Yoko, one more time

One of our favorite restaurants on the Cote d'Azur is, no doubt about it, a charming little Japanese restaurant in Cagnes-sur-Mer called Yoko, managed by the equally charming Yoko and her French husband (who makes some amazing desserts!). OK, just pure chance it's a Japanese restaurant, right ;-) So anyway, naturally, we had to come here one last time for dinner, before heading off to the land of the rising sun.

Yoko was nice as always - and showed the sort of attention to detail which makes her restaurant such a great place - she actually spotted our wedding rings, and congratulated us! Now that's pretty impressive, considering we eat there maybe twice a year! Anyway, needless to say, the food was as fantastic as always.

We will miss Yoko, that's for sure!

Skiing in Auron

One sad thing about going to a Japan, a country not exactly famed for being generous about their holiday allocation, and which is also rather far away from Europe, is that before leaving, you get this feeling like it's the last time you go to the places you go to (since we might not come back here during our sparse holidays...). That's maybe over-dramatizing a little bit, but that's the feeling I've started to get...

So, today, then, was "the last time we were going to go skiing in this part of the world". Not the end of the world, and maybe not even true, but I will for sure miss the ski resorts over here, Isola, Auron and Greolieres (although I think skiing in Japan is supposed to be pretty awesome, too!). So, for this "last ski trip of ours", we chose Auron, basically since the weather forecast looked the best there.

All in all, we had a fantastic time. Conditions were just perfect, with the sun shining bright in the blue sky. The snow was good, and in spite of it being school holiday season, Auron wasn't that busy. We spent a rather intensive day doing most of the pistes that were open - we even packed a picnic lunch, which we enjoyed under a pine tree - so that we could maximize the skiing time (since, admittedly, we didn't get up for quite as early a start as we might've wanted to).

So, bye bye Auron, at least for now!

The way back home!

After a wonderful and memorable weekend, it was unfortunately time to head back home... But like on the way to La Rochelle, we decided to make the best of our trip back and make a couple of stops. After all, I have no idea when we'll be back in this time of France next time (Japanese companies not being famous for their generosity when it comes to holidays...)

We started by visiting Santes, one of the more famous historic cities in Charantes. The first impression is one of a typical provincial French capital. Saintes is not what I would call a touristic hot spot, but it does have a handful of quite interesting historic sights . We started with the roman amphitheater, one of the most well-preserved in France.

The Roman heritage bit done, we walked through some quite picturesque medieval streets, crossed the Charante river (briefly checking out Germannicus' Arch de Triomphe, which stands by the river) to explore some of the Christian heritage of Saintes. We started by visiting the impressive Cathedral de Saint-Pierre, and continued on to the beautifully restored Abbaye Saint-Marie-des-Dames (a monastery for women), which was unfortunately shut.

After a pleasant morning spent in Saintes, we carried on our journey towards Bordeaux. We made another stop at Blaye. The reason to come to Blaye (for tourists, anyway), is to visit the impressive Citadel built by Vauban. It's one of the most impressive works by the very busy military architect. Of crucial strategic importance in the defence of Bordeaux, this UNESCO world heritage sight is indeed a very interesting place to visit. It reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna near Helsinki in that it's avery nice place to walk around, and almost like a small town in its own right. Impressive as this place is though, I reckon Seurasaari is even more impressive!

This time around, we spent the night at a rather curious bed and breakfast south of Toulouse. The old farmhouse has been converted to a BnB by a former airplane technician. Clearly passionate about his region (and classic cars too, he owns two vintage mustangs!), each room is decorated based on a particular theme of his region  - we got the airplane room (Toulouse is the aerospace/aviation capital of France, Airbus being heavily present). A special mention goes to the amazing meal our friendly host prepared for us - all about duck (another regional specialty).

The next day, the plan was to arrive not too late back at home, but we did make time for one stopover, at Martigues, near Marseille. It's a small typical Provencal town, one that features in a lot of impressionist painters' work, so it's a place I've wanted to check out for quite some time. It is a quite nice place to walk around, some spots in the town really are very picturesque indeed, and really show Provence as t was say 50 years ago. And today, with the sun out, and a clear blue sky, Martigues was a beautiful place to walk around indeed!

That brought an end to our lovely mini-holiday/road trip... 

Our very special day

Our big day is coming up. Yes, after all these years, we are getting married. The timing - the fact that this happy event coincides with us going to Japan, might suggest we are doing this for pragmatic reasons. And we are - but the fact of the matter is that it was still something I was pretty excited about!

We wanted to keep the affair low-key, so only invited close family, and Aude and Magaye (after all, we need a bridesmaid and a best man, right?). I was happy that Katja & Janne, as well as dad and Berit could make it, in spite of the rather short notice.

