Flore and Christian's Big Day!

So today, on this sunny Saturday (with heat waves hitting France with full force!) was Flore's and Christian's big day, time to tie the knot. The grand occasion was taking place in their home town, at Le Roche sur Foron. We made our way down to La Roche with Chie and Geoff, dropping them off at their hotel and then checking it at ours (a nice place, but a bit outside the city center – we were very happy with the swimming pool though, given the heat!).

After a brief walk around the historic center, Mathilde headed off to get her hair fixed, whilst I joined the rest of the gang for lunch at the main square. Great to see everybody again – although the gang was the same as last night. After a couple of aperitifs, a simple but filling lunch, and some socializing, we parted our separate ways to get ready for the evening's festivities. Naturally, a quick jump in the swimming pool was absolutely called for – the heat was on, as they say...

The evening's festivities started off at the town hall (that's where all the legal papers are signed). It was a very nice little ceremony, it looks like the mayor (or vice-mayor) had actually put a fair bit of effort into the speech – in fact it sounded more like a best man's speech than the usual formulaic stuff the mayors come out with at French weddings. He even gave little Lilian a medal (for being a nice boy?). After all the paperwork had been signed, and all the photographs had been taken, the couple headed off with their children Lilian and Melodie, in true French style – yes, you guessed it, in a Citroën 2CV! How cool is that?

The post-wedding celebrations were taking place in a true Savoyard castle – now that's what I call style. Food-wise, everything was tip top, starting with the starter munchies and aperitifs on the terrace, continuing with the spit-roasted pig (a true delight) as well as all the other stuff that went with it. One thing is sure about French weddings – you always eat well at them! We were seated at the “French foreign legion table” (ie. the French friends from our group who used to live in the UK) – does this mean I'm becoming French ? Hmm...

As can be expected when the groom is called Christian, the entertainment was well taken care of. Most of the entertainment was actually provided by the groom himself, as he sang together with his band, and then proceeded to conquer the dance floor, running around topless towards the end of the evening. I think you've guessed it, everybody had an absolutely brilliant time! There were rather a few strange photos in my camera, of people I don't really know – I wonder who took them (surely not me!?).
A few hours of mad partying later, we were happy to be whisked off to our hotel by Philippe (him and Aniko were staying at the same hotel as us). There was a bit of a nasty surprise in store of us, though, as we'd handed in our key at reception before heading off. And naturally the reception was closed. Thankfully, I actually had a look behind the reception desk, and found our key, before jumping over the desk and breaking down the office door ;).

The next day, we headed over to the happy couple's for the traditional “post-wedding brunch”. Yummie, more eating and drinking. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking and socializing (I like that about France – a lot of that taking place here!) it was time for us to say our tear-filled goodbyes to everybody and hit the road!

We stopped for the night at a small village in the Ardeche called Saint-Andéol-de-Berg, where Mathilde had booked a rather nice Bed and Breakfast. We were quite lucky to be there during the village fete. We were treated to the local version of punch at the rather reasonable price of one Euro per glass. There was also a petanque competition (the Lyon version of the game), which was rather entertaining to watch.

The next day, we had a brief stop at Orange, before heading home. I've been keen to visit Orange for quite a while, since I've heard the Roman theater is rather impressive. And impressive it was! It was built during the 1^st century AD, and is possible the best-preserved Roman theater in Europe (certainly in France) – it is one of only three Roman theaters in the world with the wall behind the scene still standing. The audio-guide visit was rather interesting; tracing the theaters colourful history over the centuries, and also going into quite a lot of detail in describing the role of the theater in Roman culture. The rest of Orange is not overly interesting, and the historic museum opposite to the theater is actually rather disappointing (I would've expected more items from the Roman era to be on display...). But the theater on its own certainly was worth the diversion!

From Orange, we drove back home without further stops. All in all, a memorable week spent in the Alps, with a fantastic wedding to top it off. Merci beaucoup, Flore et Christian!

Via Italy to Haute Savoie!

