A mini-break in the Vaucluse

Mathilde's dad and Francoise were spending a bit of time in the South of France. Since they decided to spend a week or so in the Vacluse, not far from here, before making their way over here to the Cote d'Azur, we decided to join them near Mont Ventoux for a couple of days during the weekend.

We headed off early Saturday morning, destination l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a redez-vous point we had selected kind of randomly, as it's supposed to be rather nice, and it meant we could spend a few hours exploring the area before heading off to Bedoin, where we were staying the night.

It is indeed a very pleasant, quite typical Provençal town. No stunning historic monuments to be found here, just a laid-back, colourful town, with plenty of  antique shops, cafés, and restaurants (so a pretty touristy town, then, but not oppressively so). The name of the town suggests its an island, the reason for this is that the town is located on the Sorgue river - it splits into several canals where the town is located, which gives the impression the town centre is on an island.

After a picnic lunch in a little park just outside the town centre (which could've counted as a quiet picnic spot if it wasn't for the cheerleader concert taking place during our lunch). Our appetites sated, we spent a good hour or so walking around the town, before stopping at the main square for an ice cream at one of the bars, enjoying the sunshine. We also checked out the many water wheels for which the town is famous.

Our next destination was another small Provençal town called Pernes-les-Fontaines. I really loved this little town. As the name suggests, the town is littered with fountains (that's Provence for you!) - 40 of them in total! There's a "fountain" walking tour that we decided to take on, which took us past the main sights in town.

Again, there are no famous historic monuments here as such, it's just a very nice little picturesque town to walk around - especially when the weather is nice like it was on this day. We hiked all the way up to the old medieval castle, from where we had some very nice views across the medieval village and the surrounding country-side. There was also a nice medieval church outside the town centre we checked out.

We then headed out to Bedoin, where we were spending the night. We were staying at the local VTF (a kind of holiday village), which meant we could cool off in the swimming pool, and then enjoy a buffet dinner, yummie! The legendary Mont Ventoux (with its height of 1912 meters, it's known as the Giant of Provence - some of you will be familliar with the place thanks to its inclusion in the Tour de France bicycle race) can also be seen from the VTF. Well, can usually be seen - unfortunately the top of the mountain was hidden behind some clouds this time around.

The next day, after a rather filling buffet breakfast, we decided to explore Bedoin. It's a rather pretty little village, one with a bloody past. During the French revolution, it was a pro-Royalist stronghold, as a result of which it was completely destroyed in 1794. It's been rebuilt since, and is now a quite typical Provence town. The main charm of the town is the site - located at the foot of Mont Venteux. Indeed, it's the main reason for the towns fame - it's the starting point of one of the routes that head up to the summit. So plenty of cyclists and hikers around...

After lunch at the VTF, it was time for me and  Mathilde to head back to the Cote d'Azur. We did decided to stop by at Carpentras - one of the most famous towns in Provence, before heading off. Carpentras is mostly known for its farmers market, which takes place each Friday. We were, unfortunately, visiting on a Sunday, so the place was rather dead.

The two most famous buildings at Carpentras are of a religious nature. The most famous building is probably the impressive cathedral. Carpentras was actually home of the papacy under Clement V, after which the papacy was moved to nearby Avignon (home of the famous Palais des Papes). The cathedral is rather impressive seen from the outside - unfortunately it was closed to visitors when we checked it out. There is also a reminder of the Roman era by the cathedral - a discrete arch, quite well preserved.

The second famous religious in Carpentras is the synagogue - actually the oldest one in France. From the outside, it's very discrete indeed. The synagogue is a reflection of Carpentras' large jewish populations that dates back to the medieval ages (they found refuge here since the papacy provided refuge for them). Apparently the interiour is very impressive and interesting, again, unfortunately the place was closed to visitors...

Apart from that, Carpentras is quite an ordinary Provençal town, a bit run down like many towns of this size, in this part of France. The place merits an afternoon stroll, but there are prettier places in Provence. We ended our visit with a coffee and some sweets at a café across the street from the impressive Hôtel-Dieu (a Hôtel-Dieu is the medieval equivalent of a hospital. And then, time to head back to the Riviera, after a relaxing couple of days spent in beautiful Provence. Great to see Joel and Francoise again!

Mini road trip with Rasse, Yang and Filip

My cousin Rasmus was visiting for a few days with his wife Yang and young Filip. After the mandatory Monaco visit on Friday night (the Golden Rule is that all Finns want to visit Monaco), we decided to head a bit off the beaten track on Saturday.

