Plenty of "leaving dinners" and "see you soons"

Preparations for our upcoming Asian adventure are proceeding rather well. As this will take us away from the Cote d'Azur for 4 months, we're rather busy saying our goodbyes to everybody (although, I suppose "see you soon"might be more appropriate).

Anyway, our good friends Milene and Kamel, who live in Paris, were down by the Cote d'Azur for their holidays, so we decided to meet up with them and their lovely kids for a picnic by the beach (picnic by the beach is a pretty cool way to meet up this time of the year, especially when kids are involved). We chose are favourite picnic beach in Antibes (located between the old town and the Cap d'Antibes). We spent a very nice evening indeed, chatting away and eating some rather tasty pizzas we got from a nice Italian restaurant by the beach). Great to catch up again!

On Friday, it was time to say bye to our Finnish friends. Great that both Mikko and Marianne as well as Aki and Henna could make it (and young Emil and Joel of course, as well). As it turned out, our good mate Naim was also in Nice for the weekend, so he was able to join too. We decided on a restaurant I've heard plenty of good things about called "le Bistrot de l'Ecole du Nice". An excellent choice, as it turned out. Great value for money for pretty fancy food. Highly recommended!

Some friends of Mathilde; Marie & Sebastien and their kids, where swinging by to visit us on their way back from Napes to far-away Mayenne, where they live. To help them a bit, we decided to put them up at my dad's flat in Antibes during their stay (a flat which we are in the process of selling, meaning it's a bit spartan so to speak) over the weekend. On Sunday, we took them on a bit of a tour of Antibes, which is one of the nicest towns on the Cote d'Azur (a bit overrun by tourists during the summer, which is to be expected, I suppose...). We lunched at the Safranier, a restaurant which is pretty much perfect in terms of location (located in a nice square in one of the prettiest parts of Antibes). The food was less impressive (or let's say, it wasn't particularly good value for money...). We finished out tour of Antibes by walking along the city walls...

The next week, yet more meals awaited. On Tuesday, we were invited over for dinner by Julie and Aurelien, with Charlotte and Julien also joining for the fun. The theme of the night was Corsica - Julie and Aurelien were just back from their holiday over there and were obviously inspired by their trip. The meal was, in a word, delicious.

Wednesday, it was time to head over to Vence, where we dined at Olivier's place, with Marie joining us as well. Time for some pizzas again, yoppii! Well, the main thing was, we had a great time  catching up.

And to finish off our social marathon, we had a great BBQ at Marianne and Mikko's place on Saturday night, and a rather improvised dinner at Marie's place on Sunday. It's a wonder we got any packing done for our trip at all! Anyway, we did get everything ready on time, and are now all set for our adventure!

Another French wedding

The plan for the coming weekend was to attend a second weekend - this time the hero of the day was Mathilde's cousin Emeric (and his wife-to-be, of course!), who lives in Hong-Kong, who was getting married near Le Mans on Saturday. The plan was for us to head to spend Friday and Saturday nights in nearby La Fleche. Francoise decided to take scenic county roads across the Charante-Maritimes, Vendee and Maine-et-Loire departments, before taking us to our final destination in the Sarthe.

Our first stop was at a cute little village in the Vendee, which was blessed with a rather impressive medieval tower, where we stopped to picnic by a nice river. We then stopped for a quick drink by the impressively picturesque Les-Rosiers-sur-Loire. This is what a small town by the Loire river should look like (even if there are more famous and prestigious towns along the Loire river - the castles of the Loire River are justly famous!). Anyways, we stopped here for a quick drink before pushing on towards La Fleche.

La Fleche is one of those typical French provincial small town. Picturesque, without being over the top, but seemed quite lively when we were there - there was a scene at the main square with a local band (I suppose) playing. After having a quick look around town (in particular the area around the river was rather pretty), we had an enjoyable dinner at the local creperie - very good food at a more than decent price (then again, we are used to Cote d'Azur prices, which means pretty much anywhere else in France apart from Paris seems cheap...).

The next day, we had a bit of time to kill before the wedding, so we decided to head over to a lake just next to our hotel, where I had time to go for a bit of a swim. And then we sped over to Sarge-Le-Les-Mans, where the wedding ceremony was taking place. Now, I was quite looking forward to the wedding, as Emeric's wife to be hailed from Hong Kong. International weddings are usually good fun ;-) The church ceremony, taking place in the picturesque parish church, was rather interesting, with reading of texts both in French and Cantonese.