Time to head to the Alps then, for our dear friends’ Flore and Christian’s wedding. We decided to spend a few days in Chamonix before the great occasion, passing by Italy…

Our first stop on the way to Chamonix was Andora, a small town on the Ligurian coast, where we stopped for lunch (pizza in a Chinese restaurant in Italy – that’s a first! No complaints about the pizza, though!). Our next stop was at Alessandria, a rather big town in the Piedmonte region. The main sight at Alessandria is the citadel – a rather imposing construction, which reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna at Helsinki (architecturally speaking, the setting is rather different…). The place could do with a bit of a revamp – interesting challenge for Alessandria to find a use for the place as it’s absolutely huge. There are already a couple of museums there, which we didn’t visit though… After a short walk in the town center, which is rather typically northern Italian, we carried on…

We stopped to sleep at the picturesque town of Ivrea, which is the capital of the Canavese area. It’s a pretty interesting place to stroll around, with a rather impressive medieval castle overlooking the old town, with an equally imposing cathedral nestled next to it. Today was actually an important catholic holiday in Italy – Assumption. Well, to be fair, it was actually the day after, but seemed that pretty much all the restaurants had decided to close already the night before… Thankfully, we found a very nice little Enoteca to sate our appetite…

After dinner, it was time for the big spectacle. Next to the cathedral, they had put up a big wooden frame of a woman (in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s honor, I suppose?), which they proceeded to cover with flowers. It was quite an operation, involving ladders, firemen, carts brining in flowers, an orchestra providing the music, and the townspeople cheering on the work. Nice little tradition – but we did decide to head back to the hotel before they finished…

We hit the road early in the morning, to tackle the Mont Blanc tunnel as early as possible (we were afraid of traffic jams…). The last leg of our voyage was surprisingly painless, and we arrived in Chamonix well before lunchtime… We were staying at a rather nice hotel, with an outdoors swimming pool with a view of Mont Blanc and the Aguille de Midi. Not bad… Our dear friends Chie and Geoff were also staying at the same hotel – the plan was originally to wait for them at the hotel and then do some stuff together. Unfortunately, they had some trouble with their flights getting to Geneva, so we ended up heading out on our own.

After a tartiflette (potatoes, lardons and cheese – that’s Savoyard cuisine for you!) for lunch, we took the Aguille de Midi cable car up the Plan de l’Aguille (which is kind of half way up to the Aguille – at 2317 meters’ altitude). It’s a rather stunning cable car ride, that’s for sure… From there, we first hiked up to the blue lake, an easy 15 minutes’ walk from the cable car stop. After that, we tackled the legendary walk up to the Mer de Glace (which is, at 7 kilometers, the longest glacier in France). The hike was pretty amazing, the views over Chamonix and the surrounding mountains were just absolutely stunning. No other word for it.

La Mer de Glace, of course, is equally stunning. The view of the glacier, creeping down between Aiguille du Moine and Trélaporte, is absolutely amazing, as you approach it from above, on the hike… I was quite busy with my camera for a few minutes, I can tell you that. The walk then took us down past the Montenvers hotel (yes, those crazy Frenchmen actually built a hotel next to the glacier), to the train station! Yes, there is a cogwheel train up to the glacier as well! All the modern comforts provided, eh… As we’d have enough hiking for one day, we took the train down to Chamonix…

For dinner, we met up with Chie and Geoff. It was absolutely fantastic to see them – we hadn’t seen them for a couple of years, which was when they were suddenly sent over to Malaysia on a construction project with very short notice. So we were very eager to hear about their adventures! We picked a very nice French restaurant for the occasion (thanks Tripadvisor for the good advice!), and spent a very nice evening catching up and hearing about those adventures (it seems Chie and Geoff spent a couple of very interesting and busy years over in KL!).

The next day, we were meeting up with Mathilde’s colleagues from her school, a large number of whom had decided to spend holidays in Haute Savoie for some reason (I don’t know what it is – but we always seem to run into Mathilde’s colleagues on our holidays!?) . Anyways, we decided to meet up for a picnic at Lac Leman (a.k.a. Lake Geneva). Before the picnic, we decided to pay a quick visit at Yvoire, a rather famous historic village located on the lake. Yvoire is undeniably a very picturesque medieval village, and stunningly located, but unfortunately it seems a bit overrun by tourism.

