A busy weekend in Nice

Due to our project to move out to Japan, we are trying to squeeze as much as we can out of our social life. After all, we want to say bye bye to everybody we know here, before heading off. Working in Japan, I'm afraid I shan't be having a lot of holidays to travel back to Europe with, unfortunately...

So on Friday night, we were more than happy to join Chris, Aurore and Marie for a dinner at Chris and Aurore's place. More than happy, since we always have a blast with them, and we know the food will be excellent and plentiful! As it was, this time around as well. We had a raclette, one of my favourite dishes in France. Raclette is a dish from the Alps, basically involving potatoes, ham and melted cheese - how could one possibly go wrong with ingredients like that, eh? This was followed up by equally excellent deserts prepared by Mathilde and Aurore. Yummie!

On Saturday, we managed to catch Naim, who was visiting Nice. We agreed on a lunch at Safari, a nice restaurant with a terrace on Cours Salyea. It's a place we go to very rarely, and even if it is a very touristy place, the food is very good. Probably the best restaurant on uber-touristy Cours Saleya. And since we were blessed with some of that lovely winter sun that often hits Nice this time of the year, that terrace was just a fantastic place to be...

Afterwards, we walked over to Rue Bonaparte, a trendy street by Place Garibaldi, where we met up with Marie and Mathilde's colleague Olivier for some coffee and cakes.

Ah, what a wonderful day! Nice is another place in this part of the world I will miss a lot, I will certainly fondly remember  sunny winter days like this!

Mountain biking in the snow

It's been a while since I've done mountain biking, what with our four months spent in Asia and all... So I was quite happy to accept Philippe's invitation to join him for a bit of cycling at the wonderful Massif d'Esterel. The original plan was to join up with a group of "local lads", but seems that the local lads chickened out due to the somewhat chilly weather, so it was just me and Philippe in the end, then.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the weather was indeed somewhat chilly - in fact, the temperature was below zero in the shady part of our route. Which actually meant we ended up cycling in the snow at times! Which was actually good fun, and not as difficult as I expected. I did take it quite easy going downhill.

I even accepted the challenge to cycle up Mount Vinaigre - I had my doubts about the viability of that one,since it does take a bit of hassle cycling up to the top, at the lofty altitude of 614 meters (OK, fair enough, it doesn't sound very impressive, but it seemed that way from a couple of hundred meters downhill...), and given my lack of recent practice.

But, I agreed to the folly, and even made it to the top! And the view from up there was as magnificent as ever! Cycling around this beautiful part of the world is one of the things I will miss, once we make our way over to Japan...

New Year in Nice

Often, New Year's eve involves travelling somewhere for us, but we figured we'd done enough travelling recently, and decided to spend new year on the Cote d'Azur this time around. Luckily, Chris and Aurore invited us over to their place to celebrate the arrival of 2017 together with them, Marie and some other friends of theirs.

It was all great fun! The food was fantastic, as it always is at their place, starting with a very classy aperitif, and crowned by some very tasty "christmas logs". There was a great carnival feel to proceedings, with giltter, balloons and other colourful stuff being thrown about.

We finished the mad evening with a very funny game, which involves one person reading out a more or less mundane phrase (less mundane meaning something rather rude/dirty) from a card, and then each participant selecting a more or less mundane word or expression (less mundane meaning rather rude/dirty) from a set of cards, which basically makes for the most funny and/or disgusting sentence. Sounds simply, but oh my is it fun (especially after a few drinks).

So, a very nice way of welcoming 2017, I reckon, even if some of the changes 2017 brings are kind of scary (what with a Trump presidency, looming Brexit, continuing massacres in Middle east, just to mention a few things...). Stay positive, I say!