The church part done, we sped down to Clermont-Creans, located just next to La Fleche, where the actual celebrations were taking place. No expense was obviously spared when it came to this wedding - the festivities were taking place in a proper French castle! (Château d'Oyré). So the location couldn't really get any better than this - especially as we were once again blessed with pretty much perfect summer weather (not a given in this part of France). I'm sure the numerous guests from Hong-Kong were delighted - maybe they will leave thinking all of France is like this ;)

The celebrations themselves where fantastic. I think there was a nice mix of people attending - family of course (including Mahtilde's uncles Gerard, Didier and of course Emeric's dad Jacques), Emeric's local French friends, Emeric's expat friends, and of course all the guests from Hong-Kong. The food was absolutely fantastic - not surprisingly considering the food was delivered by a Michelin-starred restaurant. Everything from the aperif to desert was spot on.

We left the castle in the little hours of the morning, having spent a fantastic time at the Chateau. Thanks to Emeric and his lovely wife for a great ceremony - we hope we will meet them later on in Hong-Kong, during our Asian adventure...

The next morning, we had to get up rather early, get packed, and head off, as we had a train to catch from Le Mans to Paris. So unfortunately we had to give the Sunday brunch being organized a miss.

We had a few hours to kill in Paris, which is always nice, especially when the weather is fantastic as it was today. We started off our day in Paris with a visit to Musee Guimet - which is the museum dedicated to Asian arts and civilizations. As you may have guessed there was a slight Japanese angle to our visit - there was an exhibition on about erotic arts in Japanese Printed arts. The exhibition was pretty interesting (actually there was some pretty explicit stuff on display!) - I also quite enjoyed the permanent exhibition. Unfortunately, we didn't have to time to visit nearly all of it, as we had a rendez-vous with Sarah pencilled in.

Our meeting with Sarah was planned near Les Jardins de Luxembourg, which meant we had to cross a lot of Paris to meet her. Of course we could've taken the metro, but, well, Paris is one of those cities best seen on foot, especially when the weather is great as it was today. We made it nearly on time ( we lost a few crucial minutes buying ice cream!), and headed off for a drink with Sarah in the Jardins de Luxembourg - a great meeting place in Paris when the weather is good. Great to catch up with Sarah and get an update on her always busy life - unfortunately it was all too quick as we had our flight to catch back to Nice.

So that brought an end to a very busy week travelling back and forth around Western France. And for me, back to work. Doh... But, on a positive note, only two weeks to go before our big Asian adventure starts!

A few days in La Rochelle

The next stop on our itinerary was LA Rochelle, or to be more precise, Puilboreau - which is where Mathilde's dad and Francoise live (together with Francoise's mum, sister Etienette as well as Etienette's husband). So quite a big household then - but their house is big enough to welcome plenty of more people (which is good since there were up to 16 of us during the week!). We went by Blabla car from Nantes, together with Herquise who lives in Nantes.

We spent a pretty relaxing few days at Puilboreau. Lunching and drinking with everybody (which I must say is always a big pleasure - both Etienette and Francoise are excellent cooks!), swimming in the swimming pool, doing a bit of sport around Puilboreau (it's nicely rural, so it's much nicer for running than the somewhat overcrowded French Riviera) and of course playing Scrabble with Joel.

On Tuesday, we headed into La Rochelle to go to the cinema - after all, it's been months since we've been! La Rochelle was rather lively, as it always is during the summer. It is about to get very busy indeed, as the Francofolie music festival is about to start! We saw a nice Jane Austen adaptation called Love & Friendship. Our short walk around the Vieux Port also confirmed my opinion about the fact that La Rochelle is a pretty cool place.

On Wednesday the 13th, grand fireworks were planned for Puilbureau to celebrate Bastille Day. Of course Bastille Day is on the 14th, but I suppose the smaller towns around La Rochelle do their fireworks the day before, since most people head into La Rochelle for the "Big Ones". The ones we checked out in Puilboreau were nothing to be ashamed of, rather the opposite. The municipality had put up an impressive show in front of an impressive castle, to the tune of classic songs mostly from Abba. They'd even organized a DJ, a bar and what not to follow the fireworks. Unfortunately we'd left our wallets home though, so no beer for us!

The next day, it was mine and Mathilde's turn to cook for everybody. For lunch, we prepared pizzas followed by a fruit salad, and for dinner, my bravura number, the Finnish salmon soup... It all went down pretty well. For the evening, we headed into La Rochelle to check out the fireworks. Actually, a good friend of ours, Isabelle, was in town with her niece, so we decided to meet up with them.

After a drink in the old port (checking out the busy crowds, what with the Francofolie festival having started), we headed off to a beach just by the entrance of the port to check out the fireworks. Before the fireworks, we were treated to a bit of free music, as there was a concert just nearby. The fireworks themselves were a bit of a letdown, actually. I felt that they did not really take advantage of the amazing site of La Rochelle, and it seemed a pity there was no music during the fireworks - especially as there was a bloody music festival on! I guess it's hard to do with live music, but at least with recorded music!?