After our brief visit, we met up with the gang at the lake, near Thonon-les-Bains. Our dear friends from California; Gilles, Valerie, Celian and Hector where there (very well stocked up for the picnic!), and we were later joined by Vincent (who’s a real Savoyard) and his family, as well as Bruno and his girlfriend. We spent a very pleasant day at the lake indeed, eating, drinking wine & pastis, chatting away, swimming, and playing tarot cards! (the kind of game I could get into, methinks!). Very nice to meet up with everybody again.

We had dinner back at Chamonix – Chie had picked a place with the rather interesting name “Moustache et ses filles” in one of the back streets. And it was an excellent choice indeed – I really liked the food they served there (and the company was of course top-notch as well!). We even spotted Mr. Moustache having his food towards the end of the meal as well (I suppose the waitresses must be his daughters then?).

The next day, a bunch of friends were coming over to Chamonix, the plan was to head up to the Mer de Glace (yes, we had already been there, but hadn’t really had the time to properly check out the glacier). Aldo and Dorine came with their two little ones, as well as Nathalie and Patrick with their clan (including, of course, my dear godson Florian!). After the train journey up to the glacier, and a quick picnic lunch, we started exploring… We first made our way down to the ice cave, which is carved each year into the glacier. It has to be redone every year, as the glacier moves about 90 meters down the valley each year… It’s pretty cool, the ice cave, with the light effects, and various statues carved out of the ice (a pity they don’t serve any drinks at the bar, though…).

We then made our way back up to the train station, and checked out a couple of rather interesting museums. All in all, it’s a very interesting place, well worth spending a few hours at. We then made our way back to Chamonix on the train. After an hour or so of strolling around Chamonix (and trying to meet up with Chie and Geoff – we managed eventually), we decided to have dinner at one of the touristy restaurants in the town center.

For the evening, me, Chie and Geoff made our way over to the Roche-sur-Foron, where we were meeting up with the rest of the “English gang” going to the wedding, for a couple of drinks. Almost all the usual suspects were present: Nick, Sinhung, Olivier, Raphaelle, Philippe, Aniko and Isabelle (and of course Flore and Christian). Apart from drinking beer, we also tried the local rodeo – fortunately the bull wasn’t a real one though… I was quite pleased with my 19 seconds on the mechanical bull (which entitled me to a 3rd place behind Philippe and Ollie, I reckon).

What a fantastic reunion, and pre-wedding celebration!

Isabelle on the Cote d'Azur

About one week from now, Flore and Christian, good friends of ours from our stay in England, are planning to get married in the Alps. Due to some complicated practical arrangements, our other good friend from our stay in England, Isabelle, had decided to come down for a few days down to the Cote d’Azur before making her way up to the Alps - but not with us, but rather with OIivier and Rapaelle, who were also heading down to the Cote for a few days. But Isabelle was staying at our flat. (I told you, the arrangements were complicated!)

So to cut a long story short, we picked up Isabelle at Antibes train station, where she arrived at Sunday night after a rather long trip from Paris. Which meant we had Monday to spend with Isabelle, as we were planning to head off towards the Alps on Tuesday.

As I mentioned, our friends Olivier and Rapahele were also on the Cote, so after considering various options, we decided to all meet up in Vence for lunch. Vence is a pretty nice Provencal town, located conveniently between Cagnes-sur-Mer (where we live) and Greolieres (where Ollie and Raphaele were staying). We started off our visit by walking around the lovely old town – very typically Provencal, and very well preserved – with its medieval gates intact.

After our stroll through the historic town center, we decided it was time to eat. We ended up going with the nr. 1 restaurant on Tripadvisor, Les Lavandes – a very good choice indeed. It’s a rather small establishment run by a couple, very nicely located on a lovely little square. The service is friendly, and the food is really great, all prepared from fresh ingredients. It’s true that the service was a little bit slow, but that is to be expected with one person waiting the tables and one person in the kitchen (at least the waiting means the food is prepared, rather than heated in the microwave oven…).

