Euro 2016 action in Marseille

You may have noticed EURO 2016 is on in France at the moment. I tried to get some tickets through the UEFA lottery during the spring for some games played in Nice, but failed unfortunately. So when Aki told me he had a couple of spare tickets for tone of the quarter-finals, I was more than happy to join the Finnish posse for a bit of footie!

The game was in Marseille, which meant leaving work a bit early, and catching the TGV from Antibes down to Marseille. The voyage went smoothly, and I then got the metro down to the train station, where I joined Aki and the rest of the Finns outside the impressive new football stadium (Le Stade de Velodrome). The game was between Poland and Portugal. The pre-game atmosphere was great - a bit surprisingly, the atmosphere was mostly created by the Polish fans (after all, there are a lot of people with Portuguese origin living in France!).

The match itself was, unfortunately, no classic. I had high expectations given that one Christiano Ronaldo was playing for Portugal, and one Lewandowski playing for Poland. Lewandowski did score the first goal with an impressive strike in the 2nd minute (his first in the championships - a bit disappointing considering his record for Bayer Munich).

After a rather uninspired starting period (where Ronaldo looked rather disinterested), Portugal picked up the pace in the second period, and eventually scored a well-deserved equalized thanks to a brilliant strike form promising young Renato Sanches.

After two periods of extra-time, where most teams seemed content to keep the status quo, it was time for penalties. My heart beat for Poland, but Portugal edged ahead thanks to some coolly taken penalties. All in all, a deserved win.

The trip back to Antibes was a bit of a pain, I was back at home around 3 AM in the morning. Still, it was definitely worth it! Not a classic match, but great atmosphere - I particularly liked the effort put in by the Polish fans. And no sign of the sad hooliganism that's marked way too many matches in this tournament!

Socializing on the French Riviera

End of June is a really nice time of the year on the Cote d'Azur. Temperatures are quite pleasent - meaning not too hot. The school year is nearing its end, which tends to mean a lot of meals/aperitifs with Mathilde's colleagues ;-)

Things kicked off with a meal on the beach with our good friends from Finland, the Vuolle family. Hannu and his family (which now includes no less than 4 kids!) left the Cote d'Azur a few years ago, but still come back regularly (seems like they miss the place!). Pizza on the beach is always a good option this year around, with some rose wine to go with it. And then some ice creams for dessert. Yummie! Good to catch up with Hannu and Rita as well !

On Sunday, we were invited at Claire and Antoine's place at the Carros. Naturally, all the usual CIV suspects were present (Julien, Charlotte, Julie & Aurelien). Grave matters at CIV were discussed at great length, whereas I mostly enjoyed the food and drink - excellent as always! Great to see Claire and Antoine as well, we see them rather rarely these days...

On Tuesday, we had invited Raphaelle and Olivier over for dinner - they were spending a bit of time in nearby Greolieres before setting off on their great adventure (they are moving to Hong Kong). We had a great night enjoy Mathilde's delicious food. While the adults then carried on discussing to a rather late hour, the kids happily watched Wall-E.

Our intensive socializing continued the next night, when we met up with Marie in Nice for a nice Lebanese meal in a cool restaurant called Beyrouth Nights. A real gem of a place - confirmed the fact that I'm a big fan of Lebanese cuisine. I could almost become vegetarian, eating Lebanese Mezze! (note the key word "almost").

Japanese birthday dinner

It was the time of the year to celebrate my lovely Mathilde's birthday again. Normally, we go away somewhere for the weekend, but this time around, we've been rather busy recently (and we will be also for the rest of the summer!), so we decided to not go for that this time around.

Now, as you know, we are huge fans of Japan, so it felt natural to go for something Japanese. I could've prepared a meal for her, sure, but I figured this sort of thing is better left to the experts. So I booked a table at Yoshi instead, a rather fantastic Michelin-starred restaurant in Monaco, where we went for lunch last autumn. This time around, we decided to go for dinner.

