Quiet weekend on the Cote d'Azur

A calm weekend coming up – we still needed a bit of rest, after that big road trip of ours. On Friday, we had my parents over for dinner – it was after all a while since we'd seen them last time. For a starter, we prepared a starter we'd tried in Bordeaux – a chestnut cappuccino. Quite a success, I would say. The main coarse, a kind of pork loaf with apples, was less of a success. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary either. To round things off, some pineapple with ice cream, yummie! All in all, a success, I would say!

For Sunday, we decided to head into Nice, to check out Aki and Henna's little boy, who had been born a few weeks ago, and is enigmatically known as “Ihme” (means, quite appropriately, miracle in Finnish). We spent a rather nice afternoon with them, and Aki's parents, admiring the little miracle - and also enjoying the first Glögg (mulled wine) of the year, and also some tasty piparkakkus (a.k.a. Gingerbread). Christmas is approaching ;)

So a rather quiet weekend then, we need those as well!

Pub quiz time!

One of our favourite activities back in England used to be the weekly pub quizes. Not only is it a great excuse to go to the pub (as if an excuse was needed?), but it was also just one of those English things to do. We never won, and usually did very poorly unless we had a Briton with us (those music questions especially are real killers...)

So, anyways, when Aurelien suggested we join up with them at the pub quiz at the Ma Nolan's in the port of Nice, we jumped at the opportunity. Especially when Aurelien offered to drive ;) We were also joined by Vincent, and another colleague of Mathilde's. We did rather averagely on the quiz – as usually, the music questions got us. Much to my disappointment, I was rather poor with the movie questions as well, which ought to be my strong side. But hey, honestly, who can remember a crappy film like 8mm ?

But, most importantly, we had great fun! So I reckon we will be back for another quiz in the not too distant future. After all, it's a great excuse for going to the pub, right ;)

Food is art

After our rather long road trip, which finished a week ago, we didn't feel too motivated to do anything too ambitious this weekend. But, not wanting to sit home all weekend either, we decided to head Nice-bound for a bit of cinema and a nice dinner to round off the day.

After some deliberation, we decided to see “Apres mai” by Oliver Assayas. A pretty interesting movie, autobiographic apparently, following the lives of some youngsters in the early seventies, with rather strong “post '68“ attitudes. What's best about the movie is no doubt the periodic accuracy – really spot on. I think quite a few of the people in the audience had been touched by the events in '68 and the following years, based on the average age of the audience, at least... (then again, this is the Cote d'Azur – pensioners' paradise!)

For dinner, we met up with Julie and Aurelien and headed for a place called 11eme Art, a place we'd read good things about. And it was quite a nice place. Their cuisine is quite original, well presented, and most importantly, tastes good. Admittedly the place is a bit pricey, and the portions are kind of “nouvelle cuisine-sized” (= small). But all in all, we were pretty happy with our choice. Great to catch up with Julie and Aurelien, as well...

Back home via Paris

The last major stop-over on our trip was Paris. On the way there, we stopped over at Le Mans to say hi to Mathilde's granddad. We also stopped at the outskirts of Paris to say hi to Elodie and her two daughters. Eventually, in the afternoon, after experiencing that oh-so-fun Paris traffic on the periferique , we eventually made it to Clichy, where we were planning to stay the night at Sarah and Bruno's place.

They are temporarily residing in a flat there, with young Ulysse, while they are redoing the house they are planning to move to. From what I could gather from the photos, plenty had been done in the house, and a fair bit still to do before moving in (before chrsitmas, apparently!). Anyways, we had a good time with Sarah and Bruno (and let's not forget about young Ulysse), as always. Sarah had cooked some excellent ossobucco for us.

On Friday, we were staying the night at Paula and Peppe's place, which meant we had to drive our car into central Paris (where their flat is located). Which involved about 1 more hour in rather intensive Paris traffic (apparently traffic was light today due to the school holidays – I don't even want to know what it's like on normal working days...). Having left our car in the hands of Paula's dad, who was visiting from Spain, we jumped on the metro and headed for Madeleine, where we had tickets booked for the Pinacothèque. There were two exhibitions on display, one about the works of Hiroshige, and one about Van Gogh and the influence of Japanese art on his work. We really enjoyed the Hiroshige exhibition – his prints really brought us back fond memories from our trip to Japan... The Van Gogh exhibition impressed us less. Don't get me wrong – we both love van Gogh's art, but we found the connections between his paintings and Japanese art a bit far-fetched...