Things got underway with the night before the big day, with a big dinner at Francoise and Joel's place, where our Finnish guests also joined. Predictably, great food was served up, a beef tongue pot au feu was on the menu - doesn't get much more traditionally French than that!

Then, as for our special day, we started off, as tradition has it, at the Puilbureau town hall (we didn't do the church bit). We were blessed with fantastic weather and a blue sky, something that's not at all to be taken for granted in this part of the world. Everything went very well in the town hall, Mathilde looked absolutely stunning in her red dress, and I didn't mess it all up by stumbling, losing my nerve, or forgetting how to answer the questions asked by the mayor!

After plenty of pictures taken in the nice little park outside the town hall, we headed back to Francoise and Joel's place, where plenty of more pictures were taken, and we enjoyed a proper French aperitif. And the bride still looked stunning!

We had the meal at a very nice panoramic restaurant by the Ile de Re bridge, from where the views towards Ile de Re and the beautiful Charantese coastline are absolutely fantastic - especially on a sunny day like this ! (when we tested the restaurant before christmas, the views were considerable less impressive, with a fog obscuring the view). The food was great, the wine was great, in fact, everything was just perfect! There was even a Japanese touch thanks to Aude and Magaye who "made us" perform a Japanese wedding ritual which involves sharing some sake.

After the meal, we all had a nice walk along the beautiful coastal footpath, making the best of the fantastic weather. Sadly, at this point it was time to say good bye to my dad and Berit, who headed back to the hotel to catch some rest. For the night's program, we had booked an Escape room for the "youth" (anybody under 50, basially!). Great fun, actually, and best of all, both groups (we had to split into two groups) completed the mission (which involved WWII submarines - there was a big base at La Rochelle). We then continued partying into the small hours of the morning - a rare thing at my age! ;)

The next day,  alas, it was time to say goodbye to everybody. So how was it, then, to get married ? Well, it was actually quite a magical moment, more so than what I expected. And I'm really happy we did it the "proper way" in the end, together with family and friends. A weekend I will never forget!

Mini road trip to La Rochelle

Time to leave Barcelona, after a couple of wonderful days spent with our great hosts. Time to hit the road, then, destination La Rochelle. The plan was to stop over near Toulouse for the night, but we had a bit of time to kill before then, so we decided to explore Catalunia a bit before heading back to France.

We started by the medieval village of Besalu. It's one of those places (that thankfully still exist) that seems to be stuck in time - kind of exactly how one would imagine a medieval European city. A bit like a smaller, and less touristy version of Girona, if you will. The location is rather stunning, surrounded by the volcanic landscape of La Garotxa. The entry into the village takes visitors across Fluvia river along a beautiful 12th century bridge. The village itself is very picturesque indeed, with medieval cobblestone streets lined up with medieval houses criss-crossing the town. This being a weekday, not many tourists to be seen either...

We carried on our Catalunya tour with a visit of Figueras. The main draw of this decent-sized town is, of course, the Salvador Dali museum. Neither of us is really a huge fan of Mr. Dali, but we decided to pay the museum a visit anyway. I must say the visit didn't really change my opinion of the man nor his art, but it has to be said that the museum is really made in the image of Dali's art - so hats off for that. So it's a bit more than "just a museum". It sort of reminded me of the Ghibli museu we visited in Tokyo in that sense - except that I'm a big fan of the Ghibli films.

We stayed the night in a nice little hamlet north of Toulouse called Parisot, at a lovely country home that a Parisian couple (who decided to retire from their stressful jobs in Paris and become hoteliers in the French countryside!) had converted to rather charming BnB accommodation. For dinner, we decided to head into Gaillac, the nearest decent-sized town, for dinner at the fanciest place in town (tonight was, after all, valentine's day).

The next day, we decided to take our time driving towards La Rochelle. This part of France is famous for its bastides (fortified villages which were built under Royal authority during the middle ages), so we decided to visit a few of them. Our first stop was Lisle-sur-Tarn, a very picturesque little village located between Parisot and Gaillac (where we had dinner the night before).

Even prettier was Castelnau-de-Montmiral. It's one of the more famous bastides in the region, and quite rightly so, the place is pretty much your perfect French medieval village - perched n a hilltop, surrounded by rolling, hilly countryside (almost reminiscent of Tuscany). The village itself is superbly preserved, with cobblestone streets lining up beautiful, well-restored medieval houses. So if you need to visit just one bastide near Toulouse, you wouldn't do wrong choosing this one!

The last bastide on this visit was Bruniquel, as we were leaving Bastide country and approaching the motorway. Bruniquel is perhaps a bit less picturesque and smaller than the other places we went to as far as the village itself is concerned - but the main draw here is an impressive medieval castle that dramatically overlooks the river in the valley below. Talk about a dramatic place to place a castle! Unsurprisingly, several films have used the castle as a location.