Yoshi is located in Monte-Carlo, not far from the casino, at the rather fancy Metropolitan hotel. It is actually being managed by the famous chef Joel Robouchon. The interior decoration is expectedly understated - with a nice Japanese garden outside at the back of the dining hall.

Everything was, as one could expect, and as it was last time, pretty much perfect. Excellent service, excellent food. We went for an extensive taster menu with 7 courses this time around - and it was all rather excellent. Actually, I do have to admit I was slightly disappointed with the pannacotta dessert - but only slightly. It didn't really take away from our enjoyment. What was particularly cool was watching the chef prepare the sushi/sashimi assortment right in front of us.

So if you want to have some fancy Japanese cuisine on the Cote d'Azur, look no further than Yoshi!

And most importantly: Joyeux anniversaire, mon amour!

JayJay visiting

Our good friend JayJay was visiting this week, all the way from Mexico, on one of his globe-trotting adventures (this time his itinerary was something like Mexico-Amsterdam-Cote d'Azur-Italy-Mexico). Which of course, this being JayJay meant "Como todo, bebo todo, ago todo" (wise words printed on a tee-shirt I was given for my birthday after a crazy and cool trip we did to Mexico a few years ago...).

We started off by joining the merry crowd at the beach at Cagnes. After having some tasty ice creams (or rather, a milkshake in my case) we headed over to our place together with JayJay, Marie, and Chris. We had a great night, catching up on the latest (it's been a looong time since we've last seen JayJay) and of course drinking way too much alcohol, too (naturally, Mathilde's grand-dad's home-distilled Calvados always comes out on occasions like this!).

Some time ago, I (Mathilde wisely desisted) and some friends & colleagues had the brilliant idea of having a go at (and failing miserably) eating a monster burger (weighing in at a ridiculous 2 kg or so...). So, some people are just too daft to learn from their mistakes. That would include me and Chris, who agreed to join with JayJay upon the mad quest to re-attempt defeating the monster burger.

So we met, ominously under the rain, at Sophia Antipolis and ventured out into the far-away Var Department to affront the dreaded burger. This time around, I chose a different strategy - namely going at the burger hard and fast (rather than in a slow and steady manner). I also decided to concentrate mainly on the meat. The end result was another humiliating defeat - but this time around, I did finish the meat. JayJay and Chris chickened out (or were smarter than me?) and decided to share a monster burger. Anyway, if one useful lesson came out of this stupidity, it was: "I'll never do it again". Honestly.

Anyway, Sunday was JayJay's last day in France, so we figured we'd have what else than another meal ? We ended up choosing Chez Simon, a nice enough restaurant located in the Nice foothills. The cool thing about the place is that you can normally play petanque while waiting for the food. Unfortunately, this time around, the weather was rainy, so we decided to give the petanque a miss.

Anyway, the meal itself was great. The crowd was the same one as last time around, except that Aurore was also able to join this time. The food was great (I especially liked the Paris-Brest I had for dessert - it's quite hard to come by these days), the company even greater.

We'll miss you, JayJay, come back soon!

Weekend with Joel and Francoise

The timing of my business trip to Budapest was a bit inconvenient, as Mathilde's parents happened to be visiting at the same time. But thankfully, they were still around as I arrived in Nice Friday evening, after a rather tiring two weeks spent in Hungary.

I barely had time to drop off my bags at the airport, before I joined Mahtilde, Joel and Françoise at Yoko, our favourite Japanese restaurant on the Cote d'Azur. In spite of Yoko herself being absent, we had a great meal (as always!) there. Great preparation for our upcoming Japan trip as well ;-)

The next day, we took it easy in Cagnes-sur-Mer. We joined Joel and Françoise at their flat, located by the Cagnes river, not far from the sea. Which meant it was rather convenient to pop over to the beach for a swim after the meal (even if the weather wasn't the greatest!). Joel and Françoise then came over for dinner - followed by a game of Scrabble of course!