After lunch, us and Isabelle headed off to kill off some of those just-acquired calories by doing a bit of hiking near Vence. The area of Vence (more specifically, towards Col de Vence) is really excellent for hiking, we’ve done quite a few walks over there. This time, we decided to do the Plan des Noves walk, which we’ve already done, about 5 years ago. It’s a nice little walk taking in some pretty nice views, especially towards the Baou de Saint-Jeannette, with some nice rough terrain to cross. We took a wrong turn at one point, but thankfully managed to find our way again – so we ended up doing a bit of an improvised variant of the hike in the end. Anyway, a very pleasant and scenic way to get rid of a few calories!

In the evening, we took it easy, and had dinner home, catching up on old times (we discovered some old photos and videos from our years in the UK which we watched with great amusement!).

Dinner & Fireworks!

Our good friend Naim was visiting the Cote d’Azur this week. I had already attended one of his legendary Nice meetups on Wednesday, but Mathilde was also quite keen to hear what Naim had to say about Brussels (where he has at least temporarily relocated for work). So, we decided to invite him over for dinner. Since Aki and Henna haven’t been over to our place either, we decided to invite them over as well.

The dinner went rather well, sitting as we were on the terrace. We had prepared a spinach & saumon lasagna for main course, and to finish off, Mathilde had prepared an absolutely delicious apricot crumble. Yummie. It was great to hear about Naim’s adventures in Brussels (he seems to have integrated rather well – although he does seem to miss the good weather), and also good to see that Henna’s belly is growing encouragingly (not because of our lasagna – as you may have guessed, she’s pregnant).

The dinner finished, we decided to head out to next-door Villeneuve-Loubet to check out the fireworks (one nice thing about the Cote d’Azur in summer time is that there are some fireworks going on at least somewhere on the Cote every couple of days). Parking turned out to be a real nightmare, but we made it eventually. After the uninspiring fire acrobatics show, the fireworks kicked off – and rather impressive they were, I have to admit, especially for a small town like Villeneuve-Loubet. Samar joined us to check out the fireworks as well, good to catch up with him as well.

All in all, a rather nice evening amongst friends!

Fine dining in Menton

As you may be aware, dear reader, I greatly appreciate good food. We are quite lucky to live on the Cote d’Azur, which is very much blessed with plenty of good and interesting restaurants (mind you, we are also cursed with a fair number of over-priced tourist traps as well!).

One restaurant I’ve heard good things about is a place called Le Mirazur, located in Menton, just the Italian border. They were just rewarded their second Michelin star, and the place is also ranked as the 24th best restaurant in the world (on one list, anyway). We’d also noted that their lunch menu is rather reasonably priced at 39 euros for starter, main course and desert.

So, we decided to try it out on this sunny Friday – we didn’t have much trouble in convincing Aurelien and Julie to join us, either. The place is located a bit uphill from downtown Menton (the pre-Alps go almost out to the sea where Menton is built), which naturally means the views from the restaurants towards Menton and the sea are outstanding (unfortunately, our table didn’t have that view…). The décor is tastefully bright (almost entirely white).

And then for the food… Basically, the menu we were having was a surprise menu, which means you don’t get to pick any of the dishes (even for the a la carte menu, you can only pick the type of dish, so an element of surprise there as well…) – which suited me just fine (I trust these Michelin-starred chefs to know what’s good for me…).

The meal, from the first amuse-bouche to the macaroons we had with the coffee, was an absolute delight. Every dish was pretty much perfect (if I was to make any criticism at all, it would be that the desert was “unsurprising” – which isn’t to say it wasn’t delicious). The service was also top-notch.

When including the aperitif, wine and coffee, the bill did end up being close to 60 euros per person, but I would say the experience was worth every euro. Especially considering you can quite easily end up paying nearly that much money at some of the tourist trap restaurants on Place Massena in Nice as well… I recommend without reservations, then!