Before arriving at La Rochelle, we decided to do one last stopover. Bordeaux, and the surrounding wine country, is quite conveniently located a couple of hours from La Rochelle, so we decided to pay a visit to Saint-Emillion, one of the more famous wine-producing towns in the region.  There is plenty more to Saint-Emillion than its wines, though, as it's a very picturesque town indeed, with its impressive cathedral perched above the medieval town, watching over its citizens. Needless to say, the surrounding countryside with its vineyards make for a pretty much perfect setting. So the perfect place for a coffee and a quick stroll around, before finishing a long drive.

Quite a rewarding little road trip, all in all! 

A quick visit @ Barcelona

The plan was to meet Richard and Mireia (and let's not forget young Eric, either!) at a traditional Catalan restaurant, and have a traditional countryside meal. The place was located just outside Barcelona - and we found it eventually, after a rather adventurous trip through the suburbs of Barcelona, and some rather treacherous dirt tracks that were not really suitable for our Clio. Anyway, we made it! The concept was rather cool - they have this winter-time tradition in Catalunya. It all revolves around the Calcot, which is Catalunyan for Spring Onion. The idea is that a bunch of scorched spring onions is brough to the table, the idea is then to peel the scorched bit off, and dip it in a very tasty mayonnaise type sauce. This is combined with plenty of wine and grilled meat. Needless to say, it gets very messy. And needless to say, I absolutely loved it!

The culinary cultural bit out of the way, we made our way to their flat, located not far from FC Barcelona's home stadium, where we hang out during the evening, catching up on the latest. After all, we don't get to meet up very frequently these days, and we sadly also missed Rich and Mireia's wedding last autumn, since we were in Asia at the time...

The next day, we headed off to explore Barcelona. What better place to start than the Sagrada Familia  - especially since Mireia is actually a tour guide, and knows the place very well, and actually had the time to take us there.

We've both seen the Sagrada Familia, of course (we've both been to Barcelona several times), but the cool thing about this monumental piece of architecture is that it's a work in progress, which progresses year by year. Actually, the church is funded only by donations - which mostly equals tourist entrance fees these days. Which means they actually have loads of cash now, due to the influx of tourists, particularly China.

What's exterior of the church is of course what's most famous (in particular the historical facade which  was completed by Gaudi himself), but what's great news is that the interior has been completed now, as well. And pretty amazing, it is! It's certainly unlike any church I've seen before - it's more reminiscent of the scenery from the movie Avatar, than a catholic church! Very clever how they light up the place using natural light as well, even if today was a bit of an overcast day.

Sadly, Mireia had to rush  off after our very informative visit, and we had to rush off to meet up with Richard for lunch. After a tasty and authentic Catalan "business lunch", we continued our modernista tour by checking out Palau de la Musica Catalana, another modernista masterpiece (this one, however, is not the handiwork of Gaudi The cafe where we waited for the tour to begin was already in itself a sight to be seen - even if it  was nothing compared to the breathtaking concert hall. Certainly one of the most beautiful (if not most beautiful) concert hall I've been to.

We spent the rest of the day kind of randomly wandering around Barcelone, checking out the Ramblas, the area around the port, and a really cool middle eastern style teahouse in the old town, where we had some mint tea and oriental sweets. Yummi! All reminded us of what a great place Barcelona really is - one of the top cities in Europe, no question about it!

We then headed back to Richard's and Mireia's, where we were treated to a great dinner, for more catching up on old times. We didn't even made it to a bar/pub - seems like we are getting a bit old for that sort of stuff??

Anyway, the next morning, it was time for us to push on, so we said our good byes, and hit the road. Felt a bit wistful, as it may well be some time until our next visit to this part of the world...

Through Catalunya towards Barcelona

A last road trip ahead of us before moving over to Japan! The plan was to drive to Barcelona to spend a few days with our good friends Mireia and Richard, then drive to La Rochelle. And then back to Nice.

On the way to Barcelona, we decided to stay the night in Perpignan, a decent-sized French city I'd actually never been to. It's part of French Catalan country, and it does sort of show. The place has a slightly different feel to your average French city, and a bit of that Spanish touch does come through as well. In fact, the place used to be the capital of the Mallorcan kingdom until 1659, when it was annexed by France.

It's a rather pleasant to walk around, with a decent-sized historic town center. Our walk started at Castillet, a rather impressive medieval castle that guards the entrance to the old town. We walked through the historic streets of the old town, and made our way to massive Palace of the Kings of Mallorca - a testimony to Perpignan's past grandeur. Unfortunately it was not possible to visit the place, so we contented ourselves to walking around the impressive walls.