I had presented various more and less ambitious options for a mini-road trip we could embark on - and Rasse and Yang finally opted for a moderately ambitious one, which involved a leisurely drive along the Massif d'Esterel, followed by some wine tasting, and then dinner on the way back to Nice.

Massif d'Esterel is probably the nicest coastal drive there is on the Cote d'Azur, the ochre-coloured cliffs dramatically contrasting against t
he Azure-coloured Mediterranean. We decided to stop at Miramar to enjoy the beach for a bit. The water temperature is reaching quite comfortable levels already, so we had a nice swim in the sea (at this point I have to point out, of course, that I do swim in the sea all year around).

We had lunch in a nice little place in the port - kind of your average tourist restaurant, but the food was decent enough.

We then carried on driving along, enjoying the dramatic views along the Massif d'Esterel, direction Les Arcs, where the plan was to do a bit of wine tasting. It was getting a bit late, and some of the places we checked out where shut. But we did find at least one place, Château de la Maïme, which was happy to accept us for a bit of wine tasting.

The wine bit done, it was time to head back towards Nice. We decided to dine at one of my favourite restaurants on the Cote d'Azur, l'Amandiers in Mougins. Mougins is your prototype of a medieval Procencal village on the Cote d'Azur, with the added bonus of hosting a number of excellent restaurants.

The thing I love about l'Amandier is that they serve excellent, inventive food, almost Michelin-star quality I would say, for a rather reasonable price. The food is typical local flair, but with an artistic and modern touch. The place didn't disappoint this time either, and I think Rasse and Yang quite enjoyed the meal too (Filip seemed happy enough too!).

All in all, a most enjoyable day on the Cote d'Azur - I hope Rasse and his family enjoyed it as much as I did !

Bouillabaisse time!

Marseille gets a lot of bad press, often unjustly so. People often associate this vibrant, happening city with gang violence and dodgy dealings. Sure, those things exist in Marseille (otherwise it wouldn't be Marseille, right?), but there's much more to the place than those negative stereotypes.

Now, one of those things is Bouillabaisse, possibly the tastiest fish soup there is. A dish I'm rather partial to. So when Mathilde's colleagues suggested we join them for a proper Marseille bouillabaisse, we didn't need much time to think about it before replying with a resounding "yes".

The rendez-vous was at Marina des Goudes, a place tucked away in a small fishing port at the outskirts of Marseille. The place is located in pretty stunning surroundings, around the calanques, impressive rock formations that dot the seaside between Marseille and Cassis. And the Marina itself is just as one would imagine a port in this part of the world.

OK, and what about the bouillabaisse, then, you ask ? Well, the nice thing about this place is that they serve a proper traditional bouillabaisse (as it's the local speciality, there are plenty of places selling rather poor imitations of it). Another great thing about the place is that it's not touristy at all, unlike some of the places in the town centre. And probably it's a bit less heavy on the wallet as well (having said that, bouillabaisse is always rather expensive).

We were joined by Julie (who is almost a local - the recommendation for this place comes from her), Aurelien, Charlotte and Julien for the feast. We predictably had a great time, chatting away, drinking wine, and of course, enjoying the bouillabaisse.

After the feast (which took a good couple of hours - if you ever plan to have a Bouillabaisse, plan a whole afternoon for it, and forget about having a dinner afterwards!), we decided to head into the town centre for a bit of culture - so we headed off to the fancy MuCEM museum, which had been built in the Vieux Port a couple of years ago, when Marseille was cultural capital of Europe.

Actually, it was getting a bit late, and we had a theatre play to go to in Nice, so we decided not to just check out a temporary exhibition and not visit the main museum, and just walk around the nearby Fort Sain-Jean, a lovely place which offers some fantastic views over the View Port.

And then, time to drive back to Nice. This visit once more confirms my view that Marseille is a pretty cool place, which deserves more visitors than it currently gets!

The Casentino and Arezzo

From Fiesola, we drove Eastwards, towards Arezzo, into a region of Tuscany called the Casentino. It's actually a valley, through which the Arno river flows. It's a pretty rural area, with less tourists than most parts of Tuscany (definitely a good thing!). While the place may not be quite as stunning scenically speaking as say the Chianti, the landscapes are still beautiful, and the towns are very enchanting as well. We finally arrived at our destination, Ortigiano Raggiolo, a small rural village where we were planning to stay the next three nights.

The village immediately made a great impression on us - the place is very well preserved, very medieval and not overrun by tourists (it has to be said it appears to be rather sparsely populated though). The local tourist office has made a real effort to provide plenty of information of the village, which is pretty cool. We learnt that the place was actually founded by Corsicans!

