used by the Helsinki garrison. As we walked up the restaurant we were planning to have our lunch at, the parade went past us, all very pompous and army-like.

About that lunch. I decided to splash out on this one, to really impress our guests, and took them to Ravintola Olo, a Michelin-starred restaurant that's been voted as Finland's best restaurant at least a couple of times. I'd heard rumours about miniscule portions (always a danger at these fine dining places). My fears were partially well-founded, the portions were indeed small, but oh, so delicious.

For starters, we had beef tartar with echalotes. Divine. The second dish - Emmermanna and chantarels (emmermanna is apparently a "forgotten cereal" that nobody eats these days anymore - amazingly even google doesn't know about it!), again, amazing. Then, salmon and couliflower - a bit less surprising than what we'd had so far, but still great (and I normally hate couliflower!) and finally a rhubarb yoghurt to finnish off the meal. Finnish, refined, surprising, delicious. Best resturant meal in Finland so far (maybe apart from what I had at Chez Dominique), period.

Now, remember what I said about tiny portions ? Thankfully, we had a date with my ex-colleague Sakari as well as Janne & Katja at Fazer cafe just after our lunch. So thankfully, we could fill up there with some delicious pastries ;-) Great to meet up with everybody too, too bad it was all a bit quick this time.

For the evening, we met up with my good mate Jose, also a friend from the old days at Nokia. We invited him over for a quick dinner at my dad's place, after which we went over to Moscova bar for a couple of drinks (it's the other place owned by the Kaurismäki brothers!). Then just the boys went over to Teerenpeli for one last beer. Great to catch up with Jose again, maybe I'll see him more often now that he's located to Helsinki.

The next day, it was time for another must-Finnish experience, a cruise to Tallinn. Yeah, I know, Tallinn isn't actually in Finland, but one must go on one of these booze cruises to truly understand the Finnish psyche. Oh, and as an aside, Tallinn is actually a very nice place to visit too ;-) The departure from Helsinki is pretty cool, with views over some pretty nice islands that dot the Finnish archipelago, including of course Suomenlinna (the Unesco Wold Heritage site that we didn't get to visit this time, unfortunately).

The rest of the cruise, there is plenty to do: buy cheap booze, listen to Finnish musical classics sang with various level of talent, sing Finnish classics (Finns are huge fans of karaoke, once the alcohol kicks in!), drink cheep booze bought on the boat, eat (and drink of course!) at the all-you-can-eat-buffet. So much to do!

We eventually arrived, and headed into Tallinn. We had about three hours in land, so not all that much time to explore the place. We started with climbing up the winding staircase of Oleviste church. Oleviste church's claim to fame is that when construction finished in the 13th century, it was apparently the highest building in the world at 159 meters (this I got from Wikipedia, so it must be true!).

So anyway, we eventually made it to the top. And the views from up there are, in a word, stunning. One can see pretty much all of the stunning old town from up there (the old town, built during the Hansaic era, is in my mind one of the most well-preserved medieval old town in Europe), the Toompea hill (where we were headed next) and also the modern part of Tallinn (including the legenday Viru hotel).

Having checked out the great view from the top, we carried on our tour of Tallinn, heading over to Toompea Hill. This is the place from where Tallinn always was, and still is, ruled. The government of Estonia, and the parliament, is located here, in Toompea castle. Another top sight here is the orthodox Alexander Nevsky cathedral.

The touristy bit done, we rushed off to find a decent restaurant, not a difficult task in Tallinn. There are plenty of good restaurants here. We ended up in a great little place on Rataskaevu, which seems to be a great street for restaurants (this is where I ended up eating very well last time I was in Tallinn). Great local specialities for ridiculously low prices. That's what I like.

And then it was time to rush back to the boat. Back in Helsinki, we decided to have a burger dinner before meeting up with my good friend Jocke. based on Jocke's recommendation we decided to go to a new joint called Friends & Brgrs, a great little place on Mikonkatu. They have a very modern concept, where all the ingredients are locally produced, organic and made in-house. And not many burgers to choose from on the menu. An excellent concept, as the burgers are great. Even better than Hesburger, and that's saying something, eh!? We had a good time with Jocke in Kaisla, one of my favourite drinking places in Helsinki (it's like the opposite of Corona bar - the service is good, and there is a huge selection of beers!).

As a cherry on the cake, Julie and Aurelien also got to experience the night bus from Helsinki to the airport. The trip was "livened up" by a couple of drunkards who made the trip particularly interesting for a couple of female passengers.