A couple of days in the Var

Our friends Nathalie and Herve (and their lovely kids, Titouin and Colin, of course) had decided to spend a couple of week in the South of France this summer – at Salernes, not too far from where we live (near the Lac Saint-Croix in the Var department). So, since we had some spare time this week, we decided to head out there and spend a couple of days with them.

After meeting up at their villa (a very nice place to spend a couple of weeks in indeed, located in the middle of the Var countryside, and mercifully, considering the temperature, furnished with a swimming pool), we made our way to the Lac Saint-Croix. It’s a very picturesque located at the end of the Gorges du Verdon (“the Grand Canyon” of France – a magnificent natural site). We settled in at a quiet little beach, and spent a couple of hours or so just relaxing, and swimming of course. Going to the sea is nice – but swimming at this lake is a lot nicer, and then there are no hordes of tourists out here… Later on, we moved to another beach, equally nice, for a bit more swimming (me and Herve even ventured out to swim across to an island in the middle of the lake).

We made our way back to the villa towards the evening. The heat was really quite overwhelming even in the evening, so in fact, we spent yet more time cooling down in the pool… For dinner, Nathalie and Herve prepared a rather delicious BBQ meal for us, which we gratefully washed down with some nice wines they had picked up on the way here to Provence… A pretty much perfect way to end a very nice day indeed, then!

The next day, we (or at least I…) woke up with a bit of a sore head. After breakfast, we headed out to explore the neighboring villages. The Var department is a lot less touristy than the Alpes-Maritimes (apart from some coastal resorts), and is blessed with a lot of very pretty Provencal villages. We started off with nearby Villecroze. It’s a typically charming old village, with its cobble-stoned streets, arcades and fountains. But what makes the village really stand out are the curious caverns that can be found just outside the village. The caverns themselves, if viewed in their natural state, would already be an interesting sight in their own right, but what makes these interesting is that they were used as a kind of sanctuary/fortification from the 10th to 16th centuries, for the habitants of the village. So the caverns were a kind of castle built into the rock, if you will.

After our troglodyte visit, we continued to Tourtour, another pretty Procenval village. It is a very pretty place indeed, and quite a bit more lively than Villecroze – I suppose since we arrived on the market day. The views from the top of the village over the surrounding countryside are rather pleasant, as well. The village has another interesting curiosity – there is a fossils museum there. And what’s even more interesting, is that fact that they sell fossils in one of the village shops (including dinosaur bones, eggs and even entire skeletons – it was a bit expensive though…).

After all that tourist action, it was time to head back to the villa for lunch – Nathalie prepared the biggest stuffed courgettes I’ve ever seen – more than enough to fill our bellies, methinks. This was naturally followed by more chilling out by the pool…

By then, it was time for us to head back homewards. But we did decide for a bit of more tourism on the way back – and headed to the Thoronet Abbey. It is one of the most famous historical monuments in the Var – it is one of the three Cistercian abbeys (together with Silvacane and and Senanque) in Provence. Apparently (I’m no expert!), the Thoronet abbey embodies the Cistercian spirit pretty much to perfection – the religious complex is indeed very beautiful in its austerity and simplicity. No baroque excess to be found here… (interestingly, apparently Le Corbusier was heavily influenced by the abbey) The place is also very well preserved, and is rather peacefully located in the midst of the Varois forest. All in all, a place well worth visiting!

Marseilles mini-break

Me and Mathilde have a nice yearly (or, rather, bi-yearly) tradition, whereby we treat each other to surprise weekends as birthday presents. And this sunny Friday, it was my turn to treat Mathilde to her surprise trip.