After a rather disappointing sushi lunch (I suspect about half of Paris' Chinese restaurants have transformed themselves into “fake Japanese restaurants”), and embarked on my favourite Parisian activity – walking around. Paris is just such a great place to walk around... We started off by visiting the surprising Madeleine church. I say surprising, because it resembles a temple, more than a church. Strangely enough, the interior, although beautiful, looks smaller than the imposing exterior.

From there, we decided to walk around kind of randomly. Our walk took us towards the imposing Place de la Concorde, across the Seine river, to the Assemblée générale (the French parliament). We continued walking around the 7^th arrondissement, which is known as the “administrative” arrondissement of Paris (there are a lot of ministries, administrative buildings and embassies there), and then headed towards Montparnasse, where the plan was to meet up with Olivier and Raphaelle.

After a quick stroll around Montparnasse cemetery (where for example Serge Gainsbourg is buried), we met up with Ollie and Rapha for a coffee, in a rather typical Parisian brasserie. Having had our (overpriced) coffees, we decided to go for a tea next, since the rainy weather wasn't really suitable for outdoors activities. Our friends new just the place to have a bubble tea – something neither me nor Mathilde had never had, but both were eager to try. Bubble tea, which was “invented” in Taiwan, is a mixture of tea, milk and tapioca beans (which is where the name comes from). Very nice, actually!

After our bubble tea, we made our way back to Paula and Peppe's for a happy reunion. After spending a bit of time catching up with them, and admiring their lovely children, it was time to head for Montmarte, where we were planning to have dinner. After an hour or so on the metro and then walking in rather heavy rain, we found the place, were we joined the rest of the group (Milene, Kamel, Ollie and Rapha). We had a super night there, enjoying good food, wine and great company. Great to catch up with Milene and Kamel as well.

On Saturday, it was time to hit the road again, heading southward this time. The plan was to stay the night at Villefranche-sur-Saone, near Lyon. On the way up there, we decided to make a short stop for lunch at Noyers-sur-Serein – a little village in Burgundy recommended in our Lonely Planet guide. And picturesque it was, indeed, with its nice cobble-stoned streets, medieval houses, and the river going through the village. Unfortunately, the place was kind of dead as well – the only restaurants that were open were more or less full (and this was after all a Saturday!), so we ended up having lunch in the Courtepaille near the motorway.

We arrived in our “charming hotel”, “well located” in an industrial zone a couple of kilometer's from the motorway (note the irony on both counts). After having a bit of a rest and freshening up, we headed into the town center, to explore this town that is the focal point of the Beaujolais wine region (know, for better or worse, for the Beaujolais Nouveau wines). Quite a disappointment from a tourist's point of view – there is very little interest in the town, the historic walks takes about 5 minutes to complete, and there isn't much in the way of history involved either... We ended up having dinner in a cajun-themed restaurant. The menu was quite inventive, but the food was a little bit disappointing.

We very quite happy to hit the road the next morning, and head back home to Cagnes-sur-Mer. All in all, we were very happy with our little road trip (well, little is perhaps not the right expression to use for our 3300 kilometers' drive). Thanks to everybody we met up with, and especially to those who put us up, during our trip!

A few days in Angers

After driving through some miserable weather, we finally arrived in Angers, just in time for dinner ;) Great to see Joel and Francoise, and Mephisto the cat, again! As an added bonus, Mathilde's niece, Alix, was also visiting. We spent a very relaxing weekend in Angers – a bit of rest was needed after all that driving around. Not doing much really – eating Francoise's delicious food, doing a couple of runs around the Lac de Maine, shopping in Angers, playing scrabble, going to the cinema. That sort of thing.

On Monday, we had agreed to head off to see with Aude and Magaye at Nantes, bringing Alix with us (the plan was to take her to her grandmum). After a nice tea at their super cool house (which they've spent a lot of time redoing) with Aude, we headed out to Nantes for a bit of shopping. It was pretty nice to walk around Nantes – it really is one of my favourite cities in France. Shopping is not perhaps what I would characterise as my favourite activity, but I had good fun with the ladies, and really appreciated the historic Passage Polleraye shopping arcade.

After dropping off Alix at her grandmum's, it was time to pick up Magaye (who was back from work) and head off for dinner. Nathalie, Patrick, Timotei and my godson Florian also joined us. Nathalie had booked a nice seafood restaurant for the occasion. We spent a very nice time at the restaurant indeed – the food was great, and so was the company, so pretty much perfect then, Great to catch up with Nathalie and Patrick (and my godson as well, naturally!) as well.