After exploring the medieval town center a bit more, and visiting the beautiful cathedral, we headed back to the hotel, to have a quick rest before having dinner, very satisfied with our quick but interesting visit. It turned out to be very tricky indeed to find a restaurant with a table for two (fair enough, it was Saturday night after all), so we ended up at a trendy burger joint, where we had a pretty decent dinner.

The next morning, we got up bright 'n early, and drove on towards Barcelona. We wanted to visit Girona before arriving in Barcelona, where we had a lunch date with Mireia and Richard (late lunch, mind you, this being Spain, or should I say Catalunya?). Girona is one of those cities that impreses straight away, with its compact old city lined up along the river, with the impressive cathedral dominating the city, sat on its hilltop.

I have to say straight away that I really loved Girona. I love European medieval cities, and Girona is the perfect example of one. We started off by crossing the river, and visiting the beautiful Romanesque style Sant Pere de Galligants Benedictine church. From there, we crossed the atmospheric former Jewish Ghetto (with its characteristic narrow streets and tiny squares) - Girona had one of the biggest concentrations of Jews in Spain until the expulsion of all practicing Jews was ordered in 1492 (at least they got the option to convert to Christianity!).

Another interesting place to visit in Girona are the Arab Baths - built in the 12th century, and very heavily inspired by Roman baths. After that, we checked out the gem of Girona, the cathedral. The interior is impressive indeed, but the most impressive thing about the place is the huge staircase leading up from the lower levels of the city to the cathedral. You may recognize the setting from Game of Thrones... The views from up their over the old town are pretty amazing, too...

I could've easily lingered here longer, but alas, it was time to push on towards Barcelona...

A weekend in Paris

Before starting our big Asian adventure (after the "small Asian adventure" of last autumn), we quite fancied one last weekend in Paris. So when our dear friend CoCo decided to organize here 40th birthday party in February, it was an easy enough decision to accept her invitation.

We arrived Saturday morning, after a rather pleasant journey on the night train (something we should do more often, really - taking the train is so much more relaxing than flying, even if it does take a bit of time - but that's not really an issue with a night train is it?)

We had all the day to us in Paris before heading off to the party in Montmartre, so we decided to make the best of it. We started off by checking out the Orsay museum, a place we'd both been to several times already. But hey, a museum like that merits several visits anyway! Besides, it's much less busy than the Louvre, for example.

The cultural bit (which really is mandatory in Paris) out of the way, we decided to head off for lunch. We ended up in a delightful little creperie not far from the museum, where we enjoyed some of the finest crepes I've had anywhere, including Brittany! Our appetites sated, we met up with Sarah, and ex-colleague of Mathilde's who's relocated to Paris. Great to catch up with her as well, especially since she had some great news to announce to us with the arrival of a baby!

We then made our way to our hotel, which was located in Montmartre, which truly is one of the most beautiful parts of Paris (which is to say in the world!), in spite of the tourist hordes who have invaded it, in no small part thanks to that wonderful movie called Amelie.

The party itself was, of course, fantastic fun! Most of Mathilde's friends from her Angers years were there, great to catch up with them.



One of the problems of "really growing up" is that as people have kids and stuff, it gets harder and harder to meet up for great "adults only" parties. Anyway, as can only be expected from a party celebrating CoCo, everybody had a fantastic time.

CoCo, of course, loved by all as she is, got loads of cool pressies (I wonder what she's gonna do with all those bags she was given, though?) Much to my surprise, we carried on to the wee hours of the morning. And I didn't even have such a bad headache in the morning. Is there still hope for me !?

We spent the next morning exploring Montmartre a bit more. We decided to check out the cemetery, one of the more famous ones in Paris, with quite a few famous Frenchmen and -women are buried (people like Alexander Dumas, Edgar Degas, and last but certainly not least, Dalida). Quite a peaceful place to wonder about, actually.

The next stop on our breakneck schedule was lunch with Isabelle. The plan was to meet at the outskirts of Paris, in a place called Suresnes. It's a pleasant enough place, quite green, in contrast to downtown Paris (there are nice views towards the Bois de Boulogne). Before lunch, we decided to check out the American military cemetery (wow, what's this about all them cemeteries today, eh!?)

The lunch, which we enjoyed in a rather fancy French bistrot called Pere Lapin, was unsurprisingly delicious. And of course, most importantly of all, it was great to catch up with Isabelle again!)

Felt a bit wistful to leave Paris, since we don't know when we'll be back next time. Soon enough, I hope! If not, we can always quote Bogie and say "we'll always have Paris" (not sure what that's got to do with anything, but there you go...)