On Sunday, we decided to venture into Italy for a bit of cycling. So off we went to San Remo, well known for the ominously named "Pista Ciclabile Area 24" (any  connection to Area 51?) - we already checked it out some time ago and really enjoyed it. We rented our bikes, and cycled down Eastwards. It was all good fun - the perfect way to combine a bit of sport while enjoying the sun.

The sport bit done, we found a nice little restaurant by the sea side, where we enjoyed a surprisingly good meal (expectations weren't that high, as it seemed like a bit of a tourist trap - but I thoroughly enjoyed the squid I chose). This being San Remo, we naturally headed down to Grom for dessert (Grom is a chain of ice cream shops known for their delicious, naturally-flavoured ice cream, yummie). We finished our day with a nice swim in the 'Med - the perfect ending for the perfect day!

And then, it was time to say bye bye to Joel and Françoise, as they headed back towards the West of France the next day. Nice to have them over, even if it was all a bit short in my case!

One more week in Budapest

So one more week in Hungary then... Unfortunately, our bosses decided we'd had enough luxury for one trip, so they moved us from our fancy Continental Hotel to more "reasonable" accommodation - that is a Best Western Hotel, located near the magnificent main train station - which dates back to 1884. (Wikipedia tells me it's built in the "Eclectic style", whatever that is...).

The Best Western Hotel was another Budapest institution steeped in history - this was the biggest hotel in Budapest during the communist era, and hosted many important people from the communist block. The place has obviously been revamped since, and I certainly preferred this place over the Ibis hotel where we stayed during the first week (especially as the location was more central).

The week was pretty uneventful, as we continued exploring Budapest at evening after work. My opinion about the fact that Budapest is a pretty cool place was reinforced. I met Steve again, with another fellow Finn, in Gozsdu Udvar. We tried some Jewish/middle-eastern food in a rather nice restaurant in the Jewish quarter called Mazel Tov (located in a rather nicely redone warehouse building). We also had a nice "team building event" with our customer in a Hungarian wine bar (yes, Hungary produces rather decent wines - the most famous one being the sweet Tokai white wine) - in Gozsdu Udvar again (where else?).

On our last night, I decided to head off for a bit of a private walk before dinner, to put my SLR camera into good use. After exploring the impressive train station for a bit, I made my way over to Városliget, the city park. It's a pretty impressive public park, measuring 302 acres in total. It's home to the impressive-looking Vajdahunyad Castle (it was built here in 1896 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Magyar invasion of the Carpathian basin - the architecture has been inspired by several Hungarian landmarks from all over the country).

The park is also home to the famous Széchenyi Thermal Bath - possibly the most famous bath institution in Budapest (no time to visit this time, I'm afraid). Next to the park is also the grandiose Hero's square. The square was also built in 1896 to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Magyar invasion. The square is populated  by statues of the leaders of the seven Magyar tribes and other important leaders - the tomb of the unknown soldier is also located here.

From Heroes Square, I walked down Andrassy Utca, an impressive boulevard lined with impressive townhouses, and quite a few embassies. I then made my way back to the hotel, from where my colleagues joined me as we headed over for our last dinner in Budapest (snif). For the occasion, we selected a Ukrainan (!?) bistro - purely based on trying to find a well-rated restaurant not too far from the hotel. It was a nice enough place, located on an atmospheric little square - a pity the food was a bit disappointing (no complaints about the Russian vodka ;-) ).

After dinner, I continued my photography tour on my own. Budapest is quite an enchanting city by night as well. My walking tour took a parallel street to the river towards the North taking in some major sights like the Budapest Opera house and the impressive St. Stephen's Basilica (the Roman catholic cathedral of Budapest).

Of course I'd seen the impressive Parliament house already by daytime, but the place is certainly sufficiently impressive to also merit a night-time visit. And indeed, the parliament building is possibly even more impressive by night time, lit up as it is. And I got the place all to myself, basically, as there were no tourists around this time at night.

The Parliament house done, I walked back the way I came, along the Danube this time. A very impressive sight as well, at night. I got some pretty splending views towards the main sights on the Buda sight.