Our accommodation was pretty cool, too. We were basically renting a medieval town house (but one with all modern comforts) - for the rather ridiculous price (in an altogether positive way!) of 40 Euros per night! Now that's what I call a bargain. We decided to dine in the only restauarant in the village - a rather amazing place called Il Convivio dei Corsi. Their cuisine is based on traditional Tuscan ingredients, but the end result is inventive and modern. And for a very reasonable price indeed. We just loved the place, and decided immediately to come back for dinner the next night.

As we had been quite impressed with the beautiful landscapes on our drive to Raggiolo, we decided to get sporty and go for a hike on Friday. After all, it's something we do much too rarely these days. But before embarking on our hike, we spent the morning walking around and exploring our little village. A very nice place it is indeed - and what's best of all, we were about the only tourists around! Which is a rare thing in Tuscany.

The objective of our hike was the Pratomagno, a mountain located not too far from the village, at a lofty altitude of 1592 meters - which makes for quite an ascent, given that we started at an altitude of a bit above 600 meters, at the village. We stocked up with supplies at the local grocery shop, and then headed off. The hike up to the Pratomagno was a bit boring scenery-wise, as we were mostly walking through quite dense forest - so no scenic spots to speak of. A family of wild boars did run across our path at one point, which was pretty cool.

After a good two and a half hours of hiking, we finally arrived at the summit, which is dominated by a rather impressive cross, which was erected in 1928. The views from up there around the surrounding scenery were rather amazing, and for sure made the hike up there worth it. For the walk back, we decided upon an alternate route, one which followed a nice ridge for the first 40 minutes or so of the hike, which meant that we were treated to quite nice views along the way. And, what's best, we spotted a couple of deer crossing the ridge just ahead of us. Quite a good hike wildlife-wise, then, in the end!

We got back to our apartment a couple of hours later, thoroughly exhausted. But we did manage to muster enough energy to go for dinner in our favourite Raggiolo restaurants. Amazing meal again, I decided to go for an all-out truffles meal - a truffles omelette to start with, followed by an amazing truffles dessert! Yummie, yummie, yummie. We were gutted when we heard the place was already all booked out for dinner Saturday night (but the lady promised we could go have a desert!)

The next day, we decided to visit Arezzo. Arezzo is one of the most famous historic towns in Tuscany, probably the most famous one after Florence and Siena. Our visit started by the impressive Duomo, which was, naturally, very impressive (as churches in Tuscany are - the biggest danger that can afflict a tourist in Tuscany is the Church Overload Syndrome).  There were some pretty impressive views over the surrounding countryside behind the church as well.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the place, being suitably impressed by the medieval streets, mercifully absent of the tourist hordes that will no doubt invade the town come summer. The focal point of Arezzo is probably the Piazza Grande - which is what one could call "the perfect Tuscan square", lines as it is with medieval buildings, one more impressive than the other.

We then checked out the most "must-see-church" (trust me, there are many to choose between!) of Arezzo, dedicated to Saint Francis. The main reason to visit the church are the impressive frescoes - which are indeed stunning. A pity there wasn't much information in English (or Italian either, for that matter), a bit of background information would've been really useful in this case.

We then rushed off to the amphitheatre, which was located a bit outside the medieval centre. There wasn't much left of the amphitheatre, to be honest, but there is a museum that contains a lot of the stuff found at the site. Still, it was one of those museums with huge collections of ceramics and other "old stuff", without a lot of information to put it all into a historic context. So we lost interest rather quickly.

After an excellent lunch in a wine bar, we continued exploring Arezzo for a while, visiting a couple of churches, and feeling the Church Overload Syndrome starting to kick in. So to ward that off, we decided to visit Casa Vasari, which was the residence of the artist Giorgio Vasari (he was one of those renaissance types, which meant he was a painter, architect, historian, and god knows what else at the same time). There wasn't much to see, but there were some pretty nice frescoes by Mr. Vasari on display.

Before heading back to Raggiolo, we decided to visit a cool village we'd driven through on the way from Fiesola to Raggiolo, called Poppi. Poppi is one of those Tuscan towns that just look perfect as you approach them, jutted on a little hilltop, surrounded by gorgeous Tuscan landscapes, with a nice medieval castle at the tod. And of course some impressive city walls to protect the place (from tourists?).

The thing to do at Poppi is, of course, to visit the castle. The Poppi castle is what I call a proper medieval castle - plenty of those in Tuscany. We took the audio-guide tour, and were treated to a bit of an overload of information. That aside, the castle was pretty cool. And the views from the top were pretty amazing.