We finished off our lovely day in Nantes by having a drink at the top of the Tour Bretagne, which is the highest building in Nantes (and the 3^rd highest in France outside Paris). It's an impressive 144 meters high, and I think putting a bar on top of the tower is an excellent idea! The bar is appropriately called Le Nid - Nid means bird's nest (the interior decoration is very much bird-inspired). The nightly views from the tower over Nantes were naturally pretty amazing...

After a digestif at Aude and Magaye's place, it was time to hit the sack. After a somewhat slow morning, and a quick visit to Magaye's office (which must be the coolest office I've ever been to – it's like a little artists' den located in a former squat), we headed over to Alix's grandmum's place, to pick up Mathilde's nephews, Paul and Lucas. We also took the opportunity to play a bit with the youngest member of the family – Siem (who was rather scared of me for some odd reason). The reunion with Paul and Lucas was very nice – I actually get the impression they have calmed down a bit! (mind you, just a bit, they still have plenty of energy!)

Back in Angers, we continued with the same “family activities” as before (with the added activity, for me, of spending half of my time wrestling with the spirited twins – what was that about them having calmed down again ? ;) ). In the evening, we escaped to Delphine and Christophe's place for dinner. Great to catch up with them again, it's been over a year since the last time, I believe...

I started Wednesday morning with another run, this time to Angers town center. Didn't realise it was actually only 4 kilometers there, and a very pleasant 4 kilometers at that, with a footpath crossing Park Balzac, and following the Maine river into the town center, with a stunning view of the medieval castle. For the evening, we were invited for dinner at Marc and Magaly's. We had an excellent time, as we always do with them (and very much enjoyed the fondue they had prepared for us). Now that I have my CMAS level 2 diving level, I could talk shop with Marc (although he's just gotten his level 3, so I've got some catching up to do...)

That brought an end to our short visit at Angers, as it was time to carry on towards Paris. As always, we'd had a very nice stay in Angers, looking forward to going again for Christmas!

Short stopover at Bordeaux

Our next stop on our Hipsano-French odyssey was Bordeaux. Bordeaux is, of course, one of the main cities in France, and the center of one of the most prestigious wine-growing regions in the world. I've never been there, and there were quite a few years since Mathilde's visit to the place, so we figured it was a logical place for a stop-over on the way to Angers. Bordeaux is divided into two parts by the mud-coloured Garonne river – we were staying near its banks on the other side of the city center. In spite of the ominously gray sky, we decided to head out to explore the city on foot.

Bordeaux is, more than typically French architecture-wise than any other city, apart from Paris. The architecture is basically classical French architecture form the 18^th century. Personally, it's not an architecture I find particularly inspiring (apart from, undeniably, in Paris), but one has to admit that Brodeaux is one of the most harmonious cities I've been to, architecturally speaking. It all has a very prosperous and clean feel to it, but the place also came across as a bit, I don't know, boring, after what we'd seen in Spain. Don't get me wrong though, we very much enjoyed our walk around historic Bordeaux, but the place just didn't give us the same kind of positive vibes we had in say Bilbao.

Things got better as we checked out a film at the most famous independent cinema in Bordeaux, Utopia. The cinema itself has a pretty interesting history, being located in a former church building in the middle of historic Bordeaux. The movie we saw, Cesare deve morire, by the Taviani brothers, was also excellent, so our evening was off to a good start. Things got even better as we had dinner. After checking out numerous places that all seemed to serve very classic French fare, Mathilde discovered a place called Karma, where we decided to dine. An excellent choice – well cooked, original food, for a quite reasonable price.

The next morning, we were blessed with sunshine, so we decided to hike around some more. It's true that we got a more positive picture of Bordeaux, lit up by sunlight. Our hike took us around all the main sights; Le Place de la Bourse, the cathedral, la Grosse Cloche, the riverside, even some Roman ruins. I read later that quite a lot of money has been spent to clean up to brighten up Bordeaux: the facades of the previously soot-covered houses have been cleaned up, a tramway has been built, the riverside has been redeveloped, and so forth. And it does show! We particularly enjoyed the Basique de Saint Michel, with its modernist stained-glass windows. Or possibly the excellent lunch we had at a Japanese restaurant in the old town, near the Utopia cinema.

The sky was looking ominously gray, a sign for us to hit the road, which we did (so far, it's basically rained all the time we've been driving during our trip in France). All in all, we very much enjoyed our short stop-over in Bordeaux. Although I still wouldn't rank it among my favorite cities in France.