This time, I had picked Marseilles. We went there a couple of years ago, but didn’t really have time to discover everything this great city has to offer. So I figured the place merited another visit. We arrived in the Vieux Port around 11 AM, so had a bit of time to check into our hotel (which was handily located near the Vieux Port), and have a walk around, before lunch. The Vieux Port was as animated as expected (with the fishermen selling their daily catch) – a pity about the road works that surrounded the port…

For lunch, I had booked a table at The Ruhl, a kind of legendary place famed for their Bouillabaisse. It’s one of the three restaurants behind the “Marseille Bouillabaisse Charter”, which attempts to set some rules as to how this Marseille culinary institution should be prepared. Not a bad idea, considering that the bouillabaisse most restaurants sell is a pale imitation of the real thing. The Ruhl is rather stunningly situated on the Corniche, a scenic road that hugs the coastline around Marseille. The bouillabaisse was, from what we could tell, prepared according to all the rules in the book. Most people probably think it’s a kind of fish soup – but a bouillabaisse is much more than that. There are at least three different types of fish used from an “approved list” (all have to be freshly fished in the ‘Med), and the resulting broth is served first (together with bread and rouille – a kind of mayonnaise), and the fish meat only afterwards. It is a truly memorable culinary experience – and definitely hits the spot! All in all, an excellent start to our weekend!

The coastline with its beaches around the Ruhl was really inviting, and the weather was just stunning, so we decided to hit the “beach of the profet” and bask ourselves in the sunshine for a bit, and swim in the beautiful med. A nice way indeed to digest all that fish. After a couple of hours of chilling out, we made our way back to the hotel.

Before the evening program, we decided to have a walk around Marseilles a bit. We started our walk at the Cannabiere, the legendary main street of Marseilles. It’s maybe lost some of its glamour and bustle over the years, but it’s still a lively place to stroll down. From there, we made our way into one of the famous quarters of Marseille, La Plaine.  It’s a pretty nice and lively place to walk around – a kind of edgy, trendy place. Reminded us of some parts of San Francisco… From there, we made our way back towards the Vieux Port. The walk revealed another facet of Marseille – the fact that it’s a very cosmopolitan place indeed. At times, the street scene was more reminiscent of Egypt or Tunisia, than France (kind of reminded us of Palermo, actually).

We eventually ended up in the Panier district, which is kind of the old town of Marseilles. Originally this remarkably charming part of town, with its sloped cobble-stone streets (the Panier is kind of located on a hilltop overlooking the old port), was inhabited by the poor folks of Marseilles. Quite surprisingly, it has managed to retain some of its original character – rather than becoming a tourist trap. After a quick pizza for dinner, we made our way back to the hotel, and prepared ourselves for the night’s entertainment.

…which was, theatre! The play I had chosen was called “Paris-Marseille” – it was a touching story about a Parisian teacher who is sent to teach in Marseilles, and has to share a flat with a, how shall I put it, rather typical Marseilles bloke. What followed was 2 hours of “humiliate the Parisian the Marseilles way” – no clichés spared! It was all rather entertaining, in spite of the fact that I only understood about one word in three the Marseilles guy said (he laid on the accent “a bit”) – thankfully the humor wasn’t what I would call subtle… ;-)

We started the next day with a bit of shopping, and then decided to explore the area around the port a bit more. We ended up in the Abbey of St. Victor – which is one of the oldest churches in Europe (dating back all the way to 415). It’s a really fascinating place to visit – basically the basilica that is today visible (dating back to 1200) is built on top of the old monastery, which is now the crypt. So basically, after visiting the “modern church”, you can walk downstairs into the crypt, and admire the remains of one of the oldest places of worship in Europe. Fascinating stuff!

In the afternoon, we headed to L’Estaque, a small fishing village, located at the outskirts of Marseille. In the olden days, it was a popular hideout for impressionist artists, notably Paul Cezanne, who painted quite a few of his paintings here. L’Estaque is not, as one might think (considering its popularity with painters), a picture-perfect cute little fishing port, assailed by hordes of tourists. It’s got quite a gritty and every-day feel to it, and certainly hasn’t been overrun by tourists. There are certainly a fair few restaurants here, but they mostly seem to serve locals. We basically really liked the place & its rugged charm.

After a swim in the ‘Med to wash off the sweat we’d acquired in the summer heat, it was time to hit the road and head back home. A very nice mini-break indeed!