As we got back to La Rochelle, we were shocked to find out about the attacks in Nice. Thankfully, we quickly found out none of our friends/colleagues had been directly affected by the attacks. Still, a great tragedy - shocking how much damage a single crazy guy could cause with one truck. Scary to imagine what could've happened if he'd have had an armed partner in the truck...

Wedding in the West of France

My odyssey continued from Helsinki-Vantaa airport to Paris. From Charles de Gaulle airport, I jumped on the RER and made my way down to Montparnasse, where I was happily reunited with Mathilde. The plan was to then catch the TGV to Angers, where we were attending a wedding on Saturday. We had a couple of hours to kill in Paris, which we spent mainly on a bit of last minute shopping and just walking around, enjoying Paris.

We arrived Angers early evening after a swift TGV journey. We were planning to stay at our dear friend CoCo's parents place near Lac de Maine (just next doors to where Mathilde's parents used to live before they moved to La Rochelle). CoCo was there to pick us up at the station. We had a lovely evening, catching up and enjoying the summer weather (certainly warmer than what I'd experienced in Finland!).

The next day, the girls headed into town to get their hair done, while I opted for a bit of sport (it was a close call between shopping and sport, I must say... ;) ). When we used to visit Mathilde's dad here in Angers, me and Mathilde used to run around the Lac de Maine, so naturally that's what I decided to do now as well. I went for the extended version, which involved running along the Maine river all the way into the town centre of Angers, and then back to the Lac de Maine. A beautiful run!

And then for the wedding. Delphine and Christophe, old friends of Mathilde whom we used to meet regularly when we visited Angers, where the lucky ones today. The proceedings kicked off at the town hall - as they often do in France (in France, it's actually quite common to skip the church bit, which was just fine by me...).

After a short stop at CoCo's parents flat, we headed off to the main celebration venue, a lovely little spot of countryside just a couple of kilometre's outside Angers. Delphine's parents own a spot of land their, which is just the right size for a proper wedding celebration! In the midst of nature, so to speak. Which didn't in any way diminish the quality of the food & drinks provided (always top notch quality in France, as is to be expected).

Things kicked off with a rather extended aperitif (where I had a few glasses of Coteaux de Layon - a locally made sweet white wine which is very good for "socializing"). A lot of Mathilde's old friends had made it - including Aude & Magaye (and little cute Olympe, of course), Stephane & Cervanne (and their kids) and of course CoCo and Dorinne. So it was great catching up - quite a while since I've seen some of them.

After the aperitif there was some "structured activity" involving singing, poetry & literature reading, speeches aches and that sort of stuff. And then of course for the most important bit - dinner! The food was, as always in French weddings, excellent. What was cool about the dinner also was that we were seated next to a German couple, which gave me the opportunity to practice my German! (I've been doing German lessons for a couple of months now). Magaye also connected well with our German friends - he like me is an Octoberfest veteran so we had plenty of things to discuss (in admittedly rather limited German).

Things finished with mad dancing, of course. Even I participated - a rare (and probably awful) sight! We got back rather early in the morning, and I must admit to feeling a bit tipsy. So, that would mean the wedding was a blast, then!

The next day, after lunching with CoCo's parents (who are, by the way, lovely people - which is not really surprising considering they are CoCo's parents!), it was time for us to catch a train again - this time destined for Nantes.

The plan was to meet up with our dear friends Aude and Magaye, and (of course less importantly) watch the EURO2016 final between France and Portugal. But before meeting our friends, we had a couple of hours to kill in Nantes. So, as we usually do, we decided to have a walk around. We started off with the beautiful Botanical garden, which is located just next to the train station, which really is a great place. They've really managed to make the place a joy to visit, with quirky works of art that mix well in with the vegetation, temporary exhibitions/theme activities and so forth.

Then, after consulting Tripadvisor, we decided to visit the Japanese garden - we didn't even know there was one. It's a very nice and peaceful little place to spend some time at, just relaxing. And it was quite nice to get a touch of Japan here in Nantes - to prepare us for our upcoming trip (yes, we are planning to go, again...). Not quite what a Japanese garden is in Japan, but certainly one of the best efforts I've seen outside of Japan!

And then, 'twas time for us to make our way back to the station to pick up our luggage, and head over to Reze, where Aude and Magaye live. We spent a nice afternoon catching up with them and preparing for the Big Game (well, at least me and Magaye where, not so sure about Aude and Mathilde). We picked up the pizzas in Magaye's electric Twizy car (even I got to try it - my first time behind the wheel of an electric car!).