For dinner, we bought some stuff in a shop on the way which we cooked at our little medieval lodgings back in Raggiolo. And then, as promised, I headed over to our favourite restaurant in the village for desert. Not only did I get the promised desert, but also a half-full bottle of wine. And all this, for free! Now that's what I call customer service! I think (no, I know!) I have definitely fallen in love with the place!

The next day, 'twas unfortunately time to pack the car and drive back to France... We did stop by at Lucca for lunch. On our first holiday in Tuscany, it was our first stop, and one of our favourite ones. This time around, we were less impressed. I mean don't get me wrong, Lucca is definitely a pretty medieval town. Maybe we had just been saturated by the beauty of all the places we'd seen so far. It happens easily in Italy, in particular in Tuscany!

So all in all, a fantastic mini-break in Italy. Just what the doctor ordered. And as far as Tuscany is concerned, I think we will be back! If for nothing else, to have dinner in that wonderful restaurant called Il Convivio dei Corsi!

Via Liguria into Tuscany

We visited Tuscany a few years ago, and very much fell in love with the place. Expectations had been high, and amazingly enough, they were exceeded! We'd been back since, on the way back from Campania in the South of Italy, but we'd always felt that the place definitely merited a second proper visit.

So as Thursday was off this week, I did "a pont" (took of Friday) to make a really long weekend, during which to visit this lovely part of Italy. This time, the plan was to head off a bit off the beaten path, so we'd booked accommodation in a small village an hour's drive east of Florence. Driving all the way there from Nice was a bit of a tall order, so we decided to spend Wednesday night at Chiavari, a small coastal town in Liguria.

It was a pleasant enough little town, even if we didn't see much of it. We just had time for a decent dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then hit the sack, after a quick walk by the seaside promenade.

Our first stop in Tuscany the next day was Pistoia, located just between Lucca and Florence. Pistoia is your typical medieval Tuscan town. That is to say that it's a very picturesque place, and it would certainly be a big touristy attraction anywhere else in the world. But here in Tuscany, it's somewhat overshadowed by more famous towns like Florence and Siena. Pistoia lent, according to legend, it's name to the pistol, which was manufactured here from the 16th century onwards. In medieval times it was apparently a place of violence an intrigue, as the black and white factions of the Florentine Guelphs fought it out.

The main sight here is the rather stunning Piazza del Duomo, your archetypical Tuscan medieval square, lined with impressive Medieval buildings. There is of course the impressive Romanesque Duomo (which was closed, unfortunately), the Gothic Baptistery, as well as the Palazzo del Commune (with its stunningly decorated interior courtyard), the Palazzo del Podesta (the chief magistrate in medieval times)  and the Palazzo dei Vescovi (the Bishop's palace).

After a short walk around Pistoia (the main highlight was the 13th century Ospedale del Ceppo, with its impressively decorated facade), it was time to head for lunch (always a pleasant activity in Italy!). We ended up in a lovely little place called La Cantinetta, located in a quiet little street not far from the Piazza del Duomo. Great food, great service, and all that for a pretty reasonable price. Great start to our culinary journey in Italy!

Then, it was time to head on. Our next stop was the tiny hilltop village of Fiesola, located just a few kilometres from Florence. The drive up to the village was quite an adventure, with tiny, winding roads taking us up and down the rolling Tuscan hills, until we found ourselves at our destination.

Fiesola is a historic town, which was founded during the 8th-9th century BC by the Etruscans. It was an important member of the Etruscan confederacy, and remained a rather important town through the Roman era right up to Medieval times. For a long time, it was the main rival of Florence, until Fiesole was eventually conquered by the Florentines in 1125. These days the glory days of Fiesole are clearly long gone, but it remains a popular weekend retreat for Florentines, trying to escape the summer heat.

It's a very picturesque place indeed (as are pretty much all places in Tuscany...). The main sight are the impressive Roman ruins, rather stunningly located on the hilltop. There is a rather well-preserved (if reconstructed) Roman theatre, as well as some Roman baths. There was an archaeological museum as well, but we opted to just enjoy the great site, and the views across the Tuscan hills the remarkable location allowed for.

The Roman ruins done, we checked out the impressive Duomo, and then continued walking up the hill to the Monastery of San Francesco (enjoying some great views over Florence and the surrounding countryside on the way up).

There wasn't that much to see at the monastery, but it's a nice and peaceful little place to just relax for a bit. All in all, we loved our little visit of Fiesole - I think we picked the perfect time to visit the place (I can only imagine how busy it gets during the summer).

And then, it was time to head off into the Casentino, where our lodgings were located...