Carnival time!

One of the big yearly events in Nice, and all of the Cote d'Azur is the carnival. OK, I gotta tell you right off the bat – we're not talking about Rio de Janeiro here. The Nice version is more for kids – but it's quite a lot of fun, anyway! One of those things you just have to check out – especially since it's free.



We decided to head down to Nice on bike, where we were meeting up with Aki and Henna. With the wonderful, rather spring-like weather we had that day, it was an easy choice to make, really. Our journey down to Nice wasn't quite as trouble-free as it usually is – after a while we realized that Mathilde had a flat tyre. We swapped bikes at the airport – only to realize that the bike I jumped on had a serious problem with the pedals. So, time to change again, then...

Anyway, we did eventually make it, and even managed to meet up with Aki and Henna amongst the crowd. The theme for this year was sports and the London Olympics. We did spot a few funny figures (I liked the wagon carrying the queen of England and her assorted cohorts, and the coach potato sports fan – reminded me a bit of me watching ice hockey or something?). But I missed the dragon from the previous years. Anyways, no complaints, especially since we were blessed with pretty much perfect carnival-weather!

After checking out the carnival, we ended up in the Hagendass cafe on Place Magenta, where we had some rather decadent desserts along with a couple of cappuccinos. Naim joined us later on as well... A rather good end to a busy weekend, then!

A bit of DIY

As those of you readers who know me well are probably aware, I'm not much of a DYI man under normal circumstances. So, when we had our bathroom redone last autumn, I had no qualms about paying one of Mathilde's colleagues' husband to do the job. But, well, once we'd had the bathroom redone, we kind of got into the mood of things and decided it was time to redo the office next. Since our project was a bit less ambitious this time (just putting up some wallpaper and repainting the other walls as well as the ceiling), we decided to do it ourselves.

We decided to start with the wallpaper. Somewhat surprisingly, we found a wallpaper we both liked pretty much immediately (I say surprisingly, since choosing all the stuff for the bathroom revamp was anything but quick...). After removing the shelf off the target wall, and filling in some wholes in the wall, we got down to business. It was surprisingly easy, actually, bearing in mind the diagonal slope of the wall we were working with. I must admit, I'm even slightly proud of myself – small victories... ;)

Let's see how it goes when we paint the wall!

Tajine dinner in Nice

Youcef is one of the first people we got to know on the Cote d'Azur, but unfortunately for us he's soon moving to Paris... He also kind of promised to cook a Tajine for us a couple of years ago during one of his birthday party.

So, we were quite happy to get our Tajine dinner invitation for this Friday evening ;). Youcef lives just of Boulevard Gambetta, a part of Nice we're not very familiar with, so we were quite happy to walk there from the train station.

The dinner itself was a delight – even though Youcef made some modest comments about one of the dishes was too dry or something. Nonsense!

The way back to Cagnes got a bit complicated by the fact that we missed our last train back... Thankfully Youcef was kind enough to drive us back home – and we even got some free exercise out of it! So thanks to Youcef for a great Tajine – 'twas definitely worth the wait ;)

Glamorous lunch in Biot

I occasionally venture out to have so called “business lunches” with friends – I mean I do live in France, right, so it goes to say that a long French lunch is called for every once in a while, right? ;)

One of my favorite places to have lunch at is Biot – a very charming traditional French village not far from Villeneuve-Loubet, with a lot of very nice restaurants. Probably the nicest one of the lot is Les Teraillers, a Michelin-starred eatery, more than deserving of its accolade.

Naturally, lunch here costs more than a lunch at the company canteen – but the lunch menu is reasonably affordable at 44 Euros for 3 courses. Considering you easily pay that in a tourist trap in Nice on Rue Massena or Cours Salyea, I would say it's more than worth it, for their inventive cuisine, superb service, and generally well-ran restaurant. And what's best, the spring looks to be arriving – we (myself, Mikko and Aki) were quite comfortable having our lunch on the balcony.

A place I can more than warmly recommend for pretty much any occasion!

Skiing @ Greolieres

We've had some pretty heavy snowfall over the last couple of weeks, but we've not hit the ski slopes yet since it's actually been pretty darn cold. But this weekend, we decided to hit the slopes at our local ski station, Greolieres-les-Neiges.