The game itself went rather badly, unfortunately. France were rather dominant during most of the game, with Portugal defending doggedly. Ronaldo had to come off the pitch during the first half, which even I have to admit was a bit of a pity. Plenty of good opportunities for France, but unfortunately they weren't able to capitalize. And then, in overtime, the inevitable happened - Portugal scored after a brilliant strike from Eder.

The next day, it was time to carry on, direction La Rochelle. We did have time to have lunch with Sandra before shooting off - good to see her again.

A week in Finland

Time to enjoy a bit of Finnish summer! This year, I only had time to head over for about a week, so it turned out to be a rather intensive affair.

I started my trip in Helsinki, where I stayed for a couple of days. I had a nice walk around Helsinki, as always, to check out what's new in the capital of Finland. Unfortunately, as the weather was rahter dodgy, Helsinki was not at its finest.

I met up with my cousin Jukkis and dad for lunch in Mei Lin, which is probably the best Chinese restaurant in Helsinki (well, at least the best one I've been to - and my cousin Rasse's Chinese wife seems to agree with the assessment as well). What's great about Mei Lin is that the food really is authentically Chinese - which means very hot in this case (as Mei Lin's cuisine hails from Szechuan).

In the evening, I headed off to Katja's and Janne's place, where we enjoyed a game of Brass - one of the best board games around. The afore-mentioned Rasse came along as well. Predictably enough, Janne won. All in all, a great nerdy way to spend an evening!

The next day, I headed off to Turku with dad. The plan was to meet Jani and Jocke for a "couple of beers". I arrived in Turku a bit ahead of schedule, so decided to have a walk around. Thankfully, the weather had turned very nice, and Turku certainly looks at its best in summertime, when the weather is nice. I checked out all the main landmarks, which aren't that numerous actually.

I met up with the lads at one of my favourite Turku drinking establishments, Koulu. It's a microbrewery located in an old school building (Koulu means School in Finnish). As expected, lively debates were had with Jani in particular over the recent Brexit (I suppose the conclusion was that we agreed to disagree on the matter). We headed over for a burger lunch at nearby Shamrock (an Irish pub), after which me and Jani headed off to Parainen by taxi, to spend the night.

Normally, I would of course stay at Rågard, our summer house, but this time around it wasn't possible, since there was no running water. So I ended up heading over to Kyrkäng instead, to Berit's place, where my dad was also staying. No problem with that - it's a lovely place. There is a nice sauna, and one can swim in the sea just down the road. What else does one need from a Finnish summer cottage ? I even had a morning run before catching the bus back to Helsinki the next day!

The plan for Wednesday was to chill out with Aki and Riku in Kirkkonummi, and then meet up with Jocke and Jonas for some beers in the evening. Before that, I managed to squeeze in an improvised lunch with Pete (a friend of us who used to live on the Cote d'Azur, but who's since relocated to Singapore). Good to catch up with him!

After my brief excursion to Kirkkonummi to meet up with the "brothers", I sped back to Helsinki, where I met up with Jocke and Jonas at the BrewDog pub in Punavuori. I really liked the place, it's a bit of a craft beer's mecca, so just my kind of place. After hanging out and catching up for a bit, we headed over to Sports Academy to check out the 1st EURO 2016 semi-finals, between Portugal and Wales. My heart felt strongly for Wales, but alas, Portugal proved the stronger (I'm afraid my somewhat illogical dislike of Ronaldo means I can't bring myself to hope for Portugal to win!).

Next day was my last day in Finland before flying to Paris - wow how quickly did that week go!? Again, I had a busy schedule. Things kicked off with me heading over to Sörnäinen, towards the east of Helsinki, a place I'm not at all familiar with. It's a suburb with a working-class past, which is being gentrified rapidly, in the wake of nearby trendy Kallio (much of the area resembled a big construction site). I met up my colleagues Jose and Jean-Luc for lunch in Teurastamo, the old meat handling/butcher site of Helsinki, which has been transformed into a rather attractive collection of restaurants. Good to catch up with them, even if the context was a bit sad. Microsoft had recently announced the termination of their mobile phones business, which they had acquired from my former employer Nokia. This effectively meant the end of mobile phones RnD in Finland.... Anyway, the food was good, that's what's most important ;-)

For the evening, I wend to a rather cool event called Monsters of Rock - a concert, as the name implies. The line up was impressive (if one liked metal, that is...): Amorphis, Opeth and last but certainly not least: BLACK SABBATH (on their farewell tour). Amorphis and Opeth were great (the Opeth lead singer is one of the funniest musicians I've seen live!). But of course most people were there to see Black Sabbath. And they did not disappoint - even if Ozzy's age is starting to tell... 

That brought an end to a short, but sweet visit to Finland!