But, anyway, a great trip it was, and I was sad to head back to France!

Naantali, Rauma and Turku

The next day, the plan was to head off and explore Southwestern Finland. We started off by visiting Naantali, one of the oldest towns of Finland. It dates all the way back to 1443, when King Christoffer of Sweden signed the charter which gave trading rights to the convent chuch, which still dominates Naantali's skyline. Naanali is also one of the most popular summer tourist destinations in Finland, note least because of the presence of an amusement park dedicated to the Moomins (use google if you don't know what the moomins are ;-).

We started our visit of Naantali, logically, by checking out the church. it's a pretty impressive building (both on the inside and outside) - especially considering it's one of the oldest buildings in Finland (looks like they knew how to build back in those days...), nicely located in a lush park, a few hundred meters from the town centre. The views from the surrounding park are pretty nice too, we could see Kultaranta, for example, from there (Kultaranta is the Finnish presidents summer residence).

From the church, we walked into the guest harbour, where we stopped for a coffee. From there, we made our way over to the old town, which is actually more impressive than I remembered. Wooden houses galore, the old part of Naantali even trumps Tammisaari we visited earlier. They could oblige photographers lke me by covering a couple of streets with cobblestones, though ;-). For lunch, we decided to go for another Finnish institution - Hesburger! The original Finnish burger joint. Be afraid, be very afraid, McDonald's and Burger King.... That rye bread burger they serve up at "Hese" beats a Big Mac any day of the week!

Naantali ticket off the list, we carried on to Rauma, which was is a couple of hours drive from Naantali. Not a very scenic drive either (we did drive though Laitila, though, where I'd spent last weekend!), but anyway, Rauma is for sure worth it.

Rauma is my favourite wooden building town in Finland. Tammisaari is nice, Naantali is perhaps nicer, but Rauma trumps them both, hands down, if you ask me. Street after street (cobble stoned ones, yippee, great for photos!) lined up with beautiful wooden houses. And of course there's a nice medieval church, too.

We spent a good couple of hours walking around the picturesque streets (thankfully, the sun decided to make an appearance too!) of Rauma. We also tried the local speciality, the Vanilla "munkki" (google if you don't know what that is - Finnish culinary speciality ;-), yummie... This visit clearly affirmed by opinion about Rauma's beauty (UNESCO agrees with that opinion, old Rauma is one of 7 UNESCO world heritage sites in Finland).

We got back in the evening, in time for the planned BBQ. We'd purchased plenty of Finnish sausages for the occasion. Another culinary "delight" that Julie and Aurelien simply had to try - no visit to Finland can be considered complete without a taste of Makkara. (Actually, please don't tell anybody, but even though I'm fond of Finnish sausages, I grudgingly have to admit to preferring French ones!)

Then the sauna followed, naturally. Aurelien impressed me with his capacity to stand the heat of a Finnish sauna. He was a bit less impressive in the swimming pool though (c'mon, the temperature was almost 15 degrees, that's positively tropical!).

The next day, we decided to visit Turku, from where we were catching our bus back to Helsinki. The weather looked menacing, but thankfully the rain we were fearing never materielized! We dropped of dad's car at Berit's place, and then headed off to explore. We started by a walk by the Aura river, checking out the recently revamped riverside (which is now lined with trendy cafes and restaurants - they've done a pretty good job, it must be said!).

We crossed the river and naturally had to visit the cathdedral. It is probably the most famous "old building" in Finland, dating all the way back to 1300 (well, the current building has of course changed much over the centuries, including being nearly rebuilt after the great fire of 1827). Turku cathedral is also the seat of the Archbishop of Finland (and the place where "Christmas peace" is announced each Christmas).

The area around the cathedral, which houses many buildings of Turku university, is a pretty nice place to walk around too.

The plan was to eat at our favourite Turku restaurant, Mami. So we made our way back towards the riverbank, where it's located, passing through the international festival (a food festival taking place each summer, where various countries sell their local specialities to the population of Turku, a pretty cool concept I think).  The food in Mami was excellent, as it was last time we went too...

Time was running short, but we decided to visit the new municipal library, which is located just next-doors to Mami. I was rather impressed with the building! Impressive architecturally speaking, both on the outside and the inside. Seems like a really functional and modern library as well. Bravo Turku. We still had time to try "the best capuccino in Turku" at Cafe Art, before catching our bus to Helsinki.

Sad to leave the West of Finland after a great few days exploring the rural side of Finland, but more adventures awaited us in Helsinki, and beyond...!