Clearly, we weren't the only people who had that idea, judging from the queues at the ski gear rental shops. But eventually, we got our skis, and hit the slopes. The conditions started off pretty much perfect, with a clear blue sky, and quite impressive sunshine. We decided to have a short morning session, to have our lunch before the big crowds hit the restaurants.

A good plan – we did get served pretty quickly (we had tartiflettes, what else?), and managed to hit the slopes again in good time for our afternoon session. Unfortunately, weather conditions somewhat degenerated, as the clouds swept over the slopes. We did do a few more runs, but the visibility got really bad, so we decided to call it a day...

Anyways, all in all, great to enjoy the slopes for a bit, pretty much the perfect way to spend a winter Sunday on the Cote d'Azur, I reckon!

A week in Ulm

So, time for a week of pork, sausages and beer then. Yes, you guessed it, dear reader (?), another week in Ulm it is then!

As always, I jumped on the first plane to Munich, where I met up with my co-workers Tuukka and Mohammed at the airport, from where we made our way over to Ulm. This trip was rather different from my other trips to Ulm in the respect that Ulm was experiencing proper winter! The old town centre does indeed look quite charming, covered in snow. My hotel was conveniently located near the old Munster, so I was in good striking distance of the main sights (=eatiers/bars).

Monday night, after a hard night at the office, it was time for the team to get together at that Ulm institution, a visit to which no trip to Ulm is complete without: the Barfüßer. So yes, that means: weissbier, and Schweinshaxe – yummie... But no apfelstrudel for desert though – what's wrong with me ?

Tuesday night was, hmm, Valentine's Day. It did feel a bit sorry to spend it in Ulm, rather than at Cagnes with my darling, it has to be said. Since most of the locals seemed to prefer (for some odd reason??) spending Valentine's Day with their partners rather than go and have weissbier with me, I ended up going to have some Italian with Mohammed in Da Franco's. Good choice, actually, the food was really excellent – and believe it or not, authentically Italian as well! I even got to practice my Italian – good move since Tuesday night is when I normally have my Italian course. It was also quite interesting getting some insight into Egyptian post-Arabic spring politics from Mohammed (who hails from Cairo).

Wednesday was team meal night! Thomas, our boss, had chosen another Ulm institution for the occasion: Zunfthaus der Schiffleute. Not only do they have excellent Swabian food their – they also have a particularly tasty, if rather lethal, beer called Icebock. Unsurprisingly, after a couple of those, I had no objections to carrying on our nocturnal exploration of Ulm, which finished in Besitos – a Spanish Tapas bar (more famous for its drinks and late opening hours than its food, I reckon).

For our last night in Ulm, we headed to Pfannkuchenhaus – the pancake house. Can't go wrong with a name like that – especially considering the size of their pancakes! After our meal, we were treated to the spectacle of half of Ulm (it seemed to us, anyway?) dressed up and behaving like Finns on 1st of May (I believe this day marked the start of the 2012 carnival). A nice spectacle for our last night in Ulm...

All in all, it had been a rather exhausting week, both professionally and socially. But all good fun! ;)

Naive art in Nice

The weather has, as in most places in Europe, been a bit dodgy even here in the south of France. After all, I've even had to scrape off frost off some windows ;-) We've been very keen to hit the slopes and do a bit of skiing, but we decided to put that off today due to the bad weather. But, on the coast, we still had pretty decent sunshine, so we decided to jump on the velo bleu and head to Nice.


We decided it was pretty much the perfect sunday for a bit of cultural activity. After some debating and having studied our tourist guides, we decided to pay a visit to the Musee International d'Art Naïf Anatole Jakovsky. Art naif is a form of art I'm quite unfamiliar with – I suppose it's not one of the most glamorous art forms. Be that as it mayk, we rather enjoyed the museum. To me, it's sort of like modern art in quite an unpretentious form. The size of the museum is quite appropriate for my “modern art attention span” as well – an hour or so is enough to check out all the works of art.

All in all, a pretty nice way to spend a wintry Sunday afternoon on the Cote d'Azur!