All in all, a very nice way to finish off a rather tiring, but rewarding visit of one of the prettiest and liveliest European capitals. Must come back for a proper touristy visit!

A weekend in the Hungarian capital

If there was one good thing about us having to stay in Budapest for one more week, it was the fact that we could leave our Hotel Ibis for something more central and classy. So we were rather happy to check out of our hotel this Saturday morning.

OK, so the flip-side of the coin was that it was Saturday, and we had to go to the office again. We were, after all, here to work, rather than enjoy ourselves, right? ;-) Anyway, after "another day at the office", our Hungarian associates were kind enough to take us out for a meal to, as Kamillo, one of our hosts put it: "a restaurant for programmers, not managers". Sounds like my kind of place ;-) So The place (located on the Buda side, where we had not yet ventured)  was indeed excellent. Good, hearty Hungarian dishes for rather reasonable prices. And plenty of beer to go with it ;-)

After the meal, we headed to the hotel - which I confirm was a rather classy affair - Continental Hotel Zara. It's located in an impressive, almost scarily Gothic historic building, which to house one of the most prestigious spas in Budapest. The rooms were rather classy compared to what we had in the Ibis hotel. There was even a spa at the rooftop. So pretty darn classy, then! Needless to say, it was way out of the budget range for our travel policy (but I think seeing as we had to stay for one week more, a gesture like this was the least they could do).

Anyway, enough about the hotel - I had beer to drink! The plan was to meet an old mate from Guildford, England for a few drinks at his favourite haunt, at Gozsdu Udvar. Gozsdu Udvar is a kind of covered pedestrian street, filled with bars and restaurants. It kind of summarizes why Budapest is such a great place to go out and have fun. Steve, who moved to Hungary a few years ago, certainly seems to have acclimatized well to his life in Budapest! (he even gets a discount at the bar we went to!). Needless to say, we had quite a few beers catching up on the good old times in Guildford ;-)

I woke up on Sunday, kind of surprised to find I didn't even had a bad headache ;-). After a rather classy breakfast at our classy hotel, I met up with D.B. and Philippe to head out for a bit of a walk. A bit of a walk indeed, as we decided to walk all the way across to Buda to pick up the car, which we'd left by the restaurant the day before (drinking and driving is a bad idea in Hungary - they have a zero promille limit for that!).

We (or at least I was!) were once again struck by what a pretty city Budapest is. The Pest side has managed to retain pretty much all its historic buildings, and these days (unlike 20 years ago, when I first came here), they are in a pretty good state of repair. Still, Budapest still has still retained enough of it's exotic post-communist charm (not sure that's the right word for it) to be a pretty refreshing and different place to visit compared to Western European cities, which can sometimes be boringly similar.

Where Budapest is at its most  beautiful is, of course, by the Danube river. On a sunny day like today, Budapest really looked stunning as seen from the Margit bridge. The Pest side is, of course, dominated by the stunning Parliament building. And on the Buda side, the beautiful Castle Hill, which groups a lot of the Buda side's historic attractions (including, of course, the castle). We walked across to the Buda side, and walked up towards Castle hill.

Our walk first took us up to the fisherman's bastion. The fisherman's bastion is a rather fancy terrace constructed next to the Matthias church. The viewing platform with its 7 towers (representing the seven Magyar tribes that originally came to Hungary) is so named after the guild of fisherman that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls during medieval times. The views from up there towards the Danube river are rather stunning.

After checking out the impressive Gothic Matthias church (we didn't go inside, as there was an entrance fee...), we carried on along castle hill to the castle. Again, we didn't really have time to visit, so just admired the impressive exterior, and the continued beautiful views over the Danube.

We continued our scenic walk by passing through the Citadel, which is located on top of Gellert Hill. It's a rather interesting military structure dating back to the 19th century - looks like something that could've been built by Vauban. From there, we finished our Buda-Danube side walk at the famous Art Nouveau Gellert Hotel - a luxury hotel known for its spa (which I visited when I came here about 20 years ago). The hotel looks a wee bit run down actually, even if it's still a sight to behold.