Westwards to the Basque country

After our short but sweet visit at Barcelona, we carried on westwards, towards the Basque country. Our first stop was the medieval village of Montblanc, which dates back to the 12^th century. It's a pretty enough place, with rather impressively preserved city walls, with the rather nice cathedral probably being the touristy highlight of the place. After our short walk around the cobble-stoned streets, we decided to have some tapas for lunch on the pleasant main square, enjoying the sunshine on their terrace. The tapas were a bit disappointing compared to what we'd had in Barcelona the other day, but they did fill our stomachs.

From Montblanc, we carried on towards our stop for the next night, Tarazona, crossing some pretty arid, almost desert-like landscapes (and pretty deserted, as well). Tarazona is another pretty little medieval town, although a bit bigger than Montblanc. It has a rather glorious past, having been an important town all the way back during Roman times, and also during the Muslim era. We were rather impressed with our hotel, a very tastefully reworked medieval palace (especially considering we only paid something like 50 Euros for our room!). After checking in, we had a walk around town, which was rather charming, with quite a few impressive churches (unfortunately it was too late to visit any of them). We finished our pleasant day with dinner in a very mundane little dining establishment outside the town center. Kind of indicative of the fact that Tarazona is a bit off the beaten path – not really a tourist hot-spot.

After a rather filling and fancy buffet breakfast, we hit the road again, heading towards the capital of Navarra, Pampluna. Pamplona is of course famous for the running of the bulls, which takes place in July (so we were out of luck, then...). Our hotel was nicely located on the outskirts of the old town, near the river Arga, which crosses Pampluna. After deposing our bags, and parking our car, we set out to explore the old town. We really liked Pampluna. It reminded us quite a lot of San Sebstian, with its tidy, well-ordered streets, and well-preserved old houses. But at the same time, it had that Spanish liveliness and business to it. We had lunch in one of the many inviting eateries lining up the streets near the picteresque Plaza del Castello. We enjoyed what I would call excellent value for money – a three course meal with unlimited wine and coffee for 18 Euros. Not bad, especially since the food was excellent.

After lunch, we continued exploring the old town, and also visited the famous cathedral. After the rather mundane and uninsipiring exterior, we were most impressed with the stunning interior. Especially the cloister, located behind the cathedral, was really impressive. There was also a very nice modern exhibition there, which examined the history of the cathedral and Pampluna through the ages. Very nicely done indeed! We finished a very nice day with dinner in another nice little restaurant near Plaza del Castello. Again, we paid 18 Euros for a three course meal, unlimited wine, and coffee (seems that there is some price-fixing going on in Pampluna?). Not quite as nice as the place where we had lunch, but still, excellent value for money for some pretty good food. A nice way to end our short but most interesting visit.

The next day, we hit the road and made our way for Bilbao, one of the main towns of the Basque country. After confronting some rather menacing mist and some rain, we arrived in a sunny Bilbao. After checking into our hotel, we headed out to explore town straight away. We started by exploring the old town, which isn't quite as big as the one in Pampluna, but equally charming. The architecture is very basque, very simiar to what we saw in the old town of San Sebastian (unsurprisingly). Plenty of nice-looking pintxos (pintxos are Basque tapas) bars everywhere. Having checked out the historic parts of Bilbao, we crossed the Nervion river into the modern part of time. We stopped for lunch in one of those charming pintxos places, and were very happy with our choice. Excellent food – and amazing value (we paid something like 10 euros each for a very tasty and filling lunch).

We then made our way to what everybody comes to see in Bilbao, the Guggenheim museum. I was kind of expecting to be disappointed, but, surprise surprise, I was not. The building really is amazing. It's probably, together with the Sydney opera house, the most impressive modern building I've seen. And the interior is equally amazing (as opposed to the Sydney opera house, where the interior is quite disappointing) – I really like the smooth and harmonious curves of the place (I don't think there is a single straight angle in the place). The exhibitions were moderately interesting, modern art is a bit hit and miss for me. But seeing the interior of the building itself is worth the entry fee (which is actually surprisingly low). Having checked out the museum, we made our way back towards the old town, walking along the river. What they've done by the river is very impressive too, with some very nice bridges spanning the Nerion river. They complement the Guggenheim museum very well.

After some further exploration of the old town, we made our way back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner. We selected a rather special venue for the night, called Aizian. It's a proper gourmet restaurant located near the Guggenheim museum, in a 5 star hotel. Proper fine dining – Michelin star quality food and service, I would say. As a cherry on the cake, we got to see the Guggenheim by night on the way back home.

All in all, we were very impressed with Bilbao, I think they deserve all the tourists they get. Of course, the main thing to see here is the Guggenheim museum, but even without it, there is plenty of stuff to see. And that food is just amazing. Anyway, time to hit the road again and head north towards France!