From there, a 20 minute or so walk down a rather nondescript boulevard brought us back to the car. After a spot of shopping in a shopping mall (the hotel laundry service wasn't available during the weekend, and at least I was out of clean underwear!), we headed back to the hotel for lunch. We picked a nice burger restaurant called Tuning Bar & Burgers. As the name suggests, they specialize in burgers - and some excellent ones at that! Yummie.

The rest of the day we spent chilling out - I took the opportunity to do a bit of swimming in the roof top pool. A bit of sport was just what I needed !

For dinner, we headed to a nearby garden restaurant - where we once again had rather excellent food. I must say, that the Budapest culinary offering has rather improved over the years. And it's still great value for money!

Biz trip in Budapest

Recent business trips have been to places like Grenoble and Stuttgart. Not that I want to put down either of those places, both have their charms. But when I was called up to do customer support in Budapest, I thought, well, if I have to give customer support somewhere, Budapest would be quite high up on my wish list of places in Europe to go...

After a rather challenging organizational phase, myself and my dear colleagues Philippe and D.B. (the international man of mystery who does not want his true name to appear on my blog) were off on Tuesday night. We arrived rather late, picked up the rental car, and sped down to our Ibis hotel, located a few kilometres outside the city centre.

Things didn't start off well, as we slept rather badly due to thin walls and the tourist buses that headed off early in the morning. Philippe's laptop also broke down. In spite of our hotel not being very central, we decided to head into town for dinner. The area around the hotel didn't look particularly good as far as eating out was concerned, so... Before dinner, me and D.B. decided to check out the Parliament building which was located just by the restaurant we were planning to try.

The Parliament building is a rather impressive edifice, possibly the most popular tourist destination in Budapest (at least on the Pest side). The imposing Gothic revival building was completed in 1889, a few years after the city of Budapest was created by uniting the three cities of Buda, Pest and Obuda (old Buda). It's THE dominating landmark on the Danube river on the Pest side.

Having gaped at this architectural wonder, we headed off for dinner. Our first choice restaurant was unfortunately fully booked, but we found a relatively authentic-seeming Hungarian restaurant not far away. We tried a few of the main Hungarian specialities - pancakes (panascinta), goulash and of course the local beer and some Unikum (kind of a Hungarian version of Jagermeister) to finish off the meal. A good start to our business trip, then ;-)

The next evening, we decided to head into the town centre again for dinner. We chose another restaurant on the Buda side, just by the river, called Magyar Qtr. It was a bit of a modern bistrot-type place, serving Hungarian food with a modern twist. Interestingly enough, they served a lot of dishes - including starters - based on strawberries. This time we finished off the meal with Palinka - the other Hungarian staple liquor.

After the meal, we checked out the riverside by night time. Our short walk along the Pest side of the river, taking in the chain bridge, with beautiful views towards the Buda side, confirmed my already well-established opinion that Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Having spent one summer in Hungary nearly 20 years ago, I have very good memories of Budapest. Mind you, it's rather changed since 1997 (for the better, based on what I've seen so far!).

The weekend was approaching, but alas, that did not mean a trip back to France for us, as we were told by our customer and bosses that we needed to stay the following week too. Not something we were very happy about -  but I say again, if one must be stuck somewhere doing customer support, it might as well be Budapest!

As it was Friday night, we decided to splash out on a real gourmet meal. Following recommendations we got from the hotel staff, we headed off to Aszu Etterem. We struggled a bit to find parking near the restaurant due to a big concert taking place at the nearby park, but eventually managed. Really loved this restaurant - everything was top-notch here - the food, the service (the waiter even spoke French!) the wines. And the prices were more than reasonable, we would've paid at least twice as much for the same meal in France, I reckon.

After the meal, we walked around for a bit, and stopped for a beer. Our nightly walk took us past the impressive Synagogue. It's actually the biggest synagogue in Europe (and one of the biggest ones in the world), able to seat up to 3000 people. The synagogue is a reminder of one of the great tragedies of human history - at least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. (most of them in Auschwitz).